The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1906-09-02
ONCE FAMOUS BUILDINGS GO.
cry LANDMARKS or TIE LAST
CENTURY TORN DOWN.

House Among Them-Tho Passing Of
the Bulls Head Tavern and the United
states HOte star Theatre and Others.
This city IL. no doubt, improving in general
appearance under the process OF rebuilding
that is Just now being carried forward with
% much enterprise. To many, however,
Il ia a source Of regret that the improvement
threatens to be achieved at the expense OF
nearly all that was picturesque and quaint
in the old New York.
New York Ii singularly poor in places OF
public interest %antedating the last century.
Il has plenty Of memorial tablets marking
the sites OF historic structures. but actual
monuments Of the remote past are few in
number. A list OF 40 historic objects and
places, published two years g by the
Empire State Society Of the Sons OF the
American Revolution, mentions only four
buildings in Manhattan hat have survived
from the eighteenth century.
These are Fraunces's Tavern. st. Pauls
Chanel, the Jumel mansion and the Dyck-
man homestead. The former. built prob
ably In ITO. and famous as the scene OF
Washinxton's farewell address to his off,
GERS, has recently passed into the keeping
Of a patriotic society, as has also the Jumef
mansion, erected about 1853, once the
home OF the Dutch beauty whom Washing
ton loved and later the scene OF Aaron Burr's
courtship. st. Paul's Chapel. built In
l7ee. with It's main portal facing the North
River, because Broadway was then little
better than a country lane. Is the oldest
church edihoe in Manhattan. The Dyck-
mar homestead, dating from 1887, Is still
owned BY descendants OF the W~estphalLan
immigrant who obtained a grant OF the
broad meadows at the mediterranean end Of
Manhattan about 1910.
Another building OF Colonial origin, the
Hall OF Records. where American patriots
we're Imprisoned during the Revolution,
lasted through the nineteenth century
only to be torn down In 1902.
The lack Of colonial buildings NAV be In
some degrree accounted for on the ground
that the older parts Of Manhattan were
repeatedly visited by destructive fires
before the Croton aqueduct brought a
sufficient supply Of water into the city.
The Are Of 1895 alone destroyed 65O houses
n lower Manhattan.
The fate shared by the monuments OF the
Dutch and English periods is rapidly over-
taking the architectural survivals OF the
nineteenth century. Old Toms chophouse
At Thames and Temple streets, torn down
last spring, kept alive traditions extending
back to the beginning OF the last century.
The establishment vas founded by William
Wake in m adjoining house, said 10 rave
been the residence OF Charlotte Temple.
He died In 1911. The restaurant passed
through several ownerships until Thomas
Holahan became it's proprietor in 1873.
It vas Holaban's patrons who invented the
name. Old Toms.
The original building having been con-
demned as unsafe, the restaurant was moved
next door into the corner house, then newly
erected, about a generation ago. How
ever. no innovations were made IN the
service.
II was at this chophouse, not then Old
Toms. that Alexander Hamilton took his
last meal before departing for Weehawken
to meet Aaron Burr. Washington, Jefferson
and Madison we're among its early patrons,
and it was a favored resort with Fitz-GFeene
Halleck. n. P. Willis, George Morris, Edgar
Allan Poe, Thomas Hamblin, the elder
Wallack. John Brougham and other celeb
rites Of literature and of thes stage. Com
mOdore Vanderbilt. Peter Cooper and A. T.
Stewart lunched there, and it enjoyed the
patronage Of five generations Of the Aston
family. Among the statesmen and Generals
who we're tempted by its cheer were Grant,
Sherman. Sheridan. Hancock. Chester A.
Arthur, Roscoe Conkling, Thurlow Weed,
Grover Cleveland and Richard Croker,
whose real estate Office was in the old Trim
ity Building, opposite.
Old Tom, I'd, died in 1898, after which
the restaurant was conducted by his daugh-
ter, Mrs. Catherine Carey until 1t was closed
about two years ago.
The United States Hotel, in Fulton street,
between Pearl and Water, which disap-
peared in 1902. was another landmark,
Opened in 1923 as Hollis Hotel it was planned
and conducted on a scale OF magnihcence
then unheard Of. Its cupola, which lowered
above the neighbOring houses, was used as
a ship signal station, and the hotel itself
became a headquarters for the officers Of
the London and Liverpool packets and Of
other s~ristocratic craft that locked along
the Fast River.
When ships were sighted the news was
tagged from Sandy Hook to Staten Island,
from Staten Island to Governors Island, and
thence to the cupola Of Hollis Hotel, whose
signals could he seen by all the town.
The proprietor was ruined by a character
istic stroke Of enterprise. In the absence
Of municipal water works, he undertook to
drill a we'll under the hotel. and went down
mo feet without finding water. Tbs ex-
pense threw him into bankruptcy and the
property p,eed into other hands. Though
renamed the United States Hotel, it was
Tor a long time known az Hollis Folly.
The Star Theatre, at Broadway and Thir-
teenth street, demolished in 1901, housed
for twenty wears the famous Wallack Stock
Company and continued to present stars
long after the actor colony had moved
uptown. II witnessed the first American
appearance Of Henry Irving and Sarah
Bernhard. The list OF famous actors,
actresses and prima donnas that appeared
on its stage includes. besides the Wallacks,
Booth. Coquelin, Modieska. Patti, jefferson,
sothern, Barrett and many others.
Chickering Hall. at Fifth avenue and
Eighteenth street, went in 1902. II was used
not only for musical r~ecitals. but was also
famous as a place for lyceum lectures IN
the days Of Major Pond. At the opening
concert Won Bdlow was the attraction and
on a later occasion Ole Bull and Emma
Thursby were the atars Manu- ~ tha