Broad Street

“ He passed block after block of trim work-men’s houses, as still and silent as the sleepers within them, and at last he turned the horse’s head into Broad Street, the city’s great thoroughfare, that stretches from its one end to the other and cuts it evenly in two. ”

“ Swiftly flowing cars flit mysteriously round the curve and bend into the long expanse of North Broad street where their little red stern-lights twinkle beneath the row of silver arcs stretching away into the distance. Broad Street Station is comparatively quiet, though there is the usual person gazing up at the window lettered SCRIP CLERGY STOPOVERS COMMUTATION. He wonders what it means. ”

“ Broad Street is at all times noisy, and it is moreover the favorite route for all the processions, military or political, by torchlight or by daylight, that [Pg 218] ever rejoice the hearts of Philadelphia’s children. It is a haunt, too, of pitiless organ-grinders and importunate beggars. Well I remember the wretched woman who set up her stand, and her tuneless organ, but a few steps beyond Mr. Leland’s window, grinding away there day after day, indifferent to expostulations and threats, until at last the civil authorities had to be appealed to. ”

“ To those who really understand them, every one of the great, vital streets of the world has a soul as well as a body. The social invader from the West, the merchant whose establishment still found profit in Grand Street, the banker from Broad Street, or the ship's chandler from South, the club awakening to the fact that its quarters on Broadway or in one of the side streets near Irving Place was too far downtown, or in size inadequate to its growing membership—those were the agencies that wrought the Avenue's material development. ”

“ Broad Street in Richmond is two or three times as wide as Granby Street, Norfolk's chief shopping street, and for this reason, doubtless, its traffic seems less, though I believe it is in fact greater. A fine street to look upon at night, with its long, even rows of clustered boulevard lights, and its bright windows, Broad Street in the daytime is a disappointment, because, for all its fine spaciousness, it lacks good buildings. ”

“ As one crosses Broadway and descends to Broad Street, the impression deepens, stirs, until you realize you are standing in a place of strength and power, in the very heart of the nation’s financial life. ”

“ When one has become acclimated to the soaring upward rush of the skyscrapers (and one quite soon loses consciousness of them, for where all buildings are huge each building becomes commonplace) , when one stops looking upward, "Down Town" New York is strangely like the "City" area of London. Walking Broadway one might easily imagine oneself in the neighbourhood of the Bank of England; Wall Street might easily be a turning out of Bishopsgate or Cannon Street. Broad Street, New York, is not so very far removed in appearance from Broad Street, London. ”

“ Wall Street, each way from the City Hall, and Broad Street as far as the eye could reach, were filled with a sea of upturned faces—silent as if statues of marble instead of living beings—as the oath was administered to their future ruler, and when Chancellor Livingston cried, "'It is done,' long live George Washington, President of the United States!" the air was immediately rent with rapturous shouts, and the roar of cannon. In the evening the city was illuminated with unparalleled splendor. Every public building was in a blaze of light. ”

“ Broad Street buildings, a very handsome street regularly built, leading from Moorfields to Broad street.
Broad Street Ward, so called from Broad street lying in the center of it, is bounded on the north and east by Bishopsgate ward; on the west by Coleman street ward; and on the south by Cornhill ward. The principal streets in this ward are, Threadneedle street, Prince’s street almost as far as Catharine court, Lothbury from the church to Bartholomew lane, Throgmorton street, 34Broad street from St. ”

“ Through a fellow-engraver Blake was introduced to Stothard, who, still young, was making a guinea a piece for his contributions to the Novelist’s Magazine. Broad Street was in the thick of the Artists and Royal Academicians. Once Blake had pierced the magic circle and could meet them on equal terms, instead of merely watching their exits and their entrances through the doors of Broad Street, Poland Street, and Golden Square, they might prove of value to him, not by teaching him to paint as they painted, but by helping him to get customers for his own productions. ”

“ Through Broad Street, when the town was New Amsterdam, a narrow, ill-smelling inlet extended to about the present Beaver Street, then narrowed to a ditch close to Wall Street. The water-front was then at Pearl Street. Several bridges crossed the inlet, the largest at the point where Stone Street is. Another gave Bridge Street its name. In 1660 the ways on either side were paved, and soon became a market-place for citizens who traded with farmers for their products, and with the Indians who navigated the inlet in their canoes. The locality has ever [Pg 10] since been a centre of exchange. ”

“ At the head of Broad Street we descried the City Hall in its primitive nakedness; nearly opposite was the modest dwelling of (afterwards occupied as a residence by) Alexander Hamilton; and at the intersection of Smith (now William) Street, erect upon its pedestal, was the statue of the elder Pitt, mutilated and defaced, in resentment of his speech against the acknowledgment of our Independence. ”

“ This city spreads far across the flat surface above Newark Bay and adjoining the Passaic, and to the northward its suburbs run up into the attractive hills of Orange. Market Street is a fine highway through the business section, while a large area is covered by comfortable and handsome residences, among which passes Broad Street, its finest avenue, one hundred and thirty-two feet wide, shaded by majestic trees, bordered with many ornamental buildings, and skirting three attractive parks embowered with elms. ”

“ Broad Street, with its four rows of trees and fine houses and beautiful lawns, is one of the handsomest avenues in the country, and it is only one of many that are attractive. The Capitol Square, with several good buildings about it, makes an agreeable centre of the city. ”

“ The watch-house was kept at the corner of Broad Street, now used by Robinson for the sale of his caricatures. Baker's tavern, one of the most noted public houses, was at the corner of New Street; a club met there nightly for more than half a century. Pine Street has undergone still greater changes; from Water Street to Broadway, every house has been demolished. ”

“ A little farther on is the Boys’ Central High School, an unusually large and handsome structure, and the Synagogue Rodef Shalom, in a Moorish style.
Farther up Broad Street are numerous handsome private houses, churches, and other edifices. At the northwest corner of Broad Street and Girard Avenue is the handsome Widener Mansion, presented to the city and used as a branch of the Free Library. Beyond Master Street, to the left, is the elaborate home of the Mercantile Club. Beyond this Broad Street runs out to Germantown, six miles from the City Hall. ”

“ The residential portions of the city seem to be as clearly divided by Market Street as are the business interests. South of that thoroughfare, on Chestnut, Walnut, and Spruce streets, centring about Rittenhouse Square, is the aristocratic residential section of the city. North of Market the upper portion of Broad Street, with portions of other streets between it and the Schuylkill, forms another important residence area. North of this comes the residential section occupied largely by textile operatives. ”

“ The procession from Newgate to Tyburn used to pass along Broad Street, and halt at the great gate of the hospital, in order that the condemned man might take his last draught of ale on earth. ”

“ The most valuable real estate in the world is said to be the corner of Wall Street and Broad, the point shown in the illustration of Wall Street on page 25. The Mills Building in Broad Street, running through to Wall Street, cost an enormous sum. The largest bank edifice is on the corner of Wall and Broadway—nicknamed by the Brokers "Fort Sherman"—and is the home of the First National Bank, George F. Baker president, and the Bank of the Republic, Henry W. Ford president. ”

“ While Raleigh has not the look of age which characterizes many old southern cities, causing them to delight the eye and the imagination, its broad streets have here and there a building old enough to remove from the town any air of raw newness, and to make it a homelike looking place. ”

“ There was, however, a brisk sale of lots during the year just named, as appears from records in the city archives. On the 27th of May, of that year, Jacob Steendam, the earliest resident poet in New York, sold from his possessions in the "sheep pasture," a lot thirty feet front and one hundred and thirty deep, on the east side of Broadway, near Wall Street, to Leendant Aerden; and on the same date he sold another lot ten rods square, in vicinity of Exchange place, east of Broad Street, to the Worshippful Schepen, Jacob Strycker, and Secretary Cornells Van Ruyven. ”

“ ACT I THE BLUE AND WHITE ROOM The scene is the blue and white room in the house of the Misses Susan and Phoebe Throssel in Quality Street; and in this little country town there is a satisfaction about living in Quality Street which even religion cannot give. Through the bowed window at the back we have a glimpse of the street. It is pleasantly broad and grass-grown, and is linked to the outer world by one demure shop, whose door rings a bell every time it opens and shuts. Thus by merely peeping, every one in Quality Street can know at once who has been buying a Whimsy cake, and usually why. ”

“ The passers up and down on opposite sides of Broadway are as if in different streets, and neither expect to recognize each other nor to pass from one to the other without set effort. It took a good while to make Broad and Canal Streets attractive business-streets, and to get the importers and jobbers out of Pearl Street; but the work is now done. The Bowery affords the only remaining chance of building a magnificent metropolitan thoroughfare in New York; and we anticipate the day—when Broadway will surrender its pretensions to that now modest Cheapside. ”

“ It is called the Clam Broth House, and is on Weehawken Street, which, closely paralleling West Street, holds its single block of length north from Christopher. It is a lost and forgotten street, primitively cobblestoned with the worst pavement in New York, and it holds several lost and forlorn old houses—low-built houses, with great broad, sweeping roofs [Pg 186] reaching almost to the ground, houses tremulous with age. ”

“ Leaving the Elevated Railroad where it dives under the Brooklyn Bridge at Franklin Square, scarce a dozen steps will take us where we wish to go. With its rush and roar echoing yet in our ears, we have turned the corner from prosperity to poverty We stand upon the domain of the tenement. In the shadow of the great stone abutments the old Knickerbocker houses linger like ghosts of a departed day. Down the winding slope of Cherry Street--proud and fashionable Cherry Hill that was--their broad steps, sloping roofs, and dormer windows are easily made out ”

“ In 1862 Union troops camped on the site of the latter building, and the ground became known in 1871 as Reservoir Park, which name was changed to Bryant Park in 1884.
Like other world-great cities, New York has many hearts. The spot that means the very centre of things varies according to mood, occupation, and manner of life. To high finance and those who play feverishly with it, the heart of the town is where Wall Street, running from Trinity Church down to the East River, is crossed by Nassau zigzagging into Broad. ”

“ Park Street had a freedom, a gayety, a careless bonhomie far removed from the austerity of Broadwood House. Her life had been enlarged. The hours were long, the work was hard, but her heart was in it, and the novel charm of her surroundings was a perpetual delight.
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A month of Park Street brought more knowledge of the world than a lustrum of Broadwood House. Madame Lemaire’s establishment was a famous one, in fact the resort of fashion; to the perceptive Mary the people with whom she had now to rub shoulders had real educational value. ”

“ Fifth Avenue is handsome, the handsomest street imaginable. It is what the streets of German cities try to be. The buildings are large, square, 'imposing,' built with the solidity of opulence. The street, as a whole, has a character and an air of achievement. "Whatever else may be doubted or denied, American civilisation has produced this." One feels rich and safe as one walks. Back in Broadway, New York dropped her mask, and began to betray herself once again. A little crowd, expressionless, intent, and volatile, before a small shop, drew me. ”

“ A mighty Boulevard, marching on with progress as relentless as Juggernaut’s car, had cut the narrow, dingy old street across, at right angles, letting daylight in upon all its shabbiness, its teeming life, its contented poverty, its secret crime, squalid miseries, and sordid vices. ”