Procession on Broadway, Metropolitan Hotel

Original title: The Japanese in New York - View of the Splendid Procession Accompanying the Distinguished Visitors, Approaching the Metropolitan Hotel, the Residence of the Japanese Ambassadors("sketched by our artists"). Looking north from Prince Street. Engraving published in Frank Leslie’s Illustrated Newspaper, June 23, 1860.

The second floor of the Metropolitan Hotel was devoted to the reception of the Japanese. The suit of rooms for the first ambassador were on the corner of Broadway and Prince Street. The rear of the their apartments opened upon the Niblo's garden. The U.S. Commission and the Committee of the Common Council occupied the first floor. A private entrance in Crosby Street was opened for the separate use of the Embassy.

New Yorkers turned out to catch a glimpse of the Japanese visitors. They lined Broadway, filled the streets, hung out windows and dangled from lampposts in order to see. Japanese and American flags fluttered everywhere. The parade passed up Broadway from downtown up to Union Square where everyone assembled for a military review.

The Metropolitan Hotel opened in 1852. It was designed in the Italian palazzo style by architects John Butler Snook and Joseph Trench. The five-story building occupied 360 feet on Broadway and 210 feet on Prince Street. Its façade was in brownstone on the four floors above the stores on ground floor. The hotel closed in 1895 and it was demolished in the same year.

The Fredricks' Photographic Temple of Art, at 585 and 587 Broadway, is represented on the left.

The Irving Buildings was erected in 1860 at 594 and 596 Broadway and it housed many auctions in 1860s. It was named after the writer and diplomat Washington Irving (1783-1859), born in New York City.

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