The times. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1897-1901, 1900-09-12
OLD ST. JOHNS LANE.
Remains of n Fashionable Region in
New York.

(From the New York Evening Pos.)
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
4 odd little thoroughfare were put up the
/ lane was one Of the most interesting sur
vivals of an earlier time to be seen any
I where in the city. 1t was then roughly
paved with cobbles. and lined with q row
! of picturesqueiy irregular little buildings,
I occupied as stables and carpenter shops,
/ end Tor like purposes. On one side was the
ohancel of st. Johns. together with the
gardens of adjoining houses. all enclosed
I with high board fences, which were pierced
with small posterns.
! 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 grandees.
/ Although the lane Itself has almost lost
its ancient character. the neighboring
/ thoroughfares are still redolent OF other
/ days. Narick Street, on which the church
/ fronts. is lined with great old brick houses,
with ample chimneys and wide. curiously
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-
gicn learned that the monster freight
house of the Hudson River Railroad was
to he 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 not 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
Of al fa-
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 a 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
tells. GoOrways. and wainscots. in the taste
Of an earlier time
Humble but picturesque and coy are
the old highroofed houses of Hudson
Street. hard by. and here and there in
other streets house of the earlier style.
with wide windows and hospitabIe DOOR
ways. has not yet been elbowed out OF the
way by tenement houses Canal Street.
ever fresh with Kaleidoscope procession
OF street ears, wagons. trucks. and carts.
ASA 'iiS q htNtilS buuiluail " tut EtSIoll -
was the approach 10 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-Penee
a glass.
Old St. Johns itself has made stand
against innovation. Its shady garden. ant
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
gr al old brick mansions that flank the
church on either hand. The others tower
in offended dignity above a street that no
longer echoes the rumble OF brilliant
equipages. Birds still build and sing in
the gardens that edge enc side Of st.
Johns Lane. and one may catch here and
there vision of tangled greenery that
speaks of a time when the gardens Of
Narick Street trim anu neat, ana the
pasterns of St. Johns Lane each opened
upon tiny rus in urbe-