The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1905-03-28
LAST OR THE WILLOW TREE Inn
A FIFTH .AVgNCE SALOON LONG
4 CtBMEN'S RETREAT.


Group Of Avenue shanties In the Heart
q restaurant Land Goes With H.
and swell taller and the An Nisht
Hank Come In-The Aesthetic Pleased
The last Of the old buildings which have
for many yeans stood in humble contrast
with the splendoTs Of modern Fifth avenue
q very nearly gone from Fifth avenue
and Fortv.fourth street. Workmen have
been wrccldng them for a month to make
room for nsw tailoring es'aoisIineh'
and for the all night bank
IL isa sad blow to the cabbies who wait
o,rside Delmcniod's and Sherry's. The
Willow Tree Inn. the bedragFled frame
ginrniu which occupied the building in the
middle Of the plot on the tnth avenue
boundary. was a life saving station Tor the
Cabbies. II was high stoop house ana u
mctheaten stub 81 poplar BreWln the space
between the stoop and the Sidewalk hehoe Hence
the Wlll9w Tree deeignation. lt vas peHi'eu
out as the only saloon In Fhth aVenuei
the description was not veTscous' pect. aus
there arr a lot Of shanty saloons above Car-
negie Hill. 20 say nothing Of PLACES IKE the
Waldorf-AstoTia and the Holland HOUSE,
lower down. 80
The property was formerly part OF the
Paran Stevens estate, II was Tor many
YEA, tho sito Of the stables Of the Fith
avenue stages s. Thirty years or more ago
the stables. which were also frame buld-
ings, wcro let TO the New York Cab COM
pany as a storage house. ... -. ...-
Tyson, the butcher, had his patHclan
but,h,r shop in the brick store on ths
corner. which was also a stable once. Tyson
took great pride in the aristocracy OF his
list of en- toners. hc Kept his pnces
higher than any other butcher IN town,
iultifying tholn by saying taat no other
butcher could possibly furnish a. fine a
Three ycars or more ago Tyson went
OF. and ul Armenian rug firm, went in
Until recently the corner has been fes-
tooned with Oriental drapcrios until It had
a distant resemblance TO Turkish rug
Mr.. Tietzman, who ran the saloon for
several generations Of cabbies, Kept
particularly heady variety OF ale which he
mixed 10 the exact satisfaction Of the
r1Ibicun3 cabhies whose vehicles roasted
In Forty-fourth street On either side OF the
avenue. On cold nights messengers from
the restaurants never wasted time looking
up and down the streets for a cabby. lhey
made straight for the bar OF the Willow
Tree.
The place was not one to attract the
custom Of persons who were on their way
20 or from DplmoniCo's. Now and then
searcher for Quaintness and ancient charm
found his Wav in The only reward was
usually ernharras stnent. The Cabbies al
ways coined to regard the place a. their
own private retreat from the surrounding
gtmoephere Of luxufiance and resented any
sign that the philistine rich were going TO
make the place uncomfortable. The walls
were saturated with scandals regarding
the conduct Of people whose names are
always treated with respect elsewhere.
If Mare Henry Watterson could only get
hold of the stripped on plaster and extract
the warns which have been coDhded to II
his paper would have 10 print a daily sup
plemant 10 contain his wrath,
There is a tradition that the place was
once a famous road house: il probably has
no bettar fouudatiOn than that the saloon
satisfied the hearts OF the stage drivers
after tho line was eNtsDded 70 Fprty-fourth
street.
The Stevens estate has been trying for
thirag years or more TO aaIt the property.
'Nons.d the buildings was re4ted except
FOR thirty days az time. The tenants
knew that they might have to quit at the
end OF any month The tearing down OF
the rnttletraD wooden structures and the
scar -efy more substantial brick buildings
adjoining them has greatly relieved the
msthetic irritation Of the people in the
reighborhoOd and incidentally has greatly
decreased the fire risk.
The property was sold by the Stevens
estate to the Century Realty Company
three years ago ina April. II was then in
tended that great hotel should be built
there q he price paid for the land then was
81 600 co.