The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1906-09-02


Academy's home waa. next IN Chambers
street, then In Clinton street. then Gt Broad
way and Leonard street. then In broadway
opposite Bond street. which at the time was
the uptown limit Of travel on the broadway
omnibuSses, Tho Academy, after selling
its Twenty-thlrd street property. followed
Columbia University 70 the upper West
Side.
Few people now remember that there
aver was a place called Bulls Head Village.
This comprised tho district included within
the present Twenty-third and Twenty.
seventh streets and Fourth and Second
avenues. It became q centre OF Importance
in 1879, when the Bulls Head Tavern wal
moved from lis previous home in the Iowery
to Twenty-iourth street and Third avenue.
This inn served as a headquarters for
drovers and stockmen during the period
when the district was the great cattle mar
ket Of the city. In the abeopce OF banks
north Of City Hall Park the Bulls Head
Tavern served a. hosiery, bank and gem
eral business emporium for the neighbor-
hood until the cattle market was moved
further uptown in 1880. After that the
tavern gradually fell into decay. though
IL had helped to lay the foundation Of tho
fortune Of Daniel Drew, the Wall Street
operator, who was connected with its early
management.
The building was torn down In 1905. II
was a four story wooden structure. and bad
been a LoriIlard farmhouse before IL be-
came a tavern. One Of it's features was .
narrow second story portioo supported
by two oak pillars. A wide stairway with
a mahogany balustrade led TO the upper
floors, which were traversed by such q
labyrinth Of dingy Railways that only .
chart Of the building could enable even .
sober man to fnd his way.
The original Tenderloin clubhouse dis
appeared last spring. The club was or
ganized in 1859 by newspaper men. who
rented a room in the frame building at
ls8 West Thirtieth street. q ramshackle
structure, said to nave been a farmhouse
and one Of the first buildings erected above
Twenty-third street.
The newspaper mon met nightly. Some
Of the ~congenial spirits in the Tenderloin
soon discovered the place and began to
drop In with stories. The idea Of a place
to exchange yarns OF tho district grew.
and when some one conceived the plan
Of starting a friendly game to pay the Of
fice expenses the club was formed. For .
while IL was limited in membership. With
In a year, however, there were 90 many
members that the old building was too
small. Eleven hundred strong. the club
leased ia West Thirty-second street.
A landmark which residents on Washing
ton Heights especially regret losing lie Audu-
bon Park, a private residence tract west OF
Broad way, between l56th and 15Sth streets.
This was bought last veal by a real estate
syndicate and is being cut up into regulA-
ton building lots.
The property was bought In 1870 by
John James Audubon, the naturalist, and
upon 1t he lived during the years Of his be-
lated prosperity until his death in 1851.
It was subsequently divided into about q
dozen plots, zach an acre or two In size;
but it's parklike layout had been maintained
until a year ago, and no modern brick build
ings had been erected within its
except a row of small dwellings on the
south side Of I5sth street, near the river.
The Riverside Drive extension cuts diagon-
ally across tho park, but in laying it out
the authorities followed the contour OF
the land as closely a. possible and only
one OF the old dwellings had to be removed.
This is only a partial enumeration Of tbs
more or less typical landmarks Of the last
century that lave been wiped out. The
last half dozen years has been a period OF
extraordinary building activity and scores
OF old structures-old for a town where
the average life OF a building is said to be
about twenty years-have had to give
I'D their sites for reimprovement.
The following list, which would have been
unduly extended il churches, clubs, and
hotels had been included. recalls some OF
the landmarks that AVE been removed
during the period in question. Tho Old
London Gate in Broadway, opposite Wash
ington place. a building whose front was
intended to be a facsimile Of the famous
Bishops Gate in London; the house at -
Union square (the last private dwelling in
a once fashionable quarter), occupied until
his death at the age of 90 by Richard
Tighe, who refused an Irish b~aronetcy TO
which he had fallen heir; A. T. Stewards
marble mansion at Fifth avenue and Thirty
fourth street, once the finest private resi-
dence in America; the old Y. NJ. c. A. head
quarters at T~wenty-third street and Fourth
avenue; the Mount Sinai Hospital at Lex
inRton avenue and Sixty-sixth street; the
Roman Catholic Orphan Asylum for Girls
in Madison and Park avenues, between
Fifty-frst and Fifty-seoond streets; and the
orphan Asylum Of the City Of New York
in the block bounded by Riverside Drive.
Seventy third and Se~venty-fourth streets,
where Charles NJ. Schwab's residence now