City Hotel and Trinity Church on Broadway, NYC

City Hotel and Trinity Church on Broadway - 1840 / 1846

This is an illustration sponsored by the City Hotel, with Gardner & Packer as the proprietors. It was drawn by William Keesey Hewitt (1817-1893), lithograph (originally colored) by N. Currier.

A parade is passing on Broadway. Horse-drawn trolleys: one identified as the Bleecker & Broadway Knickerbocker Line, and the other marked Union Place 14th Street. The cityscape presented here do not exactly represents the buildings on the west side Broadway as they existed at one time. The Trinity Church was completed in 1846, but the 5-story New England Hotel (not shown here), at 111 Broadway, adjoining Trinity Church Yard, was constructed about 1844. The partnership of Gardner & Packer ended in July 1841. According to Stokes (see comments below), "the drawing must have been made from the architect’s plans, as the church was not completed until 1846. It is to be noted, also, that the spire as drawn does not correspond with the spire as executed".

Below, comments by I.N. Phelps Stokes () about this engraving:

«The date of this view must be after September, 1839, when the architect’s plans for rebuilding Trinity Church were approved by the vestry (Trinity Minutes, MS.), and before July, 1841, when the partnership of Gardner & Packer (who appear in the title as proprietors), which had existed since October, 1838, was dissolved.—The Eve. Post, October 18, 1838; N.Y. Com. Adv., July 29, 1841; New York City directories. Although the view shows Trinity Church in its completed form, the drawing must have been made from the architect’s plans, as the church was not completed until 1846. It is to be noted, also, that the spire as drawn does not correspond with the spire as executed.

The City Hotel, or the Tontine City Tavern , as it was also called [before 1802], was built in 1794-5 on the site of the old City Tavern, which was demolished to make place for the new building. The committee in charge of its construction, in November, 1793, advertised that they would pay “twenty guineas premium for the best plan of the buildings they contemplate having erected.” The architect is unknown, but in May, 1795, James Wilson, an architect with address at 148 Broadway, inserted a notice in the leading newspapers declaring that a regard for his own reputation as an architect induced him to “take the liberty of informing the public ... that the plan on which the Hotel and Public Rooms, in Broadway” was being built, was not his.—The Daily Adv., May 19, 1795.

The hotel was evidently not a success as at first conducted, for on February 6, 1800, an announcement in the Commercial Advertiser offered it for sale. The advertisement ran until the end of October, and, on February 7th, following, was again inserted, this time with an additional paragraph stating that, if not previously disposed of, it would be sold at public auction at the Tontine Coffee House on the first Tuesday in March. In June, 1801, John Lovett announces to the ladies and gentlemen of Philadelphia that he has opened the City Hotel, which is situated “in a healthy and pleasant part of the City, it being one of the most commodious buildings in the United States, commanding an extensive view, not only of the town, but also of the North and East Rivers, the State of New Jersey, York and Long Island... ”—The Aurora, June 15, 1801. In November, the following paragraph appeared in The N. Y. Gaz. & Gen’l Adv.:

We are informed that Mr. Weeks, the builder, has purchased the Tontine City Hotel in Broad Way. This immense pile, which in its unfinished state, cost upwards of 100,000 dollars, was sold for 48,000! It is said Mr. Weeks intends to convert the lower part of this building into stores, and finish the upper part for dwellings.

Evidently, such disposition of the building was not made, for, in the following spring, John Lovett again appears as proprietor.—N. Y. Eve. Post, March 30, 1802.

On April 24, 1807, C. Dusseaussoir announces in the N. Y. Eve. Post that “he has taken the . . . Hotel, at present occupied by Mr. Lovett, and will commence business there on the first of May ensuing.” On May 9th, he announces the opening of his ‘‘Ordinary in the large Dining Room,” and his advertisement is headed by a woodcut of the building, showing it four instead of five storeys in height, as in the present view. For this opening dinner, Dusseaussoir advertises that

besides the best fare the markets afford, cooked in both the French and English style, he will cover the Table with Fine Green Turtle. Those who prefer it may be accommodated at the Bar with bowls of Soup in the usual manner. Families may be supplied with any quantity, from 12 o’clock to 4. Dinner on the table precisely at 3 o’clock, which in future is the established Dinner hour at the Hotel.

A bill-head of Chenelette Dusseaussoir, in the collections of the N. Y. Hist. Society, contains a somewhat larger woodcut of the hotel, showing the ground floor occupied by stores. The bill, which is dated July 29, 1807, is addressed to Messrs. Barker & Collins, and is an itemised account of their expenditures for board, wine, and “seegars,” the charge for the latter being six cents for three! The same cut was used in The N. Y. Eve. Post of June 7, 1817, when Chester Jenings announced that he had taken over “this spacious hotel,” and had converted the shops for the use of the house, thus changing the “former gloomy appearance of the interior” to ‘‘a delightful view of Broadway.”

The building was probably demolished in 1849, as it was announced in the Commercial Advertiser for April 27, 1849, that the hotel was to be torn down and a block of stores erected on the site.»