At Bond Street, in advancing up Broadway, are encountered the
booksellers, this with adjacent streets being the home of much of that
trade. In Lafayette Place is the spacious Astor Library, and in the
wide Astor Place is the handsome new building of the Mercantile
Library. The former is now a part of the New York Public Library. A
half-century ago the site of the Mercantile Library was occupied by
the "Astor Place Opera House," then a leading theatre, and in the
adjacent streets occurred the "Macready riots" in 1849. The rivalries
of Edwin Forrest and Macready resulted in an effort by the partisans
of the former to prevent the latter from playing in the Opera House
on the night of May 10th. The Forrest faction attacked the building
with stones, and the police being unable to control them, troops were
called out, and, firing several volleys along Astor Place, they
suppressed the riot and dispersed the mob, but at a cost of about
sixty killed and wounded. At the end of Astor Place and its junction
with Third Avenue is the Cooper Institute, occupying an entire block,
a large brownstone building with a fine front, founded and endowed in
1857, at a total cost of about $1,000,000, by Peter Cooper, for the
free education of men and women in science and art. His statue stands
in front. It also received in 1900 additional gifts from his executors
and $300,000 from Andrew Carnegie. Peter Cooper was a wealthy
manufacturer and merchant of the broadest philanthropy. At a recent
anniversary of the Institute his son-in-law, Abram S. Hewitt, speaking
of him, said: "Fifty years ago three men, all of whom started in life
as poor boys, got together and talked over various ways by which they
could be of benefit to the public. They were Peter Cooper, Ezra
Cornell and Matthew Vassar. The latter said he would found a school
for girls, and he founded Vassar College. Mr. Cornell said he would
found a school for boys, and he founded Cornell University. Peter
Cooper said he would found a school for both girls and boys, and he
founded Cooper Union. But Mr. Cooper's school differs from the others,
in that here, any boy or girl may receive an education absolutely
free of charge." Opposite the Cooper Institute is an immense red
building, the "Bible House," the home of the American Bible Society,
where the Scriptures are printed by the millions, in all languages,
for distribution throughout the world--over eighty different languages
and dialects being used.
Diagonally northeast from Astor Place runs Stuyvesant Street, formerly
the country lane leading out to the ancient farmhouse of old Governor
Stuyvesant, surnamed "Peter the Headstrong." Here was built "St.
Mark's Church in the Bowerie" in the last century, then a mile out of
town, and the quaint little Stuyvesant House still stood, at that
time, perched on a high bank near the church, having, with its
odd-looking overhanging upper story, been built of small yellow bricks
brought out from Holland. In the days of New Amsterdam this region was
Governor Stuyvesant's "Bauerie," and to it he retired when compelled
to surrender to the English in 1664. He lived in this secluded spot
for eighteen years, dying in 1682, and his brown gravestone occupies a
place in the wall of the church. He was the last of the Dutch
Governors, energetic, aristocratic and overbearing, and described by
Irving as a man "of such immense activity and decision of mind that he
never sought nor accepted the advice of others;" Irving further saying
that he was a "tough, sturdy, valiant, weather-beaten, mettlesome,
obstinate leather-sided, lion-hearted, generous, spirited old
Governor."
Returning to Broadway, for a mile or more it, with the adjacent
streets, is the great retail shopping district. Here on the pleasant
afternoons are throngs of shoppers. A short distance above, Broadway
bends to the left, displaying Grace Church, with its rich marble
façade, beautiful spire, and adjoining rectory, chantry and church
house, an unique ecclesiastical group, dating from 1846, when it was
far "up town," but now almost covered-in by the huge surrounding
stores. Fourteenth Street crosses beyond, and here is Union Square, a
pretty oval park of about four acres, adorned by an ornamental
fountain and statues of Washington, Lafayette and Lincoln. Large
buildings and stores surround the square, the chief being Tiffany's
noted jewelry establishment. Fourteenth Street is a wide avenue, with
an extensive shipping trade. To the eastward of Broadway is the
Academy of Music and the noted Tammany Hall. This is the seat of the
"Tammany Society," established in 1789 for benevolent purposes, but
now controlled by the Democratic political organization ruling New
York. The Hall is a capacious brick structure with stone facings,
surmounted by a statue of its presiding genius, the old chief and
warrior of the Lenni Lenapes, St. Tammany, who with outstretched hand
beneficently looks down upon the street. The sturdy Indian, however,
was probably more used to the mild and just methods of William Penn
and his Quakers on the Delaware than to the political schemes on the
Hudson, of which fate seems to have made him a patron saint.