Everyone who came through the port of New York from the mid 1800s to 1891 entered officially though Castle Gardens in what is now Battery Park. Everyone entering the port of New York after 1891 liked, Mathias, Nappy, James and Bridget Langan, entered the States through Ellis Island. For more information on the immigration process click HERE.

Catherine Furst Schwarzmeier Lindemann, Julius Lindemann, Minnie Lindemann Goehle, Catherine Lindemann Beyerkohler Van Loo and Peter Goehle all lived on the Lower East Side in "Little Germany".

Early addresses for the Langans were along 2nd Avenue between 14th and 43rd Streets.

This section includes pictures and information on Manhattan from Battery Park to below 34th Street.

For information on other parts of New York City go to:
Blizzard of 1888
Central Park
1863 Draft Riot
Tenement Life
Midtown Manhattan
Services and Utilities
Transportation

Not posted

Helmbold's Pharmacy, 594 Broadway

Dr Henry T. Helmbold, born in Philadelphia in 1826 was a dealer in patent medicines. He came to New York from Philadelphia in 1863 where he opened a drug store at 594 Broadway (on the east side near Prince, between the Metropolitan Hotel and Niblo's Theater and opposite the San Francisco Minstrel Hall). According to a New York Times article of 1897 Helmbold's Pharmacy "became the wonder of the city".

Helmbold made a huge fortune but was arrested as a "lunatic" in Philadelphia in 1877 and was committed to an asylum. He was released in 1885 but arrested again in New York in 1889. He died in an asylum in Trenton, New Jersey in 1894.

He made and sold "Helmbold's buchu" a concoction of water, licorice root, alcohol, caramel, molasses, oil of peppermint and tincture of cubebs*. It supposedly cured disease of the bladder, kidneys weakness, nervousness, loss of memory, dimness of vision, lassitude of the muscular system and more. It cost $1.00 for a 3½ ounce bottle.

*Cubeb piper cubeba is a pepper.

A DESCRIPTION OF THE STORE.

The store extended from Broadway to Crosby Street, and being perhaps the finest fitted tip place in the city at the time, drew visitors from every part of the country. Any clerk who was not busy would pilot the "Rubes" around and while showing the curiosities would extol the merits of our preparations and the greatness of Dr. Helmbold. There were two soda fountains, one of the sarcophagus style to the left as one entered, but not used, and the second in the center of the store about 50 feet back. There was method in this arrangement, for not only did customers have to pass through rows of show cases (there were, no "silent salesmen" then), but they got a curiosity- developing vista of the fairyland in the rear. Next came a parlor about 25 feet square, carpeted with an Axminster woven in one piece to fit the place, plentifully covered with silk-upholstered comfortable rockers and other chairs, some of which were so expensive that they were protected by a broad silk ribbon to prevent people, from sitting on them. On a table in the center of this parlor were magazines and papers for waiting clients; and wall cases tempted them by their rich and large assortment of perfumes and toilet articles. A substantial ornamental railing separated the parlor both from the front store and the rear part; a colored attendant with three colored aides, clothed in immaculate white, coats with brass buttons, ruled this domain. NO king ever had more ceremony-demanding guards. It was only after much questioning and card giving that the visitor could reach, "the Doctor". Then came another stretch of store, with rows of huge columns and two perfume fountains which owing to their size and the expense of running them, were usually at rest.

Next came the advertising department with its velveteen-coated workers (notice everyone wore a species of uniform), then on one side a doctor's office for medical consultation and on the other the "sanctum sanctorum" as the sign above the glass door to it read. This private office was small, fitted in a rich yet plain manner, the principal object, to my mind, having been a bust carved from some rare wood, representing the great "Doctor" himself--the then great H. T.

To give a small idea of the lavish expense in fitting up "Helmbold's Palace": Brass monograms were set into the marble floor at some places; every gas globe had a huge -H. T. H." on it and cost about $5; there must have been over a dozen mirrors reaching from floor to ceiling; the price of the wood-carving alone would have bought a small sized store; canary birds in cages hung along the fixtures; there was one of those distorting mirrors which reflected the image of the onlooker fat or thin as it was turned probably the only one of its kind in the city at the time. A splendid ladies' room with colored attendant was another luxury.

WHO WAS HENRY HELMBOLD?

St Nicholas Hotel 1863

The St Nicholas Hotel was located between Mercer and Broadway below Spring Street. It fronted on Broadway.

"The St. Nicholas is one of the best houses in the city. It shows a handsome marble front on Broadway, with a brown stone extension on the same thoroughfare to Prince street, and extends back to Mercer street.

It is handsomely furnished, and is kept on a scale of comfort and magnificence worthy of its fame. Its spacious halls and sitting-rooms, on the street floor, furnish one of the most popular lounging places in the city. Towards nightfall they are full to overflowing. The table is said, by the lovers of good living, to be the best served of any house in the city. The hotel is always full, and is very profitable to its proprietors. It is said to pay better in proportion to its expenses than any of its rivals. It is much liked by the Western people, who come here in crowds. There is also a dashing element about its guests which gives to it its peculiar reputation in the city. It is popularly believed to be the headquarters of "Shoddy," and certain it is that one sees among its habitues an immense number of flashily dressed, loud-voiced, self-asserting people."

"Lights and Shadows of New York Life: or, the Sights and Sensations of the Great City" by James Dabney McCabe, 1872

Interior View of Phalon's New Salloon, the the St. Nicholas Hotel (1853)

Dining Room of the St Nicholas Hotel. (1859?-1896)

Broadway below Spring Street as seen from the St Nicholas Hotel, circa 1872

Broadway from opposite the St Nicholas Hotel, looking North. [Anthony's instantaneous views. No. 315] ([Ca. 1860])

The Globe Theatre, Broadway, Opposite Waverley Place, N. Y. owned by Mr Steward (1876)

The Globe Theatre was listed in the 1871 Almanac: "Globe Theatre, 728 Broadway, opposite Waverley Place, variety performances"

Originally the Unitarian Church of the Messiah it opened as a theater called the Athenaeum in 1865. The names was changed many times. It was called the New Theatre Comique in 1881. It burnt in 1884 and was not rebuilt.

1. Chickering Hall, Eat 14 near Broadway, concerts
2. Globe Theatre, 728 Broadway, opposite Waverley Place, variety performances
3. Kahn's Anatomical Museum 745 Broadway, near Astor Place
4. Leavitt's Art Rooms, 817 Broadway cor 12th st exhibitions of paintings
5. Lina Edwin's Theatre, 720 Broadway near East 4th st, French opera buffe
6. Musuem of Anantomy, 618 Broadway near Houston st
7. New York Circus, East 14th st opposite Irving Place
8. Niblo's Garden, Broadway near Prince st, scenic drama and comedy
9. Olympic Theatre 624 Broadway near Houston st, pantomime
10. San Francisco Minstral Hall 586 Broadway, near Houston, minstrelsy
11. Schaus's Gallery 749 Broadway opposite Astor Place, paintings
12. Theatre Comique, 514 Broadway, near Spring st, variety performances
13. Union Square Theatre East 14th St near Broadway
14. Wallack's Theatre Broadway near East 13th Street, comedy and drama

" The Olympic is a large, old-fashioned theatre, on Broadway, between Houston and Bleecker streets. It is devoted to pantomime, and is famous as the headquarters of the erratic genius who calls himself Humpty Dumpty."

City copyright 1905

Post marked 1905

Posted 1909

Posted 1906

1908

Before the late 1890s an easy way to get to the upper floors and restrictions in building materials limited the construction of tall office and apartment buildings. While elevators did exist, they were slow and run by steam. The upper floors of taller buildings were low rent and often occupied by the janitor.

By 1899 building up to 12 stories with speedy and comfortable elevators were being built. By 1901 almost all of Manhattan south of city hall was occupied by tall office buildings. The Park Row Building for instance had 32 stories, 950 rooms, and elevators with a daily traffic of 25,000 people. The new taller buildings introduced "express" as well as local elevators.

In the early 1900s one building quickly replaced another as "the tallest building in the world".

DISORDERLY WIRES ON LOWER BROADWAY ABOUT TO BE CUT DOWN

The building to the right of the horse trolley is identified as the "Chatham National Bank" which was at 192 Broadway.

No date

No date

No date

The Municipal Building designed by McKim, Mead and White was built in 1914.

No date

Posted 1923

1. Manhattan Bridge
2. Brooklyn Bridge AKA, East River Bridge
3. The Municipal Building
4. The Woolworth Building
5. The Entrance to the Brooklyn Bridge
6. City Hall Park

Not posted

1. City Hall
2. Entrance to Brooklyn Bridge

Not posted

Posted 1909

No date

No date

No date

No date

The Brooklyn Bridge (at the right of the photo) took 14 years to complete. It was the longest, highest bridge in the world when it opened in 1883.

The Manhattan Bridge (in the center of the photo) was completed in 1912.

Postmarked 1914

Postmarked 1907

Fourth Avenue and Twenty Eighth Street

Fourth Avenue and Twenty Eighth Street

Click on image.

Maggie