The times. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1897-1901, 1900-09-09
OLD ST. JOHNS LANE.
Remains of Fashionable Region in
New York.

new
(From the New York Evening Post)
Old st. Johns Lane which runs from
Laight to Beach Street, behind St Johns
Church. has within a few years been
strangely transformed Before the great
| business buildings that now abut upon this
odd little thoroughfare were put up the
| lane was one Of the most interesting sur
| vivals OF an earlier time to be seen any
where in the city. 1t was then roughly
paved with eobbles, and lined with row
OF picturesquely irregular little buildings,
occupied as stables and carpenter shops.
| ana Tor like purposes. On one side was the
chancei OF st. Johns. together with the
| gardens Of adjoining houses, all enclosed
with high board fences, which were pierced
with small F0sterns
The whole scene told a story OF the time
when Varick Street and its neighboring
thoroughfares were part Of a fashionable
| district. when st. Johns Lane was the rear
approach to the houses OF local gran6ees
! Although the lane itself has almost lost
its ancient character. the neighboring
thoroughfares ara still redolent OF other
days Varick Street, on which the church
| fronts, is lined with great old brick houses.
with ample chimneys and wide, curiousiy
carved doorways both suggestive of the
large hospitality that once reigned here
One instinctively guesses the shudder
with which the old inhabitants of the re-
gion learned that the monster freight
house OF the Hudson River Railroad was
to be built opposite the church, though
row, the immense structure, with its great
emblematic piece of bronze work In relief.
seems part and parcel Of Its surroundings
and rot out of keeping with the vanished
responsibility of the neighborhood.
Beach Street once shared the glory Of
the region, and can still show three or four
CT those old-fashioned sweli-front houses
so often seen in Boston and so rare in New
York Whoever has the hardihood to visit
the strictly Kosher restaurant that now
occupies one of these old houses may learn
what went to make the proper decorations
of fashionable downtown house. sixty or
seventy years ago. The doorways are dec
GRATED with fanlights and carved pillars.
Within are delicately spindled stairways.
and beautifully decorated woodwork, man
teis. doorways. and wainscots in the taste
Of an earlier time.
Humble but picturesque and cozy ara
the old high-roofed houses of Hudson
Street, hard by. and here and there in
other streets house of the earlier style,
with wide windows and hospitable door,
ways, has not yet been elbowed out Of Tho
way by tenement houses. Canal Street,
ever fresh with Kaleidoscope procession
of street cars, wagons. trucks, and carts,
forms fitting boundary to the region. Il
was the approach to Broadway from the
fashionable quarter about the old church.
fitting approach to the premonade and
retail shopping district, extending from
the City Hall northward. When Farick
Street was a fashionable residence street.
Broadway had many open air soda water
stands, where well-to-do folk refreshed
themselves in summer time. at six-pents
glass.
Old st. Johns itself has made stand
against innovation. Its shady garden. AMI
that of Trinity Hospital adjoining. must
look much as they did when the fashion,
able world attended the services OF the
church. The hospital occupies one Of the
great old brick mansions that flank the
church on either hand The others tower
in offended dignity above street that no
longer echoes the rumble of brilliant
equipages. Birds still build and sing il
the gardens that edge one side Of St
Johns Lane. and one may catch here and
there a vision OF tangled greenery that
speaks of a time when the gardens OK
Varicii Street were trim and neat, and the
pasterns of st. Johns Lane each opened
upon a tiny rus in urbe.