from the collection of the New York Public Library
In the second half of the 19th century, small political clubs dotted the city. It was a time when the sons of struggling immigrants could rise to wealth and power through political affiliations. Among them was Patrick Divver, widely known as Paddy. Born in Ireland on May 1, 1844 the youngest of 11 children, his parents brought him to New York City when he was two.
After attending public school, he started out as a messenger boy on Broadway and later apprenticed as a "morocco dresser" earning $2.50 per week. (A morocco dresser decorated leather for book bindings and such. Divver's pay would translate to about $50 today.) He got married just after his 17th birthday. The New York Times would later note, "He was the father of fifteen children and he strove to rear them with every advantage within his reach."
With that goal in mind, he turned to politics and in 1866 was a member of the Tammany Hall General Committee. He became a leader in his Lower East Side Second Assembly District and when Mayor Hugh J. Grant took office in 1890, he appointed Divver a Police Justice. The New York Times would later say, "It has been said that he meted out justice with rare fairness, that ungrammatical lingo was probably his greatest fault."
Tammany Hall Souvenir of the Inauguration of Cleveland and Stevenson, 1893 (copyright expired)
A reporter from the New York Herald flatly asked Divver if he used his popularity in the assembly district to wrest the justice position. The journalist wrote:
In reference to an insinuation that he owed his appointment partly to a threat on his part to forsake Tammany Hall unless he got a fat office, he laughed and said that it would take a great deal more than failure to get an office to separate him from Tammany Hall.
On June 28, 1890, the Real Estate Record & Builders' Guide reported that the Patrick Divver Association had purchased 59 Madison Street for $14,000 (about $498,000 in 2026). The notice mentioned, "three-story stone clubhouse projected."
The New York Herald described the Patrick Divver Association on December 20, 1890 as "partly a political and partly a social organization." When the club purchased the Madison Street property its 400 members occupied rooms at 80 Oliver Street. The article said that all the funds necessary to build the proposed clubhouse had been raised. "The building will be up in less than a year," it said.
On January 22, 1891, the New York Herald reported, "Architect John S. O'Meara was employed to make the drawings and specifications." The article said, "the other east side associations...are green with envy," noting that the new clubhouse would have "all the modern improvements and appliances, hot and cold water, gas, steam, and lavatories."
The New York Herald, January 22, 1891 (copyright expired)
O'Meara blended Romanesque Revival with Flemish Renaissance Revival to create his design. The undressed brownstone of the arched first floor openings and of the Palladian-inspired second story grouping were drawn from the former, while the striking stepped gable with cascading volutes reflected the latter. The New York Herald said, "The entrance steps will be of white marble, and in place of storm doors there will be gates of heavy iron."
Between the first and second floors would be a large terra cotta shield with the monogram "P.D.A." The newspaper promised, "the letters will be so plain that they can be read a block away."
A terra cotta shield bore the monogram of the club. cropped image via the NYC Dept of Records & Information Services.
Above the center window of the second floor was a sculpted head of a Native American chief, "to indicate that the Divverites are Tammany braves," explained the New York Herald. Turning to the interior, the article said:
The entrance door opens into a wide hallway. To the left and in front will be a small reception room, in the window of which the Divverites may sit and stare in the most approved club fashion. Back of this is the assembly room, 73 feet long. A wide stairway leads to the second floor. In front is a small committee room, and six card rooms open into each other, and with a large billiard room occupy the rest of the floor, except the janitor's living rooms. The basement contains bowling alleys.
O'Meara projected the cost of construction at $20,000, or about $711,000 today. The project was completed within the year and on December 11, 1891, The Evening World announced, "The Divver Club, of the Second Assembly District, formerly known as the P. Divver Association, will formally open its new clubhouse at 59 Madison street next Monday evening."
Trouble came to Patrick Divver three years later. While he was away on vacation on the West Coast, several of his election district officers were arrested for election fraud. "Some of them were fined, and some went to Sing Sing," reported The New York Times on October 21, 1894. When Divver returned, he would not comment on the scandal. "This made his followers more dissatisfied than ever, and there came very near a revolt in the district," said the article.
Divver did not survive the uproar. The New York Times reported, "Patrick Divver has resigned the leadership of Tammany Hall in the Second Assembly District." Even his former benefactor turned away. "There was great rejoicing at Hugh J. Grant's headquarters...when his resignation arrived there late yesterday afternoon," said the article.
Patrick Divver took a long respite in California. In the meantime, the Divver Club went on.
The members had a significant scare on December 4, 1896. The New York Journal reported, "A respectable gathering of the members was on hand last night when the gas meter in the cellar exploded." The members fled to the street and "in a jiffy the flames began to ascend." Firefighters arrived quickly and extinguished the blaze, but not before "the new furniture of the club" was damaged, "and the building also."
Patrick Divver returned to New York late in 1897 and things between him and the district officials were patched up. On December 3, The Sun reported that the members of the Second Assembly District, "who have been fighting him for two years shook hands and made it up last night." The article said, "everybody recognized Divver as the new leader."
Divver held the reins until 1901, losing the leadership to Alderman Thomas F. Foley. Patrick Divver died in his home at 7 Madison Street on January 28, 1903. In reporting his death, the New Jersey newspaper The Morning Call remarked, "'Paddy' Divver was one of the picturesque figures of the Tammany regime."
At the time, the Second District Municipal Court had been "situated above a saloon at the corner of Centre and Pearl Streets," since 1890, according to The New York Times. On September 16, 1904 the newspaper reported that the court "moved to its new quarters yesterday morning in the P. Divver Association's clubhouse." The Divver Club moved into the basement of the courthouse, "and will receive $3,000 a year from the city for rent for the use of the building."
When the three-year lease expired, The Downtown Tammany Club, headed by Divver's former political rival Thomas F. Foley, moved into 59 Madison Street.
Like Divver, Thomas Francis Foley came from humble roots. He left school at the age of 13 to support his widowed mother by working as a blacksmith's helper. By the time he began his political career in 1877 as an election district captain, he was a saloon owner.
On November 3, 1917, Tom Foley, an ardent anti-suffragist, told The Sun reporter Eleanor Booth Simmons, "that women should never, no never, be admitted to the nice comfortable Democratic clubhouse at 59 Madison Street." But three days later, New York State approved women's right to vote. On February 24, 1918, Simmons wrote, "I called him up this week to ask what arrangements had been made about the new voters at the Democratic clubhouse at 59 Madison street. His voice came resignedly over the wire, as of one who admitted his chastisement."
An enormous Tammany banner stretches across Madison Street in front of the clubhouse in October 1933. from the collection of the New York Pubic Library
Foley (no doubt begrudgingly) replied, "Oh yes, the women are here, they are voters, and they will have the use of the clubhouse the same as the men. So far no arrangements have been made for their meeting on separate nights...It is their clubhouse as much as it is the men's."
In its July 1924 issue, The Atlantic Monthly commented, "Perhaps the most famous [Tammany clubhouse] is the Downtown Tammany Club at 59 Madison Street...which is run under the aegis of Tom Foley, one of the last of the old-type leaders. Foley began life as a saloon keeper and his ways have been none too gentle."
Thomas Francis Foley died in 1925. On the day after his funeral, The New York Times ran the headline, "East Side Crowds Mourn the Passing of Almost the Last of Old-Time Leaders."
The Downtown Tammany Clubhouse continued to provide for the community. On July 27, 1927, for instance, The New York Times reported, "More than 10,000 women and children attended the picnic and outing of the Downtown Tammany Club of 59 Madison Street, which is Governor [Alfred] Smith's old district, held yesterday in Battery Park." The article said that about 25,000 hot dogs and 4,000 quarts of ice cream were consumed.
A disturbing incident occurred a decade later. The club members collected money for 1,500 bags "of Christmas cheer" for poor families in the district. The bags were already delivered and stored in the cellar when on December 23, five gunmen stormed the clubhouse and stole the money. The Tammany leader of what was now the First Assembly District, Dr. Santangelo, stepped forward to say he would personally cover the loss.
image via the NYC Dept of Records & Information Services.
On January 17, 1942, The New York Times reported, "Memories of the colorful days in Democratic politics on the lower East Side of Manhattan, when Paddy Divver and 'Big Tom' Foley ruled the destinies of Tammany in that neighborhood, were revived yesterday by the announcement of the sale of the property at 59 Madison Street." The article said that the buyer was "a well-known funeral director" who "will remodel it."
The property was acquired by the city in 1946 to make way for the Alfred E. Smith Playground, dedicated in 1950.
.png)
No comments:
Post a Comment