Old Taverns of New York

PREFACE

Much has been written about the old taverns of New York in a disconnected way, but heretofore there has been no connected story linking them with the current events of the early history of the city. This story I have attempted to tell from the Dutch settlement down to the early part of the last century, when the growth of the city and extensive travel entirely changed their character. In doing this I have found myself at issue with many writers on the subject. In every such case the conclusions set down in this book rest I believe upon unquestionable documentary evidence, in part referred to in the text.

Before any newspapers appeared the tavern was a very important institution in the community. It was the medium of all news both political and social, the one place where people of all kinds met to exchange views on every subject of interest to the general public. In this way it exercised an influence second only to the church.

The connection of the taverns with the history of the city was very close. There was hardly an event of importance but had its inception in the taverns, where all questions of interest to the public were discussed as in no other place. They were frequented by all classes and the influence of each one of them on the community depended entirely on the character of those who patronized it. The merchants, the politicians and the men of letters each had their places of rendezvous.

Following the history of the city chronologically I have endeavored to link with it the influence of the taverns on current events, and at the same time show up the interesting features of tavern life by details of happenings at these places. I have made no attempt to increase interest by any means except the plain, unvarnished truth, which I have considered sufficiently attractive. Tales of the old taverns are enhanced in interest by a glamour of antiquity surrounding the subject by which few can fail to be charmed.

Nothing exists at the present day in any way resembling an old tavern of the first class in colonial times. It was the place for political discussion, for social clubs and for meetings of all kinds. Every one went to the tavern and from no other source could a person gain so much knowledge of public affairs.

I

Dutch Taverns

On the return of Hendrick Hudson from his voyage of discovery in 1609, his reports were so favorable, especially, as to the abundance of valuable furs which were to be had at very little cost, that several merchants of Amsterdam, without delay, fitted out trading vessels and sent them to trade with the Indians in the territory he had visited. The returns were satisfactory, and they formed themselves into a company under the name of the United Netherland Company and established a trading post on the southern part of Manhattan Island. The exclusive privilege of trade, which had been granted them by Holland, expired in the year 1618, and they endeavored to have the grant renewed or extended, but succeeded only in obtaining a special license, expiring yearly, which they held for two or three years longer.

In the meantime a more extensive association had been formed by some merchants and capitalists of Holland, who in the year 1621 received a charter under the title of the West India Company, which gave to them the exclusive privilege of trade on the whole Atlantic coast, so far as the jurisdiction of Holland extended. Powers of government were conferred upon the company and the right to make treaties with the Indians.

In 1623, they sent out a vessel which carried thirty families to begin the colony. The vessel landed her passengers and freight near the present site of Albany and a settlement was there established. The return cargo of skins and other freight was valued at about twelve thousand dollars.

It having been determined to fix the headquarters of the company in New Netherland on Manhattan Island, two ships cleared from Holland in 1625 with a large number of settlers for this place. With these was sent out Peter Minuit, as Director-General, to superintend the interests of the company. On board the vessels were carried more than a hundred head of cattle, besides other domestic animals, such as would be needed by the people in a permanent settlement. This was the first real settlement on Manhattan Island. The few huts and storehouses, surrounded by a stockade for protection against the Indians, although it appears they were very friendly, which had been located here for many years, was not a settlement; it was only a trading post; no attempt had been made to cultivate the land.

Unlike the New England settlers and the Swedes upon the Delaware the Dutch did not make use of the log house, so well adapted by economy, ease of construction and comfort, as a temporary home. It is said that Dutch traders built huts very much like those of the Indian tribes of the neighborhood.

The Indian house or hut was made by placing in the ground two parallel rows of upright saplings adjoining each other and bringing their tops together, lapping them over each other in a curve. On this were fastened boughs and reeds, as a protection against wind and rain, the inside being lined with bark nicely joined together. If such skill were used in joining the bark on the inside as is displayed by some of the North American Indians in building their canoes, it must have presented a very neat and smooth appearance. There was no floor, the fire, in winter, being built upon the ground, the smoke escaping through an opening in the roof. The width of the house was invariably twenty feet, the length being regulated by the number of families occupying it.

If the Dutch traders used such huts they undoubtedly modified them somewhat as to fireplace and chimney and probably made many other improvements to suit their needs.

Peter Minuit, the Director-General, to obtain title to the island, purchased it from the Indian proprietors, and the settlers commenced their town by staking out a fort, under the direction of Kryn Frederick, an engineer sent out for that purpose, and set about the erection of their temporary homes, which were little better than those of their predecessors, the traders. The next year, 1626, the machinery for a saw mill arrived from Holland and a mill worked by wind power was erected on what is now Governor’s Island, which was then covered with a fine growth of forest trees, which after being cut up, could be easily floated to the little town. The settlers were thus supplied with lumber which enabled them to erect buildings more conformable to their needs. They built, as a rule, houses of only one story in height, with two rooms on the ground floor and a garret above. The roof was reed or straw thatch, and this material continued to be so used for about thirty years after the first settlement of New Amsterdam. The fireplace was built of stone to the height of about six feet, having an oven of the same material by the side of it, extending beyond the rear of the house. The chimney above the stone work was made of boards plastered inside with mortar. The average value of these houses was about one hundred and fifty dollars.

The Dutchman did not come to America for the sake of religious or political freedom or to escape persecution. He was lured by the profits of trade and the prospect of finding a better and more extensive home for himself and for his children. In the little village or town that had been formed by the first settlers on the southern point of Manhattan Island no Puritanical laws or regulations prevented him from dealing in beer or strong drink, or in drinking as much as he had a mind to. Beer was the Dutchman’s drink, and the West India Company very early erected the Company’s Brewery on the north side of Bridge Street, between the present Whitehall and Broad Streets, to supply the little town with its usual beverage.

The Dutch trader bartered with the Indians for furs, and as the little cluster of houses near the fort grew in population some of the traders also sold, when they could, a little beer and other strong drink which their furs enabled them to obtain from the ships coming into port. For many years, except with the Indians, there does not appear to have been any restraint on this trade in liquor, but, although there were many houses where it was kept on tap for sale, no provision seems to have been made for the lodging of strangers.

The Dutch from up the river or from the nearby settlements, which were very scanty until the time of Stuyvesant, were, no doubt, always able to find relatives or friends with whom they could lodge; but the English skippers who stopped over on their trips between Virginia and the New England colonies were not only strangers but spoke a strange language, unknown to most of the inhabitants, and it is not difficult to understand the reluctance of having them as guests in the small houses where the accommodations were very limited. Governor Kieft says that he was put to great inconvenience in taking care of them, and so, in 1641 built a large stone house to accommodate and care for them and other strangers, which was known as the Stadt Herbergh or City Tavern. There must have been urgent need for such a house, for it was the most costly building that had been erected up to this time. The expenditure was much greater than for the building of a new and substantial church in the fort, a short time after. It was, no doubt, intended to impress and increase the respect of strangers and was an object of the admiration and pride of the citizens of New Amsterdam. It was located in a very conspicuous place, with one of its sides facing the East River, apart from the other houses of the town. It was two stories high with a basement underneath and spacious lofts above. In the rear was an extension or addition, a long, narrow structure which was apparently used for kitchen purposes and probably for other uses.

Early in the year 1643 the Stadt Herbergh, or City Tavern, was leased to Philip Gerritsen, its first landlord, at a rental of three hundred guilders, or about one hundred and twenty dollars, per annum and opened for the entertainment of the public; afterwards to Adriaen Gerritsen, down to the beginning of the year 1652, when the tavern was being conducted by Abraham Delanoy. According to agreement, Gerritsen was to sell the Company’s wine, brandy and beer, and no other, the Company agreeing not to allow any wine to be sold out of their cellar to the injury of the lessee. The Director-General also promised that a well should be dug near the house and that a brew-house should be erected in the rear or that Gerritsen should be permitted the use of the Company’s brew-house.

Shortly after the opening of the tavern it was put to good use in sheltering the fugitives who came to it for protection. Among these were the settlers from Achter Col, across the Kills from Staten Island, on the mainland, who, driven from their homes, which were destroyed by the Indians, were lodged for a time at the City Tavern, at the expense of the West India Company.

The tavern seems to have been in frequent use as a place of detention of persons obnoxious to the Director and his Council and of persons suspected of offenses against the orders of the Director-General, and it is probable that some part of the building was set apart for that purpose. Sometimes the prisoners were quite numerous, as when, in 1651, the crew of the ship “Nieuw Nederlandsche Fortuyn” were quartered here, and also when in 1656, after it had become the City Hall, were brought here the twenty-three Englishmen who had attempted to make a settlement in the present Westchester, hostile to the Dutch claim. Notwithstanding this, the tavern came to be patronized by many of the best people of the place and by the officers of the West India Company. It became a place where a great deal of business was transacted, both public and private, and was one of the places where all public notices were posted, the others being the fort and the barn of the West India Company. It was, too, before it became the City Hall, the place where the court frequently sat for the trial of minor cases. Here was held in the fall and winter of 1653 the Landtdag, or Diet, consisting of representatives from each of the Dutch towns, for the purpose of providing means of defence against the Indians. This was the most important popular convention that had ever been held in New Amsterdam.

In 1652 New Amsterdam was incorporated as a city under the government of a schout, two burgomasters and five schepens, and was allowed a separate magistracy, although not independent of Governor and Council. This made it necessary to have a city hall or town house, and soon after the City Tavern was ceded to the city and henceforth was known as the “stadt huys” or city hall.

In the first settlement of New England the laws and regulations as to the sale of strong drink and as to restraint in indulgence were very rigid, but afterwards much relaxed. In New Amsterdam there was little restraint; so that when the notorious Puritan Captain John Underhill came down to New Amsterdam, however exemplary may have been his behavior while at home among his New England friends (although there had been some complaint), he let himself loose and became, as some would say, “gloriously drunk.” On the night of the 15th of March, 1644, in the parlor of Philip Gerritsen of the City Tavern, Doctor Hans Kiersted, Dominie Bogardus, Gysbert Opdyck and several others, with their wives, were having a supper and spending an agreeable evening. Some time after the supper, while they were enjoying themselves, Captain Underhill, with Lieutenant Baxter and a drummer, who had evidently made the rounds of the town and were in an advanced state of intoxication, appeared at the door. Gerritsen could not forbid entrance to the worthy captain, but told him that he was entertaining a party of friends with their wives and requested him to take a separate room where he would serve them. They were finally induced to do this after much talk. They invited some of the company to drink with them and they complied. Baxter invited Opdyck to join them but he refused. Thereupon Underhill and his companions drew their swords and cut in pieces the cans on the shelves in the tavern, hacked the door-posts and endeavored by force to get into the room where the supper party was. This was for some time resisted by the landlady with a leaden bolt and by the landlord trying to keep the door closed; but, in spite of all opposition, they succeeded in forcing their way in. Underhill was in such a state that it was quite uncertain at what moment he might take a notion to flesh his sword in any Dutchman who stood in his way. With his sword half drawn he cried: “Clear out of here, for I shall strike at random.” The fiscal and a guard from the fort were sent for, but they did not succeed in quieting the drunken Englishmen. In reply to some remarks of the Dominie, who suggested that the Director-General himself be sent for, Underhill said, as deposed by witnesses: “If the Director come here, ’tis well. I had rather speak to a wise man than a fool.” To prevent further and more serious mischief, fearing that at any moment Underhill might pink the Dominie, the supper party withdrew, leaving Underhill in possession of the field. Thus the gallant Captain scored another victory.

When Wouter Van Twiller came out, in 1633, as Director-General, the pressing claims of England to the control of the whole territory on the Atlantic Coast, induced the West India Company to send out with him a military force of one hundred and four soldiers to garrison the fort. These were the first that had been sent over.

Among the soldiers, some years later, was a man by the name of Peter Cock, who held the rank of sergeant. He built, or had constructed for him, a little house, such as were being put up at that time, northwest from the fort, on ground now occupied by No. 1 Broadway. It was very likely the first house built on that side of the fort and was used as a tavern. It was no doubt more patronized by the soldiers than any other.

Sergeant Cock was in command of several regular soldiers under La Montagne in the expedition against the Indians on Staten Island in 1643. On their return to New Amsterdam, they were all immediately sent out to Greenwich and Stamford, where they scoured the country in search of the Indians. In November of the same year Governor Kieft dispatched one hundred and twenty men, under the command of Dr. La Montagne, Cock and Underhill, to exterminate the Canarsee Indians. They brought back from this expedition some prisoners, who were afterwards barbarously treated, inhumanly tortured and finally killed in the public streets of New Amsterdam.

At Sergeant Cock’s tavern the details of these expeditions and the part taken in them by each individual were, doubtless, thoroughly discussed by the soldiers as they drank their beer or other beverages served out to them. They talked over the quarrels of the Dominie and the Director-General and the last sermon in which the Dominie fulminated his biting diatribes against the Director; how the drummer beat up the drum and the gunner touched off one of the big guns when the Dominie was in the midst of one of his harangues, which distracted the congregation and almost threw them into a panic.

Next to the lot on which Sergeant Cock had built his house Martin Crigier obtained the grant of a lot in 1643, on which a house appears to have already been built, probably by himself. Crigier is said to have come out in the service of the West India Company when a young man, after his separation or release from which he had engaged in the business of trader and sloop captain on the North River and became an active and conspicuous citizen. He was certainly a doughty Dutchman, his name occupying a prominent place in the military annals of New Amsterdam.

The military expeditions in which he was engaged were numerous. In 1657 he went out in command of forty men to settle difficulties on the Delaware. In 1659 he commanded a force of sixty men, sent out to the same region to repel a threatened invasion of the English. In 1663 he was in command of the force sent to Esopus to punish the savages for their massacre of the Dutch, and in this expedition he seems to have had the complete confidence of Governor Stuyvesant, himself a valiant soldier. With Cornelis Van Tienhoven he was sent to New Haven to treat with the English and he was Burgomaster of New Amsterdam in 1653, 1654, 1659, 1660 and 1663.

He was an innkeeper and we can easily imagine that his house must have been the resort of all the Dutch politicians of his day, where were discussed not only plans of attack and defence, but also the policies of the little town in all its various aspects, both internally and in relation to the Indians and the English. The English, no doubt, were thoroughly discussed, for there was constant trouble with them at this time.

The house was near the fort, on ground now occupied by No. 3 Broadway, and looked out on the open ground of the present Bowling Green, which was then the parade of the soldiers, being in front of the gate of the fort, the eastern side of it being used as a market field on appointed days, where were displayed all kinds of country produce brought in from the surrounding country. Here, also, in this open space, in 1656 and subsequent years, was held, in the latter part of October and all through November, the cattle market for store and fat cattle, sheep, goats, hogs, bucks, and such like. It was promised that stalls and other conveniences would be erected for those who brought such animals to market. This cattle-market, notice of which, by letter, had been sent out to the Dutch and English of Connecticut and Long Island, no doubt brought to New Amsterdam a great many from the surrounding country, even as far away as New Haven. The taverns were full and the life and activity of the city was much increased. The young men drank in the conversations of the city burghers at the taverns, discussed with them the price of beaver skins and other articles of trade with the Indians, and in turn told of the arts of the trapper and hunter, as well as adventures with the Indians and with the wild animals of the forest. These visitors, for a time, made the taverns gay and lively, and sometimes there were, no doubt, heated talks and even quarrels and personal encounters.

In front of the taverns of Captain Crigier and Sergeant Cock groups of men could be seen at such times bargaining and discussing prices and the news of the day. Beer was to be had and there was plenty of talk, for the outlying settlers brought in the news of their own sections and were very anxious to learn all the news of the city and still more anxious to get news from the fatherland.

Those who visited the city to bring in cattle and attend this market made of it a pleasure trip long to be remembered. Although New Amsterdam could not furnish any amusement that would intoxicate a modern New Yorker yet, to those who were passing their days in isolated homes, the gaiety of the little city was a source of great enjoyment; and in returning to their quiet homes they carried back with them all the little luxuries which they could afford and which the city could supply. They had also a great deal to tell their relatives and friends.

There is no doubt that when Peter Cock and Martin Crigier built their taverns to catch the patronage of the soldiers at the fort, the ground in the neighborhood to the west of the fort and along the river was in a perfect state of nature, untouched by the hand of man. The authorities kept the space in front of the fort clear of building; which, without any preconceived plan or intention on their part, resulted in leaving a triangular open space, which became the parade for the soldiers, the market place for cattle, and, afterwards, in the time of the English, the Bowling Green.

In September, 1659, transfer was made of a lot on the west side of the Heere Straat (Broadway), which was described as bounded on the south by the newly-built house and lot of Burgomaster Martin Crigier. It was about this time that improvements and a great advance were being made in the style of building, and as Crigier was at this time and had been some years previous a burgomaster, and was besides a conspicuous man in the community, it is natural to suppose that he would put up a good and substantial house.

On the other side of the fort, close under the shelter of its eastern wall, at the corner of the present Whitehall and Stone Streets, where the Produce Exchange now stands, was a little tavern which had been built in the most economical manner in 1641, and was kept by a Frenchman, Philip Gerard, called by the Dutch Geraerdy, who had left the gay city of Paris for life among the Dutch of New Amsterdam. Geraerdy probably had good reasons for the change; perhaps it was to escape conscription in the wars then raging in Europe. Riding the wooden horse in the fort was a common punishment of the soldiers, and Philip Geraerdy, we presume from a sense of humor, or for some other good reason, called his house the Wooden Horse, or at least it is so called in the Dutch records. The soldiers no doubt much preferred the wooden horse (or bench) in Philip’s tavern to that in the fort. Philip was himself at one time a soldier, and had ridden the wooden horse, for May 27, 1642, “Philip Geraerdy, a soldier, for having been absent from the guard without leave,” was sentenced to ride the wooden horse during parade, with a pitcher in one hand and a drawn sword in the other.

After a few years the name of Philip’s house underwent a change. This may have been the result of a sort of evolutionary process, induced by Philip, who erected in front of his house a sign on which was painted a white horse on a dark background, very conspicuous. The house became known as the Sign of the White Horse or the White Horse Tavern.

Some lively scenes were connected with the little tavern. One dark night in the spring of 1643, farmer Jan Damen, whose house was just beyond the present Wall Street near Broadway, drank deep in Philip’s house, and was in such a condition that Geraerdy thought it prudent to guide him home, which act of benevolence cost him dearly. Damen must have been in a mood that threatened trouble, for Geraerdy had taken the precaution to draw his sword from its scabbard and carry it himself. At the house Damen’s serving man, armed with a long knife, resisted his master’s entrance. Damen used the scabbard as a weapon and also secured a knife, and in the fight which ensued Geraerdy was, as the surgeon declared, dangerously wounded, Damen having struck him in the dark under the shoulder blade.