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NYC HIST
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Colonial Fires
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New York Conspiracy May 11-August 29, 1741"Negro insurrection conspiracy" trials linked suspicious fires to coerced reports of illicit meetings to massacre the whites by poisoning the wells & burning the city. Equaling the 1692 Salem witch trials, 35 people were tragically executed (13 burned, 22 hanged) NW of city hall and south of the Collect Pond. Some were displayed by the gallows for weeks. Citizens watched as the decaying black bodies turned white, and John Hughson white body turned black. 72 luckier people were banished/deported to Hispaniola & the West Indies. An extensive slave code was enacted to calm the paranoid mass hysteria of a few white citizens. 2 of Clubs karma 1 life 1
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The Great Conflagration of 1835 December 16th 1835674 buildings were destroyed from the December 16th and 17th fire. Starting at a gas pipe explosion at 25 Merchant St (now Hanover St), it leveled 20 sq. blocks of the city, north of Coenties slip, east of Broad street and south of Maiden Lane. Firemen stopped it using Navy powder kegs to blow up 48 & 52 Exchange St. The gap worked, unlike all the frozen wells, hydrants, cisterns, hoses and rivers. The fire bankrupted insurance companies (contributing to the Panic of 1837). The 1832 Cholera epidemic, these fires and the lack of available water spearheaded the construction of the aqueduct to the Croton river. 3 of Clubs karma 1 life 2 |
Fire of 1845 July 19-3:45 AMTen years after the fire of 1835, parts of Broad and Stone street were destroyed again. A fire in the sperm oil distribution of J. L. Van Doren, No. 34 New Street, soon spread to an adjoining chair factory. It seemed under control, when a vast explosion exploded a saltpeter warehouse on Broad Street. The fire spread east towards William Street, while westwardly destroying Beaver Street and its 6 story Adelphi hotel. As it leaped Broadway, at Morris Street, it did some damage to Broadway's west side. The fire was controlled a bit down Whitehall street below Stone Street. 30 people died and hundreds were injured. Rebuilding started before all the ruins cooled. The New York City Police Department was also officially established in 1845. 4 of Clubs karma 2 life 3 |
The Great Fire of 1776 September 21st, 1776Five days into the seizure of the city by the British, resin-soaked logs set fire to 3 buildings (a sailor's brothel, a tavern, and an Inn) near Whitehall Street. This act destroyed a quarter of NYC's buildings (almost 500 houses) including the Trinity and the Old Lutheran Church. Was it patriot arsonists, or the British? Unfortunately for the firemen, the American Revolution interrupted the municipally owned 1774 reservoir on White Street that spanned from Collect Pond down the east side of Broadway using hollow pine logs. No warnings were heard since the bells were melted for ammo. Some town cisterns were emptied, and many fire buckets' handles were cut, suggesting a deliberate act. 5 of Clubs karma 3 life 3 |
Fire Watch TowersCity Hall's bell in its cupola was NYC's first and main alarm. Since the city was divided up into eight fire districts, district numbers corresponded with the strokes of the bell so firemen could tell the location of the fire. Telegraph wires soon connected all the towers. The watchmen in eleven lookout towers, that were built on hills in Manhattan, became useless in the 1870's as street corner telegraphic alarms were installed by the Fire Department. As buildings rose, these early obsolete towers came down. Jefferson Market was originally intended as a fire lookout, but was only in use from 1832 to 1877. Named for Thomas Jefferson, and inspired by a Bavarian castle, it was re-built as a courthouse in 1877. Stained-glass windows and gables now decorate this Victorian-Gothic castle. 6 of Clubs karma 6 life 5 |
NYC's First Public WellsNYC's first public well was dug in front of the old fort at Bowling Green in 1658. In 1748, NYC's best unspoiled source of clean water came from the Tea-Water Pump Well. Its pure spring water was delivered to city doorsteps for a penny per gallon from the corner of Roosevelt (1 block South of James) and Chatham. In 1677, public wells, two of which were in the middle of Broadway,were established for the better protection of the city in case of fire. One of these wells, called "Mr. Rombout's Well," was situated near Exchange Place and the other, not far from it. The wells were abolished from Broadway in 1806. Other big wells were at St. Stephen's Church, Broome and Christie Streets; St. Thomas's Church, on Broadway; the Bowery Church, between Hester and Walker Streets, and at the Mott Street Church. 7 of Clubs karma 9 life 7 |
Prowlers/Rattle WatchRattle watches were formed after Peter Stuyvesant created the first Fire Ordinance. Four fire wardens were first appointed, 2 English and two Dutchmen. The Prowlers were NYC's first firemen/police (watchmen roamed NYC till 1844). Holding green lanterns and hourglasses, eight men watched for trouble from dusk till dawn in 1657. 10 codes were cranked from large rattles (similar to New Year noisemakers). Shortly afterwards the Prowlers were increased to 50 firemen. In 1697 a few years after the English took over NYC, the Night Watch started with 4 men with bells, who announced the time and weather besides searching for fires. 8 of Clubs karma 8 life 9 |
Public Water Supply System of 1830For fire protection, a tower 27 feet high and 44 feet in diameter elevated a 220,000 gallon tank over a 98 foot deep well which was 16 feet wide. Constructed by the city on 13th Street just east of 4th avenue in April 16. The 12-inch cast iron pipes ran along 3rd Ave & Bowery to Chatham Square and along Broadway to Canal Street. The reservoir was supplemented by underground tanks for storing rainwater and the water drawn from a few untapped springs uptown. A report made by Alderman Samuel Stevens in favor of this well and reservoir was accepted and favorably acted upon, which snowballed into the Croton Aqueduct. Its system broke down in the chaos of the great New York fire of 1835. 9 of Clubs karma 7 life 6 |
Old Croton Reservoir 1842The Old Croton Reservoir was built between 1837 and 1842 by 4,000 Irish immigrants; defeating their biggest obstacle, The Manhattan Company. Utilizing a gravity feed system from a fifty-foot high timber crib dam with brick-lined granite masonry. The system fed the reservoirs at the Great Lawn in Central Park, and until 1899, also fed the Murray Hill Distributing Reservoir (which looked like an Egyptian temple and is now the NY public library). The aqueduct was seen as a cure to the filth, disease, and fire problems of early NYC. City Hall was beautifully illuminated during the celebration over the admission of Croton water. 10 of Clubs karma 9 life 8 |
Aaron Burr/Manhattan Company 1799A 1799 scam to create a bank was launched by Aaron Burr's Manhattan Company. Using the yellow fever epidemic and newly invented steam engines he gained exclusive water supply rights to Collect Pond. Its well inflated water prices to the mere 400 upper class home subscribers through it's 6 miles of wooden pipes(an idea of Christopher Colles) . Thirty years later 40 miles of its pipes brought water to over 50,000 citizens. It doomed the tea water pumps and any attempt to construct a more reliable supply. Until 1925, Chase Manhattan bank's charter forced it to pump water twice a week from the well on the NW corner of Reade and Centre (across from Burr's law office 11 Reade). Jack of Clubs karma 2 life 8 |
Molly Williams - Slave of Engine Company #11-1818The first woman firefighter, Molly Williams was an African-American slave of Benjamin Aymar who forced her to serve the Oceanus Engine Company #11. Called Volunteer No. 11, she responded to fires wearing a calico dress and checked apron. Besides the bucket brigades, Molly pulled the pumper to fires through the deep snowdrifts of the blizzard of 1818. On December 27, 1819, the Fire Department reported that the fire buckets were rapidly being superseded by the use of hose, so the era of fire buckets ended. Queen of Clubs karma 9 life 6 |
Mose Humphrey - "The King of the Bowery and 5 Points"Many Bowery Irish gang members volunteered for the fire department where political fighting was part of the job. Mose Humphrey "the King of the Bowery and 5 Points" was a red haired Irish volunteer rope man for Engine Co. No. 40. His reputation as the toughest, most feared street fighter in NYC ended when Henry Chanfrau of Engine 15 beat him senseless in 1838. His brother Frank Chanfrau, playing Mose the Bowery b'hoy, starred in the 1848 hit play "New York in 1848" retitled as "A Glance at New York" and in many spinoff plays (called Mosaics). The b'hoy look included soap-locks under a stovepipe hat, high heel boots, silk cravat, red flannel woolen shirt that buttoned on the side and cone-shaped plaid bell bottomed trousers. King of Clubs karma 5 life 8 |
Collect Pond 12,000 BC - 1805NYC's first main source of water was an ancient 48-acre, sixty-foot deep, spring fed fresh water pond. A favorite spot for picnics, ice-skating, fishing and boating. A pond where John Fitch pioneered his steamboat, & where William IV of England almost drowned. A small park on Leonard street between Center and Lafayette Streets sinks even today on its former site. A feeble landfill pioneered the leveling of hilly NYC. Collect pond was polluted by: oozing gunpowder from the city armory, and local gunsmiths; dead animals from the slaughterhouse and leather tanneries; industrial waste from the pottery, ropework and brewing industries; & seepage from the African Burial Ground. Paradise Square was built over this landfill and began to sink and stink in the 1820s. Ace of Clubs karma 9 life 9 |
Boss William Tweed April 3, 1823 - 1878Young brawler and school dropout, became a chairmaker and a bookeeper before starting as a volunteer fireman. In 1848 Tweed helped to organize fire station Americus engine #6, known as Big Six. The Tweed Ring in Tammany Hall used fictitious naturalization papers to sway elections, and built its strength on the muscle of the Irish gangs. In 2 decades Tweed stole 80-200 million in total, (as much as $4 billion in today's currency) through kickbacks and fake and bloated billings for city construction work, many never performed. New York City was almost forced into bankruptcy. Joker-black karma 2 life 7 |