Chapter III: Old New York

AS one makes his way at the present time from the Battery through the rambling, canyon-like and crowded streets of lower New York, his mind filled with visions of the city of the Past, he searches almost in vain for a sight of its most ancient landmarks. Where, in the confusion of sight and sound, was located the inclosure within which stood the "mighty and impregnable fort," sheltering under its protecting walls the neat brick-fronted and tiled-roofed homes, set in luxuriant cabbage gardens, of the Dutch settlers of New Amsterdam? Where were their "bouweries," or farms, "sloping down to the river," which left the old Dutch name an inheritance to the Present? Where was the Bowling Green, and where stood Peter Stuyvesant's wall, with its gate through which the cows of the burghers went daily to pasture upon the Commons,—and, where was the famous Commons? Strolling up Broadway, one looks about for the more pretentious structures— churches, taverns, theaters and municipal buildings— erected by the English occupants under whom the city became New York; and his search is rewarded by a glimpse now and then of an historic structure hidden away in a corner of the valley-like thoroughfares or crouching modestly in the shadow of some towering modern pile.

Next to Boston, New York was the most important city of early America, and the English artists naturally were at pains to secure sketches of its most imposing structures, views of its streets, its harbor, and of the life of its people. A study of these prints as reproduced upon pottery reveals to us, therefore, a very comprehensive idea of the topography and the customs of the old city.

The harbor itself as one views its shores to-day from Battery Point is little changed since the time, over three centuries ago, when Hendrick Hudson turned the prow of the Half Moon into its unknown waters, little doubting that it was the much-looked-for passage to China; or when, about one hundred years ago, the sketches of the spot upon which, the Dutch navigator said, "the eye might revel forever in ever-new and neverending beauties" were printed upon the blue platters entitled, "New York from Brooklyn Heights" and "New York from Weehawk"—the platters which to-day bring the almost fabulous prices. Nowhere can there be found a more interesting commentary upon the growth of the city during the past century than is presented by the first two illustrations, one a view from Brooklyn and the other from the shores of New Jersey. In place of the massed group of towers whose outlines call forcibly to mind the silhouettes of the towered cities of mediaeval Italy, together with the vast and varied shipping of the world, which at the present time meets the gaze of one approaching New York from the sea, here may be seen a collection of low buildings loosely filling the point of Manhattan Island, with about a dozen church spires rising from the level of the roofs. Several varieties of vessels, all sailing craft, are upon the waters of the bay; a windmill, no doubt a relic of Dutch times, appears in the view from Brooklyn Heights; while, looking from the Jersey shore, the distant Narrows may be discerned, the rolling shores of Long Island, and, nearer still, a fair-sized island intended perhaps for Staten Island. In the left foreground of the view from "Weehawk," as the name is printed upon the back of the platter, a Dutch homestead is pictured, with sloping-roofed farm buildings snugly nestled within the shelter of a grove of tall pine trees, a circular driveway bordered with a neat fence leading to them through the grounds. We are indebted for these interesting views of old New York to W. G. Wall, Esq., the Irish artist, who came to the United States in the year 1818, set up his easel in these sightly places, painted what he saw and sent his sketches to the Stevenson potteries in Cobridge, Staffordshire, for reproduction. The same border of roses and scrolls encircles the two views, but the blue in which they are printed is less intense and more transparent than the blue of the Enoch Wood potteries. At the time of his visit to New York, Wall also executed views of Fort Gansevoort, Columbia College and City Hall; the "Troy from Mt. Ida," which is presented in a previous chapter, as well as the imaginative "Temple of Fame" in honor of Commodore Perry, reproduced in a later chapter, being likewise from his hand.

Bordering upon the harbor at the foot of the settlement which comprised New York in Colonial times was an open piece of ground known as The Battery, two excellent views of which are presented. The Battery, as its military name suggests, was originally the outworks to Fort Manhattan, known later under Dutch rule as Fort Amsterdam (the English destroying it in 1789), which Peter Stuyvesant erected to protect the seaboard at the point of the island—formidable mud batteries solidly faced, "after the manner of Dutch ovens common in his day, with clam shells." As time went on, the bulwarks became overrun with a carpet of grass and the embankment shaded with spreading trees. Here the old burghers in times of peace would repair of an afternoon to smoke their pipes under the branches, while for the young men and maidens the embankment became a favorite haunt for moonlight strolls; and so, from a place of war-like defense, the Battery Walk became renowned as a rendezvous for the delights of peace—the fashionable promenade, or "Esplanade," whereon of a Sunday afternoon the Dutch housewives and the English matrons were wont to walk up and down in the shade of the trees, enjoy the Seabreeze and flaunt their bravest finery for all their world to admire. In the illustrations, several of the old-time ladies and gentlemen may be seen strolling along the paths, sitting upon the benches or stopping to chat with their neighbors, the ladies in large poke bonnets, pointed shawls and narrow, high-waisted skirts, with tiny sun-shades in their hands; while their escorts appear every whit as fine as they, arrayed in long full-skirted coats, broad brimmed hats and white trousers, sporting slender walking sticks—a valuable record of the topography, the customs and the fashions of Colonial New York. Plying the waters of the harbor many pleasure boats may be seen, in the distance Governor's Island is faintly outlined, and, nearer by, is Fort Clinton, connected with the mainland by a foot-bridge. The strollers upon the Esplanade were accustomed to repair to the nearby ornamental structure built around the historic flagstaff, where luncheon and music were to be found, the view of the Flagstaff Pavilion which is here given being, it has been said, the only existing record of that popular resort which until the time Fort Clinton was turned into Castle Garden was the sole amusement place thereabout.

Castle Garden, in recent years the landing place of immigrants and at the present time a municipal Aquarium, was a favorite subject for china decoration, a number of Staffordshire potters making use of it. Originally as Castle Clinton erected in 1807 upon an outlying rock, the structure was a fort for the defense of the English town and was reached from the Battery, as the illustrations show, by a bridge three hundred yards long—a space filled in later on and made a portion of Battery Walk. In the year 1824, the building was leased to private individuals and transformed into an in-door garden, with its name changed to Castle Garden. Its floor was elaborately laid out as a garden, with pieces of statuary to ornament its walks, and a stage was erected at the north end, where concerts were given at intervals, refreshments being meanwhile sold to the audience. Six thousand people easily found room for recreation within its walls, and upon various occasions as many as ten thousand were in the garden at one time. Here was held the famous Fete in honor of General Lafayette when he was the guest of the nation, a description of which may be found in a subsequent chapter. A few years later, the place became more distinctly a play-house, and, later still, the home of Grand Opera in America where such operas as "Ernani," "Norma" and "La Somnambula" were sung— the crowning occasion, however, being the appearance in four concerts, in the year 1850, of Jenny Lind, under the management of P. T. Barnum. Castle Garden's career as a theater ended in 1855, when the building was turned into a depot for immigrants. At the present time, the elaborate display of marine life within its walls makes of the old fort and theater a fascinating and valuable educational center.

Leaving the Battery, one shortly finds himself in Bowling Green, the little park which still clings to the name the Dutch gave it when they appropriated this plot of ground in the midst of their settlement for their favorite game. The small, fountain centered spot, set to-day like a tiny pool at the foot of the cliff-like buildings which surround it, was long the center of both Holland's New Amsterdam and England's young New York—the village green where maypoles were erected and fairs were held; where the market place stood, the parade ground, the shambles; and where was smoked the Indian pipe of peace. Upon this spot the doughty Governor Stuyvesant surrendered his sword to the English officers; later on, bonfires were kindled in Bowling Green when the hated Stamp Act was repealed, the grateful people erecting here an equestrian statue of King George the Third—only to pull it down as soon as independence was declared. At the same time, the angry populace tore away the iron crowns which decorated the fence around the green, traces of their work of destruction still being visible as the fence itself survives to the present time. The first post-office, whence the mounted post for Boston set out, stood on Bowling Green, and the Executive Mansion after Washington's first inaugural, the building later on, when the national capital had been removed to Washington, being used as the Governor's House, before the state capital was removed to Albany. The fountain was placed in Bowling Green at the time Croton water was brought into New York, the mansions of the fashionable folk of the city still lining its sides. In recent years steamship business took possession of the place, and to-day historycrowded Bowling Green is known only as the terminus of the surface railway on Broadway.

Here begins Broadway, beloved of all New Yorkers, "the greatest street in the world." At the present time, as the searcher for memorials of the historic Past joins its hurrying throng, in imagination there comes to him, amid the confusing sounds of tramping feet and of strident street-car bells, a faint echo of "Sweep, ho! Sweep, ho! From the bottom to the top! Without a ladder or a rope! Sweep, ho! Sweep, ho! Sweep!"— the cry of the chimney sweeps familiar here but little over a century ago. In those same days, thousands of hogs roamed Broadway, the only garbage collectors the city knew! Sidewalks came in 1790, the first ones being of brick and set unevenly. Benjamin Franklin used to say that he could always tell a New Yorker upon the smooth pavements of Philadelphia by his shuffling gate, "like a parrot upon a mahogany table"; twenty-five years later, however, visitors to New York remarked upon the city's "neat houses and fine pavements."

At the corner of Broadway and Wall Street the searcher pauses, for at this point cluster many memories of old New York, several of which are called to mind by the illustrations. Facing Wall Street near the spot where Trinity Church now stands, in Dutch times there opened upon Broadway the "Land Poort," one of the gates to the picket-wall which Governor Stuyvesant built across the island above the settlement in order to shut out the Indians from the north and to protect his people from a dreaded attack of the English who were established in Massachusetts. The wall stretched along the course of Wall Street, which received its name therefrom, and through the Land Poort the cattle of the Dutch citizens passed each morning, the village herdsman going the rounds of the streets blowing a horn, at which the settlers turned their cattle out from their yards, and forming them into a common herd and driving them up to the pasture called the Commons, or Fields; in the evening, the herdsman drove the cattle back to the gate, through which they made their own way home. The paths through the bushes which the cattle established in their daily rounds became in the course of time lined with houses—the origin, it is recorded, of the rambling and picturesque turns and labyrinths which distinguish certain streets of lower New York to this day.

A few steps from the corner of Broadway, facing Wall Street, the first Federal Building or City Hall stood in Colonial times, from the balcony of which George Washington took oath as first president of the United States. Several popular inns were within a short walk of this corner, one of them, Fraunce's Tavern, still remaining at Broad and Pearl streets, its rooms thronged with memories of New York's early days. The visitor mounts the low steps to the Colonial door, thoughts of Washington filling his mind, for this inn was his headquarters in Revolutionary days, and in 1783, after peace had been declared, in its assembly hall he bade farewell to the officers of the Continental army. One sounds the old-time knocker upon the door, when lo! is it a spirit of the Past who, clad in powdered wig, full-skirted coat, knee-breeches and buckled shoes, attends? Some Colonial officer, mayhap, stepped out from audience with his chief? He politely leads the visitor to the assembly hall above and ushers him within its door. The inscriptions upon the memorial tablets over the mantels first claim attention; then, in fancy, he turns and looks upon the long table spread, the officers one by one taking leave of their beloved General; at last, the mind's eye follows from the window the little group as it winds its way through the streets to the waiting vessel at the dock. ... A luncheon partaken in the room below, in company with the spirits of the Past and the pleasure seekers of Today, concludes the visit.

Above Wall Street, upon Broadway between Thomas and Cedar streets, stood what was in its day the most famous inn in America—the City Hotel, erected in the year 1792. The illustration shows it to have been a plain structure, five stories high, a veritable sky-scraper of its time, old chronicles proudly stating that the City Hotel was visible as far away as the shores of Brooklyn and New Jersey. The City Hotel contained 78 rooms, and, until the Astor House was erected in 1836, it was New York's best-known hostelry, famed far and wide not only for the splendor of its accommodations and its entertainments but also for the importance of its guests. During the period of the War of 1812, five hundred gentlemen sat down in its long dining hall to a dinner in honor of the gallant and successful naval Commodores Hull, Decatur and Jones. On Saturday eve, February 11, 1815, Henry Carroll, a secretary to the American envoys, alighted before the door of the City Hotel, bringing from Europe such joyful news that all Broadway became quickly illumined and men with lighted candles in their hands marched up and down the street—the news of the signing of the Treaty of Ghent, that compact the keeping of which for one hundred years the contracting parties a few months ago celebrated with keen satisfaction. In the year 1824, a banner stretched above the door of the City Hotel announced that the inn was the home of General Lafayette while he was the city's guest; some years later, Charles Dickens was tendered a banquet at the City Hotel, Washington Irving being master of the brilliant toasts. But those history-making days were also primitive times, for behold in the illustration the load of wood in the street waiting to be sawed and stored away, New York having at that time no coal. And upon the sidewalk may be noted one of the many pumps which stood at intervals along Broadway—the chief source of city water until the year 1842, when Croton water was introduced. The spire of Old Trinity, as it appeared in 1788 before the present structure was erected, is visible in the distance. The portraits of Washington and Lafayette appear at the top of the design, with a view of the aqueduct bridge of the Erie Canal at the bottom, this piece of china having probably been made in honor of the famous visit of the "Nation's Guest."

Of the numerous church edifices whose spires may be seen in the view of New York from the Brooklyn and New Jersey shores, three only are pictured upon pottery —Saint Paul's Chapel, the Murray Street church and the Roman Catholic Cathedral. It is to be regretted that no sketch of Old Trinity, the mother church of New York, found its way to England for use as pottery decoration. Saint Paul's Chapel, the oldest of the chapels of Trinity parish and second only in historical importance to the mother church, stands to-day, as the illustration pictures it, with its back turned to Broadway at the corner of Vesey Street, which was as far uptown as Broadway extended when St. Paul's was built, all traffic turning off there to the Boston Post Road, now as of old keeping guard over its quiet God's acre (which when this sketch was made sloped to the river), and appearing each year a little more bowed and ancient in contrast with the tall structures which arise around it; for Saint Paul's, whose corner stone was laid in 1756, is of greater age than any other public building in New York. As the sketch pictures, the architecture of Saint Paul's is simple and impressive, an excellent example of church design of a century and a half ago, with its rectangular body, columned portal and exquisite spire which calls to mind one of Sir Christopher Wren's conceptions. The spacious interior of the Chapel is of interest, both for its architectural beauties and for the hints it gives of the taste and ideas of splendor which belonged to the men of the past. At the time New York was the country's capital, President Washington attended service at Saint Paul's, and his square pew marked with the Arms of the United States is still shown to visitors; upon the opposite side of the nave, designated by the Arms of New York state, is the pew of New York State's first governor, George Clinton. An urn in the portico contains the body of the young and brave General Richard Montgomery, a former parishioner, who in the first year of the Revolution lost his life before Quebec. The memorial, an elaborate one of bronze, was authorized by Congress and purchased in France by Benjamin Franklin, being brought over in an American privateer which was captured by a British gunboat, before it could be safely placed. The dwelling house at the right of the Chapel, as the sketch presents it, was the residence of Major Walter Rutherford, which later on became a store, and was finally demolished by J. J. Astor to make way for his famous hotel.

The edifice known as the Murray Street church, erected in 1812, stood on Murray Street facing Columbia College, and, from the circumstance that its pastor, Dr. Mason, was a man of extreme popularity, it was also called Dr. Mason's Church. It was built of red sandstone, with a steeple 200 feet high, and in place of the portico usually to be found in specimens of Colonial church architecture, this example presents a pilasterdecorated fagade. Not only was Dr. Mason a pulpit orator of world-wide reputation, he was as well a lecturer in Columbia and a man of influence in the city's activities.

St . Patrick's Cathedral in Mott Street was consecrated in 1815, and was the largest building erected in New York for religious purposes. Of so-called Gothic architecture, it was 120 feet long, 80 feet deep and its walls rose 70 feet. Its roof was of peculiar construction, rising sharply nearly 100 feet. The front of the edifice was of brownstone, with niches for statues.

To City Hall Park, in Colonial years a spacious piece of ground upon which stood the Bridewell, the Almshouse and the Debtors' Prison, the quest next leads the seeker for memorials of New York's early days, the potter's art having preserved pictures of six buildings erected upon the Commons. He is here in the very pasture ground of the favored cows of the Dutch settlers, for this small park, at the present time closely hemmed in by lofty towers and alive with hurrying throngs of humanity, was the Commons, or Fields, a long distance above the Dutch settlement and far out of town in later English times. In the year 1732, after Bowling Green had been fenced in and business and fashion had begun to creep up Broadway, the citizens resorted to the Commons for their holiday merry-makings—Maypole dances, drills, bonfires and patriotic gatherings. Here also a gallows was erected. The "Sons of Liberty" many times gathered in City Hall Park, and, upon the spot where the fountain now stands, General Washington and his staff assembled upon July 9, 1776, to listen to the reading of the Declaration of Independence, a tablet upon the wall of the City Hall preserving this memory.

The specimen of pottery known to collectors as the Scudder's Museum design is of extreme interest, for it presents an excellent view of the Colonial Commons, together with several of the original buildings which stood upon it. Upon the right hand side of the design may be seen the structure known in its early days by the names, The New Gaol, The Provost and The Debtors' Prison. The building was erected in 1757 as a suburban prison on the Boston Post Road, and during the period of the Revolution when the English occupied New York many patriots were confined within its walls. Later on, when punishment for debt was yet imprisonment, the building was used as a Debtors' Prison, continuing to serve in that capacity until the year 1840, when an Ionic-columned portico, together with other improvements, which made the building a replica of the Temple of Diana at Ephesus, were added to it and the structure became the Hall of Records, remaining such until within a few years when its walls were demolished to make way for the new Post Office. The building at the left of the illustration, designated in large letters upon the sign over the door as American Museum, was erected and occupied first as a public Almshouse, until the time the city's poor were transferred to the new home built for them at Bellevue. Upon their departure, the "worn-out mansion of the poor in pocket" was given over to several learned societies, among them being Scudder's Museum and Dr. Griscom's Lecture Room. To this place then flocked the people to gaze in wonder upon the Scudder collection of shells from far-off seas, the strange reptiles confined in bottles and to laugh over the antics of the curious animals from South America and the Orient, which formed the exhibit. In the year 1842, P. T. Barnum purchased the Scudder collection of shells, bottled reptiles and caged animals and added to it a so-called Moral Lecture Room, in fact naught but a theater, where talks and plays were given—the modest building here pictured thus being the nucleus of what grew into fame as "Barnum's Greatest Show on Earth." Among other attractions here exhibited was the dwarf known upon the stage as General Tom Thumb, who made his appearance upon its boards before starting out to tour the country and charm the youth of a past generation with his tiny figure.

The glory of the old Commons, however, was the City Hall, erected to take the place of the out-grown building in Wall Street, four distinct views of which were sent to England for use upon pottery. Completed in the year 1812, the dignified structure deserved the praise of General Lafayette who, as he looked upon it twelve years later, inscribed in his note book, "the only building in New York worthy the attention of an artist." The City Hall is constructed of white marble, with the exception of the north side which was originally of stone, the prudent New Yorkers of the day deeming it beyond imagination that the city would grow beyond it and cause its back to be visible to the observer! Designed upon pure classic lines, the City Hall presents an interesting example of pretentious Colonial architecture, a joy forever to the beholder, be he student of the art of building or a weary laborer passing through the park. Indeed, a popular vote of but a decade ago placed the old City Hall of New York tenth in a list of the country's beautiful buildings. It is recorded that a recent mayor of New York once said that if a person happened to be in City Hall Park and glanced to the north, he would be made happier and better by the sight of the City Hall. As the years have gone by, City Hall has acquired the appearance of ancient European edifices, the white marble having taken on the same creamy, mellow tones so much admired in them. The beautiful circular stairway (which the designer of a century ago was warned could not last a week!) rises from the entrance hall to the rooms above, a suite of which, known as the Governor's Rooms, shelters many mementos of the country's historic past—the chairs which served in the first inaugural, Washington's desk dated 1789, tables, mirrors, and portraits of notable statesmen.

New York's first Almshouse, as has been stated, stood upon the Commons, the building later on being transferred to the American Museum. The original building was erected in the year 1796 from the proceeds of a lottery issued by the City Fathers, a common method in Colonial days of raising funds for public enterprises, and when, in 1816, the Almshouse was turned over to Dr. Scudder for his collection of curiosities, the new Almshouse which is the subject of the platter decoration was erected on the bank of the East River, near Bellevue; in 1848, the paupers were removed to their present quarters on Blackwell's Island, and the Almshouse became Bellevue Hospital. The structure presented was 325 feet in length and was flanked on either side with commodious wings—a large and imposing foundation for its day and one which naturally caught the eye of the English artists in their search for representative views. The same potter, by the way, as the rose and medallion border indicates, executed the design here presented of the City Hall, these two being part of the Ridgway series of American buildings designated as the "Beauties of America."

Framed in the same artistic acorn and oak leaf border which encircles, among others, views of the City Hotel, Saint Paul's Chapel and Scudder's Museum (a border attributed to R. Stevenson & Williams of Cobridge, a firm which produced some of the bestdrawn designs of American subjects), may also be found the Park Theater. This plain, plaster-covered, brick structure fronted the Boston Post Road, now Park Row, which crossed the fields upon the east side of the Commons. It was erected in the year 1798, and for over fifty years it was the most prominent playhouse of New York. Performances began upon its stage, one reads, at 6.30 in winter and an hour later in summer, the patrons having also the privilege of a coffee room and a "punch room." Many notable actors appeared in Park Theater, chiefly in Shakespearean roles—Edmund Kean, Edwin Forrest, Booth, Wallack, Fanny Kemble, Tyrone Power among the number. The ballad "Home, Sweet Home" was first sung here, and, at the age of four, Joe Jefferson made his initial appearance upon its boards. Italian opera was sung for the first time in America in Park Theater, and there also Fanny Ellsler aroused the indignation of all the clergymen and church going people of New York with her imported dances. The building was twice burned, the last time in 1848. Just beyond the theater may be seen the homes of several well-known New York families, while in the distance rises the spire of the old Brick Church, the "meeting house" erected as an offshoot of the First Presbyterian Church in Wall Street. Adjoining the theater may be noted an old tavern which was commonly frequented by the rural folk who came to town over the Boston Post Road. The fence which is a conspicuous part of the design enclosed the City Hall Park, its tall stone posts united with iron railings brought from England.

In contrast to the campus of Harvard College lined with its many Halls, which a study of old Boston has presented, the single and rather unpretentious building which sheltered Columbia College at the period of our research found but two potters to record its history— A. Stevenson and the firm R. S. W. Clews, who succeeded A. S., also reproduced his design. Unlike the first settlers of the Massachusetts coast, those who earlier came into the region of Manhattan, traded with the Indians and made permanent homes for themselves upon the island, did not concern themselves with projects for an educational institution—the city thus early in its career receiving the imprint of commercialism. Not until some time after the Dutch traders had yielded to the English, in the year 1702, was a proposition made for the acquisition by Trinity Church, for college purposes, of a parcel of outlying land known as "Queen's Farm," the proposers being actuated not so much by the need for religious instruction as were the founders of Harvard, although Columbia is indebted for its initiation to a religious institution, but, as they declared, believing that "New York is the Center of English America & a Proper Place for a Colledge." The land was acquired, but a period of forty years elapsed before the Colony authorized the raising of funds by means of lotteries, and not until the year 1754 was a charter by King George II of England for "a Colledge and other Buildings and Improvements, for the use and convenience of the same, which shall be called and known by the name of King's College, for the Instruction and Education of Youth in the Learned Languages, and Liberal Arts and Sciences." The following year Trinity Church conveyed to the governors of the college, "for & in consideration of the sum of ten shillings," all that "certain piece and parcell of ground situate, lying & being on the West side of the Broadway in the West Ward of the City of New York fronting easterly to Church street between Barclay street and Murray street four hundred and forty foot and from thence running westerly between and along the said Barclay street and Murray street to the North river." The express condition of the grant was that the President should be a communicant of the Church of England. Dr. Samuel Johnson was the first president of King's College, and in fact, when in 1754 the instruction of the first class of eight who had successfully passed the required entrance examination began, he was the entire faculty, meetings being held in the vestry room of the church.

Upon August 23, 1756, the corner stone of the new college, inscribed in Latin phrase, was laid, after which the company partook of a "very elegant Dinner" where Health and Prosperity to the College were drunk—all being conducted, an old chronicle records, "with the utmost Decency and Propriety." The original stone may be seen to-day embedded in the mantelpiece of the Trustees Room in the Library Building at Morningside Heights, removed there in 1897.

In 1760, the college building was so far advanced that the officers and students began to "Lodge and Diet" in it, and in June the Commencement Exercises were held in it, an "elegant Latin speech" by the president before a "large and polite" audience being a conspicuous part. In honor of King George II the building was surmounted with an iron crown. In 1773, King's College was described as being situated upon a dry and gravelly sod, about 150 yards from the bank of the Hudson River and commanding a prospect of the shores of New Jersey, Long Island, Staten Island, the Bay, Narrows, etc. That same year John Parke Curtis, stepson of General Washington, was a student at King's College and in a letter to his mother he gives the following interesting survey of his life: "It is now time to give you a short plan of my apartments and of my way of living. I have a large parlour with two studys or closets, each large enough to contain a bed, trunk and couple of chairs, one I sleep in and the other Joe (presumably his servant) calls his, my chamber and parlour are papered, with a cheap though very pretty paper, the other is painted; my furniture consists of six chairs, 2 tables, with a few paultry Pictures. I have an excellent bed, and in short everything very convenient and clever. I generally get up about six or a little after, dress myself and go to Chappel, by the time that prayers are over, Joe has me a little breakfast, to which I sit down very contentedly, & after eating heartily, I thank God and go to my Studys, with which I am employed till twelve, then I take a walk and return about one, dine with the Professors and after Dinner study till about six at which time the Bell always rings for Prayers, they being over College is broak up and then we take what amusement we please."

During the stirring political period of the Revolution, King's College naturally played an important role, its alumni being leaders in the patriotic movement and of signal service in bringing about the independence of the country; the building itself, however, during the English occupation of the city, was turned into barracks and hospital wards for the British soldiers. It was a member of the class of '65, the Hon. Robert R. Livingston, who administered the oath of office to, and proclaimed, George Washington President of the United States. It was a member of the class of '58, the Right Reverend Dr. Provoost, who at the close of the inaugural ceremony conducted the divine service in Saint Paul's Chapel. John Jay belonged the class of '64, Daniel D. Tompkins was an alumnus, as was Dr. Mason of the Murray Street Church. DeWitt Clinton was the first student enrolled under its new name, the name being changed by Act of State Legislature in 1784 to Columbia College. From that date to the year 1810, there was an average of 17 graduates a year, in 1817 the college numbering 135 students. In comparison with the rules governing the students of Harvard, the following Resolution setting forth the requirements of admission into Columbia in 1810 is of interest: "Resolved, That from and after the first Day of October, 1810, no student shall be admitted into the lowest Class of the College, unless he be accurately acquainted with the Grammar, including Prosody, of both the Greek and Latin Tongues; unless he be master of Caesar's Commentaries; of Virgil's ^Eneid; of the Greek Testament; of Dalzel's Collectanea Minora; of the first four books of Xenophon's Cyropcedia, and the first Two Books of Homer's Iliad. He shall also be able to translate English into Grammatical Latin; and shall be versed in the first four Rules of Arithmetic, the Rule of Three direct and inverse, and decimal and vulgar fractions." Although no rule, like that at Harvard, requiring students to converse in Latin upon the campus, may be found at Columbia, one of the principles of discipline at this time was, "During the whole course of education the youthful faculties are to be kept upon the stretch!"

As time went on, the need for a more adequate college building became pressing, the old structure "presenting a spectacle mortifying to its friends"; and in 1817 it was decided to erect at each extremity of the old Hall "a block or wing of about 50 feet square facing the college green and projecting beyond the front of the old building, so as to be in line with the fronts of the houses on the north side of Park Place." Finished in 1820, this is the College building which the china plate presents, the Lombardy poplars in the foreground being also of interest, from the fact that they were introduced from Paris in the year 1791 by Andre Michaux. Columbia College remained in its original location until the year 1857, when it was removed to Madison Avenue and 49th Street, and thence in later years to its present site on Morningside Heights.

In the year 1835, toward the close of the period in which the English potters made use of American designs, a wide-spread conflagration devastated a large portion of the business section of New York, laying waste thirteen acres of property and causing a loss of seventeen millions of dollars. The fire extended from Coffee House Slip along South Street to Coenties Slip, thence to Broad Street, along William Street to Wall Street, burning down the entire south side of Wall Street with the exception of a few buildings, to the East River. The Merchants' Exchange in Wall Street, on the site of the present Custom House, considered next to the City Hall the handsomest building in the United States, was the last to yield to the flames. The disaster must have appealed to the artistic sense of some foreign artist, for three sketches printed in the duller tints characteristic of the output of those years are found in commemoration,—"The Burning of Merchants' Exchange," "The Burning of Coenties Slip" and "The Ruins of Merchants' Exchange." The design here presented is of the ruins of the Exchange. The three-storied white marble structure may be seen with its ornate facade alone intact; flames and smoke are still rising from the roof; while citizens are gathered in groups about the ruin, an armed sentinel pacing before it on guard. In the foreground, a safe and a package of papers rescued from the flames are deposited, guarded by a squad of the National Guard in odd-looking fur caps and uniforms. The Post Office occupied a portion of the basement at the time of the fire, and in the rotunda stood a beautiful marble statue of Alexander Hamilton, a victim to the falling walls. The border which frames these designs, whether wittingly or without intent, embodies both history and prophecy. Within the scrolls is the record, “Great Fire of City of New York”; alternate spaces inclose pictures of the tire implements of the clay-engine, hat and trumpet; while in the remaining spaces, against a background of city buildings, appears the phoenix, fabled bird of self-reproduction, rising from the flames-a prophetic symbol of the great metropolis which, out of the ashes of the past, to-day rises almost supreme among the cities of the world.

(From The Blue-China Book by Ada Walker Camehl, 1916.)