There are no more coffee-houses–at least, no coffee houses of the olden kind in New York. They seem to have left with the old stage-coaches. They have had their day. Still they were good things while they lasted, and some may even think that they did not last long enough. Perhaps they didn’t, but I am no philosopher.
The idea of the coffee-houses, like the chop-houses, came from London, and they were great places for talk and readin’ newspapers, as well as for coffee. The coffee was only the excuse for the rest. But the coffee, like the excuse, was good. Such “slops” as they call coffee now would not have been swallowed then.
There was a big difference between the old coffee-houses and the old taverns, though some of the same class of people went to both. The taverns generally displayed a sign with some big man’s head on it; but the coffee-house made less fuss outside, because it was supposed to be more dignified inside.
The first Exchange coffee-house stood next door to an old tavern, “The Fightin’ Cocks,” kept by a John Crocker. The auctions used to be held at the coffee-house, and after the auctions the crowd will drop in at the tavern. There were two kinds of auctions held at the coffee-house. The sales of hardware and heavy goods took place on the street in front; the sales of dry goods and such like was held indoors.
The old Exchange had its day, and a new Exchange was built. The new affair was rather imposin’, with a cupola. It contained a hall some sixty feet by thirty–a big room for the times. After a while a ball-room was added.
Then there was a Whitehall coffee-house, where they made a “specialty” of keeping newspapers, and a Merchants’ coffee-house, a first-class affair, which stood on the southeast corner of Wall and Water streets, where the Journal of Commerce building stood afterwards.
The old merchants of New York patronized these coffee-houses largely and liberally. The old merchants were a large and liberal sort of men. Take the three brothers Cruger, for example, who lived on the new wharf by the Old Slip. They were called “The Old Nick,” “The Old Man,” and “The Old Boy,” and were full of life, spirit, and patriotism. “The Old Boy,” John Cruger, was the jolliest of the three, because, as he used to say, “he was the only one of the three who had no trouble, havin’ no wife.” John Alsop, Isaac Low, and Philip Livingston were merchants then, in the general importin’ line. Alsop’s store was on Hanover Square, Livingston’s on Barnett’s Quay, and Low’s was next the coffee-house. Elias Desbrosses, after whom Desbrosses street is named, whose father was a Huguenot and a confectioner, did business near the old Fly Market. The Beekmans were located on Dock and Water streets. The Buchanans were in trade near the Fly Market. Henry Remsen, jr. was a great politician and dry goods trader in Hanover Square, runnin’ opposition to the McEvers Brothers. The auctioneers were all located near the Merchants’ coffee-house, which was also used as a sort of general insurance office.
The Waltons then had their big ship-yards on the East River front, the Lispenards had their brewery on the North River front, the Rutgers had their breweries on the East River front, the Bayards were sugar refinin’ on Wall street, and a man named Gerard Duyckinck had introduced a sort of “dollar-store”–the very first ever introduced into this country–where pretty nearly everythin’ was sold at as near to one price as possible.
About this time the first “patent medicine” shop was opened in New York by a “Dr.” William Brownejohn from London. He made money fast and put it all into real estate. Among other real estate, he bought the Merchants’ coffee-house.
A little while after this, two women, both widows, opened coffee-houses in opposition to each other. One widow, an American, was called Mrs. Wragg; the other, a foreigner, was known as Madame Ferrari. They hated each other mortally, and showed their hatred by imitatin’ each other. Mrs. Wragg announced that she would give “the best breakfasts, with relishes, at all hours, and coffee as usual.” Madame Ferrari copied Mrs W.’s advertisements word for word, only she had ‘em printed in bigger type.
Madame Ferrari announced that her coffee-house “was now fitted up in the most neat and commodious manner.” Mrs. Wragg announced that her coffee-house was unequaled in furniture and comfort. Yet Madame F. beat Mrs. W. altogether on one point: she got the insurance people who had been doin’ business in the old coffee-house to open an office in her establishment, and made the most of that fact in her advertisement. Poor Mrs Wragg had no insurance people to advertise, and couldn’t get any business “attraction” to supply their place. So the American widow had to go to the wall, leavin’ the foreign widow in her glory.
It is true that for a while Mrs. Wragg thought she had succeeded in securin’ for her place a business card equalin’ the insurance office. She made an arrangement with Nesbitt Deane, an Irish hatter, to take part of her house. This Nesbitt Deane was a great advertiser, and puffed his hats and the Widow Wragg’s coffee-house together. But the hatter didn’t last long, and cost more than he was worth. So poor Widow Wragg gave in at last, and everybody can imagine how hard it must have been for a woman–and a widow–to “give in.”
In course of time a man called James Strachan, who had kept a tavern “on the dock,” got hold of the Merchants’ coffee-house and proposed to keep it as a tavern and coffee-house combined. He called his place “The City Tavern and Coffee-House,” and promised “breakfasts from seven to eleven, soups and relishes from eleven to half-past one, and tea, coffee, etc., every afternoon.”
This Strachan went into the mail business on his own account, and levied pretty steep charges for deliverin’ letters to vessels in the harbor. He had little mail-bags of his own hung up in his coffee-house, and made a good thing for awhile out of his postal service. But he overdid the thing. He got to chargin’ so much that people got mad, made a fuss, and finally he was forced to refund a good deal of money, and got so unpopular that he had to retire from his combined “City Tavern and Coffee House.” It is astonishin’ how often history (like this) repeats itself. Not one man in a thousand is smart enough to leave well enough alone.
After Strachan “busted,” Cornelius Bradford, from Rhinebeck, took the old coffee-house and conducted it legitimately and profitably. He christened his place “The New York Coffee House,” and soon made a live New York concern of it. He started two things which ought to make the name of old Cornelius Bradford forever memorable in New York. He opened at his place a city register, in which, at his request, for general convenience, merchants and strangers in New York entered their names business and residences. This city register was free to all, and soon became a feature of the New York Coffee House. It was the first “city directory”–or rather the first approach to it–ever made.
But this wasn’t all. Old Bradford opened a book in which he himself took the trouble to accurately enter the names of all vessels on their arrival at and departure from this port. This was the first marine list ever undertaken in New York, and old Bradford deserves credit for it. Yet I don’t suppose one shippin’ merchant out of a hundred has ever heard his name before. Such is fame!
But, at any rate, if posterity has forgotten him, prosperity didn’t, and, after all, prosperity beats posterity any day in the week. Old Bradford succeeded with his New York Coffee House, and made it a great “social and commercial centre,” as one would say nowadays.
The old Chamber of Commerce met there. So did the Marine Society, and the Governors of the New York Hospital, and the Cincinnati, and the Grand Lodge of Master Masons, the Societies of St. Andrew and St. Patrick, and lots of other societies.
All had a good time there, and all had a good word for old Cornelius Bradford.
But all the people who met and ate and drank and talked there have passed away along with old Cornelius Bradford and the old coffee-houses forever.
[Editor’s notes: The above column describes the coffee-houses of colonial New York, adapted from a much more complete article “Old New York Coffee-houses,” Harper’s New Monthly Magazine, March, 1882, p. 481-499.]
