1865 Sanitary Conditions On Vandewater Street And Old Merchants Of The Swamp

from a great site on the 4th ward by peter baldwin
Serious health problems and overcrowding in the Vandewater and Cliff street area.
the stars indicate where there was typhus and smallpox.

from old and old
Poor Charles Leupp, who died suddenly not long ago, belonged to the hide and leather merchants, whose sphere of action is called "The Swamp." Alluding upon one occasion to the great men from that locality—such as Jacob Lorillard, Abraham Bloodgood, Israel Corse, David Bryson, Gideon Lee, Peter McCartee, William Kumbel, Abraham Polhemus, Richard Cunningham, Hugh McCormick, Shepherd Knapp, Thomas Everett, Jonathan Thorne, the Brookses, James, George and Thomas, Peter Bonnett, Henry Orttery, Daniel Tooker, and other lights—the lamented Charles (who was also a great leather merchant, and had been at one time a partner and son-in-law, of Gideon Lee and Shepherd Knapp) said:
"The Roman mother, Cornelia, when asked to display her jewels, pointed to her sons. So can we, to these (leather and hide) fathers, and claim them as ours. Let us cherish their example, and emulate their noble qualities, so that hereafter our successors may, in like manner, be not ashamed of any of us, but exclaim :
"He, too, was a Swamper !"
That Swamp is a wonderful place. I can remember it well, when it was all a lot of tan vats. I have seen some of those great names above alluded to. They were great in their day and generation. But long before their time tanneries existed in the "Swamp."
A couple of hundred years ago, when people talked Dutch in the small town, they called that part of the town "Greppel Bosch," which means in English a "swamp or marsh covered with wood." The trees were cut down long ago, but the name "Swamp" is retained to this day.
The land adjoining the Swamp, extending to Pearl and Rose, including what is now called Vandewater Street, belonged in 1683 to Balthazar Bayard. A part of it afterwards in 1783—a hundred years later—was sold to the widow of Hendrick Vandewater, after whom that street was named.
I cannot tell how early the tan-yards were commenced there, but in 1744, Van Hook, Anthony & Stevens, and Becine & Rips, all had tan-yards in the "Swamp."
Jacob Street and Skinner Street existed at the time, and the other boundaries of the "Swamp" were Gold, Frankfort, Ferry, and Queen (Pearl). Frankfort only came to Skinner Street (one part changed to Cliff and the other part to Hague Street). Flack Street ran from Skinner to Queen (now Pearl). Flack is now changed to Frankfort Street.
Jacob Street was named after Gov. Jacob Leisler, whose farm or estate adjoined the "Swamp," and extended as far as Chatham Street, half way from Frankfort to Pearl, on that line. It was confiscated in 1691, upon conviction of his attainder, and afterwards re-stored to him by the act of parliament, reversing his attainder. Poor Jacob was hung and buried in his own garden. The grave was about fifty feet from Chatham, near the spot where French's Hotel now stands. No houses stood nearer than Beekman Street to the spot as late as 1732. About that time his body was dug up and removed to the Dutch Reformed church burying ground in Garden (Exchange Street), where Dr. Mathews, who still lives, preached so many years (1863).
These streets were all in the "Montgomerie Ward" in 1744.
Within the recollection of many of our readers, the space bounded by Jacob, Gold, Ferry and Frankfort streets was nothing but tan-yards or vats. There were no houses. The houses on the opposite sides to the vat square were small buildings. There was not a three-story house in that vicinity. How changed now!
Among other great men of the Swamp, was Jacob Lorillard, tanner, currier and hide dealer. He died about twenty-two years ago, a man about sixty-eight or seventy years old. He had brothers who were in the tobacco business in Chatham Street, and their sons are still so. I believe there were three brothers in the tobacco business—George, Peter, and another whose name I forget. I have a faint recollection that Peter was wounded in Chatham Street, near the Hall of Records. The old debtor's jail stood there, and one night the prisoners tried to make their escape. Peter Lorillard came over from the tobacco store to assist in securing them, and was shot.

Old New York Street Names

1817-street-list

Catherine Slip Mall

from the nycpark's dept. site. This gives a good history of the area and of the Rutger's family as well as an explanation the origin of many KV area street names

This parkland is named for Catherine Rutgers (1711–1779), wife of Hendrick Rutgers (b. 1712) and mother of Henry Rutgers (1745–1830), for whom Rutgers and Henry Streets in Manhattan and a university in New Jersey are named. Hendrick Rutgers named Catherine Street and Catherine Slip after his wife when this area was part of the Rutgers family estate. Daughter of Johannes De Peyster (1666–1711) and Anna Bancker (1670–1740), Catherine Rutgers gave birth to seven children including Henry, four of whom died young. In Catherine’s time, the surrounding area was home to the city’s elite Dutch mercantile families.
As with much of the land south of Pearl and Cherry Streets, Catherine Slip was originally under water. In the seventeenth, eighteenth, and nineteenth centuries, the edges of Manhattan were slowly extended through various landfill projects. A “slip” is a spot for sea vessels to dock, and Catherine Slip was once a port for boats and ferries. In the early 1800s, ferries carried passengers and carriages from Catherine Slip to Brooklyn.
The De Peysters were prominent, wealthy members of New York’s Dutch community. Johannes, Catherine’s father, was appointed mayor in 1698 and served four terms on the Board of Aldermen. Catherine’s uncle, Abraham De Peyster (1657–1728), one of the city’s wealthiest merchants, served as mayor from 1691 to 1693. Abraham also donated the land for the site of the second City Hall, built at Wall and Nassau Streets in 1704.
In 1732, Catherine married Hendrick Rutgers, son of a wealthy merchant and an ensign in one of New York’s six militia companies. Their youngest child Henry fought as a captain in the American army at the Battle of White Plains. Later in life, Henry Rutgers served as an assemblyman. In 1825, the former Queens College in New Jersey changed its name to honor the wealthy landowner, who donated $200 for a bell and a $5,000 endowment for the school. When Rutgers died in 1830, he left a third of his money to charity, but gave nothing to Rutgers College (later Rutgers University).
After his parents’ deaths, Henry remained in the Rutgers family mansion, dividing and leasing out much of the surrounding estate. Merchants and professionals, as well as shipbuilders, artisans, and craftsmen, moved into the area. As the neighborhood’s population increased, the runoff from the Fresh Water Pond to the west began to choke the streets with refuse. City officials filled in Fresh Water Pond in 1808, but problems persisted. Absentee landowners bought artisans’ former homes, subdivided them and packed them with tenants. In the late nineteenth century, works such as Jacob Riis’ How the Other Half Lives exposed the squalid tenement conditions along the Lower East Side. The resulting public outcry prompted the City to acquire and condemn many of the tenements. Today, the area boasts a number of courthouses and City buildings.
The title to the land now known as Catherine Mall was first vested in the City between 1686 and 1730. In the late nineteenth century, it served as a public market under the jurisdiction of the Manhattan Borough President. Workers from the Works Progress Administration, a Depression-era program aimed at reinvigorating the economy, planted London planetrees, installed benches, paved the lots, and reconstructed the park as a central mall space in 1939. Parks has maintained this parkland, officially named Catherine Slip Mall though commonly called Catherine Mall, ever since.

The Watch House Mapped

Arrow number 1 points to the Watch House mentioned in the previous post. Arrow 2 points the house belonging to Anna Bancker, who was a Rutger's family member. Bancker Street was the original name of Madison Street. Ann Bancker was Hendrick's Rutger's wife and the mother of Henry Rutgers. Harmon Street was the original name of East Broadway.

Street Name Origins 2

The historical guys below are those mentioned on the list to the left, with the exception of Delancey. The one pictured is the son of the Delancey for whom the block was named after.