Broadway and Astor House, New York City

Lower Broadway looking south from the southern end of City Hall Park, showing a street scene with pedestrians, equestrians and carriages. Original title: Broadway New York. South from the Park. Lithographer and publisher Nathaniel Currier (152 Nassau Street, corner of Spruce St. N.Y.), about 1846. A similar but simpler engraving from the NYPL, unknown origin, is dated 1842 (see below). Source: New York Public Library.

The five-story Astor House, on the right, was a luxury hotel opened in 1836 and closed in 1913. In the ground floor of Astor House is the store of James Leary (1792-1862), famous hatter in New York City. Berford & Co, a publisher, is next to it.

The historic St. Paul's Chapel, second temple built in the late 18th century, is on the southern side of Vesey Street. The spire of the Gothic temple of Trinity Church, dedicated in 1846, is represented in the distance on Broadway. On the left is old American Museum at Broadway and Ann Street, a site that it occupied from 1830 to 1865.