New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1896-01-18
MEMORIES OF THE ARCADE.
A FAMOUS OLD BUILDING TO BE TORN
DOWN.

MoNEYEp MEN WHO HAVE HAD THEIR OFFICES
IN TIA MODERN sKY-scRAPER TO DE
| BUILT AT BROADWAY AND REcToR-sT
Before long. though the exact date of Its demo-
| Iition has not been fixed. the famous old hrcane
| Building at the of Broadway ana hec'or-
| St will be torn down to make way for modern
twenty-sory structure The Arcade. its lower hall
way worn smooth by the tramp OF thousands OF rect
daily from Broadway to the IT, station upstairs
is one Of the few remaining links that bind the cry
OF to-day to the city OF 1870.
| There are many older buildings still standing, Dut
| hardly one that has such commercial associations
as this has always possessed that Is so widely
! known. Il has 4 history Of business romance All
its contemporaries IN that region. save perhaps
some little hidden houses on the side streets nave
long since been pulled down, the last to go belng
that curious row Of what once dwellings Just
to the north Of the Washington Building, at BOWL
| ing Green
Seventy thousand pcop.c It is said go up and
down the asphalted hallway to and from the ele-
waited each day. besides the hundreds more mat
visit the Offices the various floor Clerks. Office
boys and typewrers pass through, cheek-by-Jowi
with men whose names of National repute In
the world OF finance and law. Through this exit to
! Broadway an entire section Of big city dlsgorSeS
itself. and between the hours Of and II and ana
more noted people be by one standing at
the entrance door than he can view at one time
anywhere else In America.
This procession of notabios is to be done away
with. even when the building arises, for it Is
planned that similar hallway shall run through
this. But the new will lack all the olI-fashoned
setting that Is the delight OF visitors to New
York who from Old Trinity to peer at the
arcade and to be told by friendly guide stories
of Could and Sage. Morosni and Wash" Conner.
Ever since the early fftes this building has
stood here built stanch and firm at the start
that even the Norcross explosion in Russell Sage's
office several years ago Gid not throw ts walls an
eighth OF an inch out of line 1t is not because 1t
is decrcpit aged that it is to be torn down. On
the contrary, 1t is good for long lease OF Ire ye'
The stone OF its front began to crumble on the
surface a year ago, ii is true, but this was
mercy external and by the clever of some
! composite mixture oyerlad the blocks the facade
has been touched up until it is as spick and span
as Il 4
| Rector-st in the early ffties the centre OF
the wholesale drygoods trade. when George
| Bliss Simeon b. Chittenden and the father Of the
| late William Walter Phelps, who under the firm
| name of Phelps. Chttenden q Bliss. drygoods
merchants and they laid out the floors of the Arcade
Building In lofts. and there great concerns did
trade with the entire country. II then the era
| when merchants and statesmen used to SIT In their
| Offices and have their customers come into them,
| Instead OF sending out drummers broadcast, as they
do now. That the day. too, of elaborate din
ners in the middle Of the day, when each merchant
! had trade that could not be touched by compe-
tition. and when the buyers from the inland cities
were his personal friends and would spend the day
| In his office.
| All this the Arcade, known then the Empire
Budng-it still has these words cut into the stone
tie s hen IN o for it stood on
ground that was historic That plot of ground called
touched it, having included Rectorst in the original
grant and on its own site Lutheran Church had
century 80 tradition records there was "sentnels
box erected for his "Leatherheads" by Jacob Hays,
| first High Constable of New-York
| AIong in the sixties the drygoods trade moved up
town and the building was bought by one Edward
became the headquarters OF oil concerns
and silver mining companies ana as the rxciteme a
filled by crowds of excited men, and hundreds OF
| Mathews sold It toward the middle of the seventies
| to the Charter oak Life Insurance Company when
Then Wall-st. sites began to be more and more
regarded. and the value of the old building rapidly
To-day the land on whch IL stahus. i 300
five feet front nifty feet on Greenwicl-st and 2W
feet along Eector,st-is estimated as being worth
easily $1,000 OOO and experienced brokers say IL Wouu
bring million and three-quarters under the nam,
ner But ne pfce the oa a "SGne " Or
ando b rote the Wdnted to rd 6y
but thinking no one else knew the building was for
s If ' chnncdd 81" that Siegmund r Meyer heavy
operator of that day, had the foresight and the
knevledee necessary. Wh check in his pocket exc,
Office morning and closed the purchase at once
o i; Potter bought the building from him paying
81 OJ0 II H. i'm the Potter estate that the
building remains to-day and it is they that VIII erect
| the edlce. -
Famous tenants the Arcade has never lacked. The
old Metropolitan Railway Company. the forerunner
OF the Manhattan. had its offices there and upon its
consolidation with the New-York Elevated
Company that controlled the Third and
Ninth ave roads. the corporation
took NJ it's abode in the offices. Jay Gould
FOR several years had his private room directly
the entrance door, one flight up next to wash
ington COnnors suite and there. until he moved to
the Western Union Building. the Little Wizard Of
the Street planned his coups Morosini comes down
daily TO Connors offices, even now to watch the
market the ticker. Further along the same
hail Russell Sage has his den" Navarro. the great
manipulation who played with stocks If they
were kittens. used to be there.
In the basement Is quaint old wine room, the
proprietor of which is the buildings oldest tenant
for # has been there since 1886 singular In that II
has no bar
I'm 1875 when the elevated started though shops had
been in IL before.
Plotting people across Broadway at this point is
IIummell No. III. the esi-knOwn policeman I'm
New York. All the great capitalists bow TO him
as they pass by. with Good morning." and Good
evening"" and No III knows each by name Pres
dent Cleveland used to come on this corner twice
daily when he practising Law, between his
infrequently seen inst here. Russell Sage hurries
like boy just out of school, and runs up and down
the Arcade steps With stately step J. PerpOnt
Morgan walks to his evening train. fsidor Worm
Is always there and long train OF others
follows behind-Colone Ingersoll. George G. Will
nent financiers.
mr. ~