Trinity Church and Grace Church on Broadway

View of Lower Broadway, looking north from about Garden Street (present-day Exchange Place). Engraving signed by Sidney L. Smith from a painting by William Strickland (1787-1854). Published by the Society of Iconophiles, 1908. The Society of Iconophiles was formed in 1894 by William Loring Andrews (1837-1920), a member of the Grolier Club. Its stated purpose was to issue series of engraved views of New York City and portraits of prominent persons connected with New York City.

Below, color engraving based on watercolor by William Strickland (1787-1854). Original title: "New York City 1820" [estimated by NYHS about 1812]. Additional text on print: Broadway showing Trinity Church and Grace Church Chapel. Source: Seymour B. Durst Old York Library Collection, Columbia University. Note: the original watercolor is a bit different.

This original temple of Grace Church was consecrated in December 1808 and completed in 1809. The second temple on Broadway at East 10th Street, was consecrated in 1846. The second temple of Trinity Church was completed in 1790 and demolished in 1839.

According to Stokes (Iconography of Manhattan Island...1915), in a text written for the illustration on the right, the house with pediment, on the left, adjoining Grace Church, "is that of John R. Livingston, who in 1791, acquired the two lots on which it stood, one from the heirs of Collin van Gelder, ..., and the other from Elliston and John Perot... At the time of this purchase both lots had houses on them, so that it seems a fair presumption that Livingston had the old buildings demolished and the new double house built some time shortly after 1791... In 1798, Dr. Hosack occupied the south half of the house, No. 65 Broadway, and Livingston the north half, No. 67. In 1816, the house at 65 Broadway was leased for a Banking House, for the U. S. Branch Bank.

Still According to Stokes (Iconography of Manhattan Island...1918, Volume 3) the year depicted is after 1809, when Grace Church was completed, and before 1814, when, according to the directories, John Scoles, the engraver (whose name, although illegible in the reproduction, appears in the original over the window of the building at 222 Broadway in the companion view of St. Paul's Chapel), moved to 67 Bowery. Stokes believed that 1812 would be the approximate year for this view. Commenting on the painting on the right, he wrote:

"This view depicts Lower Broadway at a period when it was a fashionable residential street. On the left, the large house with a pediment, south of Grace Church, was the residence of John R. Livingston. (...) Livingston continued to reside here until 1816. From 1817 to 1824, the United States Branch Bank occupied the premises, and then, fashion having deserted the neighbourhood and moved northward, it became a boarding-house.

On the opposite side of Broadway, in 1812, were the residences of S. Schermerhorn, Herman Le Roy, and Peter Schermerhorn, at Nos. 64, 66, and 68 Broadway. The officer in uniform, walking down Broadway, suggests that the drawing was made during the War of 1812" [between United States and Great Britain].