The daily morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven, Conn.) 1894-1907, 1902-11-20
FAMOUS MODEL
OF NEW YORK--.MADE IN
1919,

beauties of the Old and Smaller
city.
On the 9th of July. 1S49, there was
/ opened in the Minerva Rooms. No. 406
Broadway. the much heralded exhibit
ton of a model of New York. 1t Great
ed mild sensation. The City Council
passed resolutions endorsing it; the
clergy signed a petition in it's favor;
and the leading editors sent lauda-
tory circular broadcast over the coun-
try. The daily papers united in eX-
pressing the interest and delight of all
beholders of the ingenious work, and
the public f1ocked to see it.
Allowing for the buncombe of E.
Porter Belden, the protector, who
seems to have been a forerunner of the
present-day company of advertising
! geniuses, and the pardonable prejudice
of the proud New Workers of that day,
/ it must still have been a work of re-
markable interest. The model was
built in sections, the whole forming
platform twenty feet by twenty-four
feet. 1t represented New York from
the Battery to Thirty second street, the
extreme northern boundary of the city.
together with the harbor. the East and
North Rivers, and the greater part of
Brooklyn.
1t was no rough sketch with shape
less excrescences to denote the princi-
pal builders, and mere lines for streets.
Care was taken to preserve the most
| minute exactness in every detail; in
deed, the spectators were invited to eX-
anime it through a microscope. In the
first place the general contour of the
land was faithfully represented, and
then every object upon it, however
small, was carved out of separate
piece Of wood, painted with the precise
tints of the original and affixed to it's
proper place.
Every house in the city was there,
down to the most insignificant shed in
back yard, each with it's windows,
doors and chimneys in place, and all
the fences, lampposts and awning
posts belonged to it. 1t is said that
even the lines dividing the bricks were
visible, and of course, every man could
Immediately pick out his own dwelling.
Each packet-ship or steamboat which
A1CautllCGu the putt OF that tlIllc lay CT
her dock or could be seen leaving or
arriving. The spars, ropes and figure
heads of the sailing ships, could all be
made out, likewise every detail of the
steamers down to the very paddle-box
device. The parks We're represented,
every tree in its place and fountains
playing, and the steam cars of the Har-
lem Railroad might be sen leaving the
depot by the City Hall and travelling
up and down Centre street and the
Bowery. To top ALL even the tele-
graph wires-written with capital let
tiers then-were in place on Fourth
Avenue
The model took more than a year in
building. There were as many as one
hundred and fifty men engaged on it,
divided and subdivded into innumer-
able departments. Some went about
from street to street patiently making
sketches of every object; some built
the churches, some modelled the yes
sells; some attended to the painting;
experts on arboriculture superintended
the making Of the trees, etc. The cost
of the whole was said to be $4,000
There was a gorgeous canopy over
the model, which came in for almost as
much praise as the thing itself, though
from the old woodcuts it would seem to
have been conceived in violent archi-
tectural delirium. This canopy was
executed in the florid Gothic style so
popular at that date 1t was adorned
with a quantity of astonishing peaks,
pinnacles, knobs gobs, and what not.
The protector proudly informs us that
contained in it were $50 oil paintings of
city scenes by the foremost artists.
The figures of the model are inter-
esting. There were over 100000 build
ings, including houses, stores and out
buildings; 100000 windows and doors,
10000 chimneys, 10000 awnings and
lamp-posts, 5000 pieces of shipping,
IS, 900 fences and walls, 10000 trees.
AS the descriptive pamphlet quantity
states, one might see New York as
from a balloon, with none of the dis
agreeable sensations attendant upon a
voyage in air. 1t must, indeed, have
been fascinating amusement for
lover of New York to hang over that
tiny replica and pick out all the we'll
known spots in miniature. One en-
thusiastic writer said of it: ''All it
needs is a. swarm of little humans in
the streets, one listens for the hum of
busy thousands" Another said: 1T is
so lifelike, you momentarily expect to
hear the bell ring at Fulton ferry and
see the well known vessel start off
with it's tiny crew."
One can imagine making circuit of
the model. First one would see the
harbor spread beneath us, teeming with
craft of every description. One sus-
poets that if every vessel frequenting
the port was represented there at the
same time, it was rather an improve
ment on the actual, like that advertise
ment of a steamboat company which
shows their whole fleet passing under
Brooklyn Bridge at once. Here was the
ocean greyhound Of the day, the steam
ship Great Britain, lying at her dock;
here was one of the river boats depart
isg for Albany, a quaint vessel with
huge smokestack and paddle-wheels,
and a thin, meagre, little body
Then there was the Battery, with it's
seawall of red sandstone, it's beautiful
trees, and Castle Garden, the fashion
able concert hall, connected with the
mainland by bridge. The peculiarties
of the handsome porticoes on State
street could readily be distinguished,
and then one reached Broadway, that