The Lost 1812 Washington Hall - 282 Broadway

Lithographer George Hayward produced this lithograph in 1853.  from the collection of the New York Public Library

On Independence Day 1809, the Washington Benevolent Society laid the cornerstone of Washington Hall on the southeast corner of Broadway and Reade Street.  (The 1876 Centennial, Illustrated commented, "in earlier times the Negro Burying Ground was located here.")  John McComb Jr., whose City Hall was rising a block to the south, was responsible for the design.

Edwin C. Hill explained in the 1922 The Historical Register, "Although intended to be used as a public hall for meetings and assemblies, it was also kept as a hotel."  Washington Hall would be considered one of the finest structures in the city. 

Construction would take four years to complete.  On July 3, 1812, the Building Committee was disbanded, "except so far as respects a settlement of claims," reported The Evening Post.  The "claims" were the workers' salaries, materials and such necessary to complete the building.  Those, said the article, would be "presented to Mr. John McComb, Junr."

Five months later, an announcement in The Evening Post on December 29 read:

This elegant and spacious Building, situated in Broadway, corner of Reed-Street [sic], is now nearly completed; and will be Let or Leased from the first of May next, or sooner if required.  It is well calculated for a splendid Hotel, having forty one Rooms, thirty-two of which are supplied with fire places.

The article deemed the large 35-by-56 foot meeting room as "the largest and most elegantly finished in the city; and has a large orchestra finished in superior style."  (The "orchestra" was the balcony for musicians.)  There were also six "elegantly finished" rooms for "dining or supper parties."  Two of them were connected by folding doors for larger affairs.  

Americana Illustrated, January 1912 (copyright expired)

Daniel W. Crocker had answered that ad.  He leased the building and on October 18, 1813 announced in The New-York Evening Post that Washington Hall, "is now opened for the accommodation of the public as a Hotel."  He described it as being, "replete with every convenience."  Somewhat oddly, guests would not be sleeping in Washington Hall proper.  Crocker wrote, "The rooms are spacious and airy, and the bed-rooms (in a building separate from the Hotel) are neat, convenient and retired, with one bed in each room."

On the ground floor was the Coffee Room, "in which the daily papers will be kept and which will be open to the public," said Crocker.  He noted that it and the public dining room opened onto Broadway.  On the Reade Street side was the Porter Room, which Crocker described as "not excelled for convenience and cosiness [sic]," adding, "Here refreshments (of every sort) may be had at the shortest notice."  Crocker described the main Assembly Room on the second floor as "the most elegant and spacious" in New York City or, "perhaps in the United States."

Edwin C. Hill explained that the Washington Benevolent Society "was not organized as a political association, its members were mostly of the Federal Party."  Because of that, Washington Hall would become the headquarters of the Federal Party.  

Five months before the hotel was opened for business, the Assembly Hall saw its first grand event.  The United States and Great Britain were engaged in the War of 1812.  On February 22, 1812, Captain James Lawrence's USS Hornet sank the HMS Peacock, an 18-gun Royal Navy warship.  Lawrence and his crew visited New York City in May 1813 and the City Council hosted a lavish banquet in his honor.  (One month later, during the battle in which he famously ordered "Don't give up the ship!", Lawrence was fatally wounded.)

Another lavish affair linked to the war was held in the Assembly Room the following year.  Valentine's Manuel of Old New York would recall in 1921:

One of the most notable events of its history was when in 1814 a magnificent ball was given to celebrate the longed-for restoration of peace between England and America.  The superb ballroom was magnificently decorated and was crowded with a brilliant company of the elite of old New York.  The newspapers of the day described the scene as "a picture of feminine loveliness, beauty, fashion and elegance not to be surpassed in America.

Among the groups that rented rooms here was the Bread and Cheese Club, a literary group founded by Fenimore Cooper in 1824.  In its February 16, 1920 issue, The Mentor noted that the club "took its name from the fact that candidates were balloted for by bread and cheese."  Among its members were William Cullen Bryant, Henry Halleck and Gulian Verplanck.

The hotel portion hosted notable figures, none more so than President Martin Van Buren who stayed here in 1839.  On July 7, he was visited by Hannah Gouge.  The 104-year-old, according to The Morning Herald, "retains the possession of all her faculties, and has a most perfect and vivid recollection of her visit to General Washington."  Hannah, who lost three sons in the Revolution, had been presented to every President except Andrew Jackson.

Washington Hall continued to be the venue of glittering balls, prestigious banquets, meetings and entertainments.  On January 26, 1844, for instance, separate articles in the New-York Daily Tribune announced the "special meeting of the Third Ward Clay Club;" an upcoming concert by Sophie Gjertz, "pianist to the Royal Family of Denmark;" and a lecture "of Mr. Shea" that would "possess the deepest interest to lovers of Ireland."

At the time of the articles, the building had recently been "repaired and fitted up at considerable expense," according to the New York Herald, which added it was "decorated in a most superb manner."

Both Sides of Broadway, From Bowling Green to Central Park, New York City, 1910 (copyright expired)

The Assembly Room was booked for a ball on July 5, 1844.  At 7:00 that morning, a small fire was discovered in "one of the chimneys at the back of the building," as reported by the New York Herald.  It was quickly put out and forgotten.  Then, about three hours later, "it was found that the roof at the back immediately over the upper bedrooms was in flames."  The fire spread rapidly and several fire engines were on the scene within minutes.  The newspaper said the firefighters were "followed by a great mob whose evident object was plunder, for they kept running about from room to room making 'confusion worse confounded,' breaking the furniture and pilfering little articles that were lying about."  The New York Herald said that firefighters warned the intruders that they would be trapped by flames if they did not leave "and in a very short time the building was comparatively cleared of these blackguards."

In the meantime, employees rushed to salvage valuable items, like the large portrait of George Washington, some mirrors and furniture.  The New York Herald said in part:

The ball-room was kept locked until the roof began to fall in, and the flames to make their appearance...It was found impossible to save the splendid chandeliers with which this room was adorned, in consequence of the burning fragments which was [sic] continually falling, and the beams from which they were suspended having become ignited.  In a short time afterwards the chandeliers fell, and were utterly destroyed.

On October 16, 1844, The Evening Post reported, "Washington Hall (or rather the ruins of Washington Hall) was sold yesterday for $62,500 to Mr. Stewart, dry goods merchant, of Broadway, who will convert it into handsome stores."  (Department store mogul Alexander Turney Stewart was among the nation's wealthiest merchants.)

On the night of April 7, 1845, Mayor Philip Hone wrote in his journal that Stewart "is preparing to erect on the ground a dry goods store, spacious and magnificent beyond anything of the kind in New York."  He noted, "In removing the rubbish after the hall was burned the corner stone was brought to light and exhumed this morning."

On the site of Washington Hall, Stewart erected his "Marble Palace," which, enlarged, survives.

from the collection of the New York Public Library

The 1812 City Hall Building - City Hall Park

 

photo by Momos

The 1862 Manual of the Corporation of the City of New York recalled, "After the Revolutionary War a notification was received from the Congress of the United States that they intended to sit in New York, whereupon the Common Council tendered to them the use of the City Hall."  The current building proved insufficient, said the article, and so "A committee was appointed to report a scheme for a new City Hall, but many years elapsed before this design was brought to a practical result."

The Common Council received a proposal in May 1800, and on May 26, 1803 the cornerstone of the new City Hall was laid "in presence of a large concourse of spectators," according to the New-York Evening Post.  The stone included the names of city officials, as well as "John M'Comb, jun. architect."  

The 40-year-old John McComb Jr. was New York's preeminent architect of the day, the son of well-known architect and surveyor John McComb Sr.  The City Hall building would be one of his masterpieces.

The New-York Evening Post wrote:

The length of the New Hall will be 216 feet, and the average depth about 100; to be built of cut-stone, the basement rusticated; the first story to be of the Ionic order, with columns and pilasters; and the upper story of the Corinthian order.  The ends and rear to be ornamented in an elegant manner.

As the building rose, in 1805 Longworth's Directory provided an update.  "The new City Hall...will be, when finished, superior to anything of the kind in America, and will vie with the public buildings in Europe.  It is situated in front of the [City Hall] Park, near Broadway."  At the time, the foundation was finished, but the directory cautioned, "it will be some years before the building will be completed."

Indeed, City Hall would not be fully completed until 1812--this despite Martha J. Lamb's writing in her 1877 History of the City of New York, "workmen had been employed upon it almost without intermission since the corner-stone was laid."  Although not yet completed, historian R. S. Guernsey noted in 1889 that it "had been occupied in part since July 4, 1811."  

It would hold, he said, "the chief city offices, and the State and city courts," adding, "In the cupola was a bell, smaller than the usual church bell, which rung on court days to summon attendance at the opening or convening of the principal courts."

Sitting at the north end of City Hall Park, the building was on the northern hem of the city.  aquatint by W. G. Wall, 1826, from the collection of the NYC Design Commission

John McComb Jr. had produced a Federal style structure that two centuries later would be recognized as superb in its proportions and elegant in its details.  Working closely with him was French-born architect Joseph F. Mangin, who is widely credited for the delicate French influences, seen both on the exterior and within the central rotunda.

Martha Lamb flatly pronounced, "It was the handsomest structure at the time in the United States."  The white marble of the front and sides had been brought from Stockbridge, Massachusetts.  Because the building sat this far north, according to Lamb, "a dark-colored stone was thought good enough for the rear of northern wall, since 'it would be out of sight to all the world.'"  Standing atop the cupula was a statue of Justice.  Not including furnishings, the structure had cost "half a million of dollars," according to Lamb.  That amount would translate to about $10.5 million in 2023.

The interiors were no less impressive.  Upon entering, Lamb described "a large circular stone staircase, with a double flight of steps upheld without any apparent support."  The rotunda was "ornamented with stucco in novel designs, and lighted from the sky with fine effect.  She described the Council Chamber as:

...richly ornamented with wood and stone carvings, and the chairs provided for the mayor the same that had been used by Washington while presiding over the first Congress in New York City; it was elevated by a few steps on the south side of the room, and graced with a canopy overhead.

Public buildings were "illuminated" for important occasions, and the first illumination of the City Hall came in 1814 to celebrate Oliver Hazard Perry's victory in the Battle of Lake Erie.  Painted glass panels, called transparencies, were placed in some of the windows.  While the effect must have been stunning, the threat of fire was immense.  Military historian Rocellus Sheridan Guernsey wrote in 1889, "On that evening the City Hall front was lighted at every window from basement to cupola.  The illumination consisted of placing several rows of lighted candles in regular order at each pane of glass in every window."  He continued...

...it consisted of a total of 1,542 wax candles and about 450 lamps, giving effect to the transparencies, and about 310 variegated lamps.  These latter were placed on the outside along the edge of the roof and about the cupola and over each window and door, and around the balcony and portico; some were in arches and others in lines appropriately and effectively arranged.

Along with the expected city offices and courtrooms, there was one department that might be surprising to 21st century minds.  The 1834 directory New-York As It Is listed the "Lost or stray children deposite" in the building.  (A "deposite" was the now-disused term for a place to commit items--in this case children--for trust and care.)

Near disaster occurred in 1858 during a pyrotechnic display celebrating the laying of the Trans-Atlantic Cable.  The City Hall dome caught fire and significant damage was caused before  the blaze was extinguished.  It may have been the necessary repairs that prompted architect Charles F. Anderson, who had designed the extension of the Capitol building in Washington, to write to The New York Times in August 1858, suggesting more encompassing renovations.  

He opined, "This structure was never a good architectural outline.  There is nothing striking or characteristic about it."  To "obviate" its defects, he suggested a long list of improvements.  Among them he proposed to raise the building to three stories and "take away that miserable porch, and put a grand projecting portico, surmounted by a pediment, running the entire height in front."  Instead, the city limited its focus to repairing the dome, its restoration headed by architect Leopold Eidlitz.

The double staircase in the Rotunda saw a steady stream of mourners who climbed to pay their respects to the deceased President Abraham Lincoln on April 24 and 25, 1865.  The New York Times reported on April 25, "The early part of the day witnessed an eager, impatient, but perfectly orderly body of people crowding on the line of the procession and around the City Hall."  The article estimated the wait at "fifteen or more consecutive hours."

Lincoln's bier in the Rotunda.  Currier & Ives, 1865, from the collection of the Indiana State Museum

A second U. S. President would lie in state in the Rotunda 20 years later.  On August 7, 1885 the casket of Ulysses S. Grant arrived in New York and was brought to City Hall.  It was placed at the foot of the staircase.  New Yorkers filed past from 6:00 that morning until an hour after midnight.

A photograph "made by electric light" by Hill Bros. of Grant lying in state was sold as a cabinet card souvenir.  from the National Park Service Manhattan Historic Sites archive.

In 1892 a serious threat loomed.  King's Handbook of New York City said, "The City Hall has been in its time the finest piece of architecture in the country, but it is surpassed now by many buildings of more imposing structure...A new city hall will be one of the architectural attractions of New York in the future."  The article noted that a push was ongoing to build a modern City Hall on the site of the old Crystal Palace known as Reservoir Square (today's Bryant Park).

By the time this photograph was taken in 1886, the downtown Manhattan had engulfed City Hall.  The brownstone back, never expected to be seen, had by now been painted to simulate marble.  from the collection of the New York Public Library.

On February 19, 1893 The New York Times weighed in, agreeing that "the general feeling is undoubtedly that the old building 'must go,'" but stressing that "its architectural and historical value entitle it to preservation and to re-erection elsewhere."  (The very idea of historic preservation at the time, not related to battle sites or homes of important figures, was essentially unheard of.)

Thankfully, Mayor Abram Hewitt proposed preserving the 1812 building in sito and erecting a municipal building nearby.  His successor, Mayor Franklin Edson, agreed, refusing to "mar" the existing building and its proportions by altering and enlarging it.  Construction for the current Municipal Building began in 1907.

The venerable City Hall building was given several brush-ups.  The City Council Chamber was renovated in 1904 by William Martin Aiken  (it had originally be reworked in 1897 by architect John H. Duncan); and the firm of Bernstein & Bernstein redecorated the Governor's Room in 1905-1907. Unfortunately, their work was so abhorrent to most that the space was immediately restored to its original by Margaret Olivia Slocum Sage.  

The Governor's Room in 1830.  drawing by Charles Burton from the archives of the NYC Design Commission

The Governor's Room as is appears today.  image via the NYC Design Commission

In 1966 the Landmarks Preservation Commission designated City Hall an individual landmark, and ten years later designated the Rotunda an interior landmark.  In doing so, the commission described the Rotunda as "a sensitively designed and beautifully proportioned interior space, a notable feature in a building of great elegance and serene dignity."

photo by MariekeSlagter

In 2010 renovations being done in the basement turned up major deterioration of the infrastructure.  A comprehensive restoration project was initialized to stabilize the structure.  The five-year undertaking expanded to the conservation and documentation of the artwork, including the City Council Chamber ceiling and the mural series by Taber Sears executed in 1903.

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