Chapter I: Front Matter

_Nooks & Corners_ _of_ Old New York

By Charles Hemftreet

_Illustrated_ _By_ E. C. Peixotto

New York Charles Scribner's Sons MDCCCCV

COPYRIGHT, 1899 BY CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS NEW YORK

_INTRODUCTORY NOTE_

The points of interest referred to in this book are to be found in the lower part of the Island of Manhattan.

Settlements having early been made in widely separated parts of the island, streets were laid out from each settlement as they were needed without regard to the city as a whole; with the result that as the city grew the streets lengthened and those of the various sections met at every conceivable angle. This resulted in a tangle detrimental to the city's interests, and in 1807 a Commission was appointed to devise a City Plan that should protect the interests of the _whole_ community.

A glance at a city map will show the confusion of streets at the lower end of the island and the regularity brought about under the City Plan above Houston Street on the east, and Fourteenth Street on the west side.

The plan adopted by the Commission absolutely disregarded the natural topography of the island, and resulted in a city of straight lines and right angles.

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

PAGE
No. 7 State Street 6
Fraunces' Tavern 11
The "Jack Knife," Gold and Platt Streets 23
Golden Hill Inn 24
Cell in the Prison under the Hall of Records 35
Statue of Nathan Hale, City Hall Park 38
No. 11 Reade Street, where Aaron Burr had an office 40
The Tombs 41
Park Street, with Church of the Transfiguration 44
Hudson and Watts Streets 55
Grave of Charlotte Temple 62
Tomb of Alexander Hamilton 66
Washington's Pew, St. Paul's Chapel 76
Montgomery's Tomb 77
A House of Other Days 79
"Murderers' Row" 97
Old Houses, Wiehawken Street 112
Looking South from Minetta Lane 114
Old Theological Seminary, Chelsea Square 126
Church of Sea and Land 135
Bone Alley 139
Milestone on the Bowery 143
Entrance to Marble Cemetery 152
College of the City of New York 186
Gate of Old House of Refuge 188
The Little Church Around the Corner 192
Milestone on Third Avenue 204

NOOKS AND CORNERS OF OLD NEW YORK