NYC Post #4: Rebuilding the City. 1683 - 1825. A Brief History of the Big Apple. (#4 of 8).

EVENT

^{NOTE: Most of the information here, including components of the title, are obtained through The Historical Atlas of New York City: A Visual Celebration of 400 Years of New York City's History by Eric Homberger, Henry Holt and Co., 1998.}

At once, the achievement of American independence had a dramatic effect upon New York city. Thousands of loyalists, including some of the city's wealthiest and most influential individuals, were barred from voting, Tory lawyers were barred from practice, and most dramatically, all loyalist property was declared forfeit. For these reasons, a huge percentage of the city relocated to Canada and other area's still under British rule. During the 1880s, however, Alexander Hamilton, a New Yorker an leading voice in the Federalist party, argued for moderation, and gradually, those Tories who did not leave were reintigrated into New York society. By 1792, Tories' rights had been reinstated, and those who had left were
invited to return.

An unusual, and perhaps unexpected impact of property confiscations in particular was that they may have actually accelerated the growth of Manhattan. Large estates owned by families such as the DeLanceys (who once had owned a fourth of the land south of what is today Houston street, and in many cases were dominated by wealthy farms and orchards, were subdivided and parceled out. In most cases the wealthy reatined almost all of the land in these transferrals (and in fact, many non-loyalist farmhands and domestic workers were disenfranchies of proprietary rights), but the subdivision allowed the expansion of urban development at a rate that may not have been possible considering extensive negotions between weathy plantation owners. Real-estate moguls such as John Jacob Astor, who initially built their fortune in import-export trade between the Americas, the Far East, and Europe, encouraged this trend, selling off manageable plots for development for a tremendous profits.

In these critical decades, New York's population doubled and doubled again, drawing migrants from New England and immigrants from Germany and Ireland. The growth of emancipation movements also led to a decline in slavery, with the slave population dropping to a few hundred by the beginning of the 19th century. Religious life also reflected this increase in diversity with African and Catholic churches being built
throughout the period.

The density of New York contributed to the outbreak of numerous epidemics, such as the Yellow Fever.

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After rising prices allowed New York's overwhelmingly export economy to recover from a post-war recession (due, again, to the exile of Tories), the city's financial institutions continued to develop, and the regulation of these companies conspicuously reflected the struggle between the Federalist and Anti-Federalist parties. New York led the nation in securities and stocks. The tendency for the city's financial life to center on Wall Street, and its commercial life on Broadway, deepened, and continues to this day. Meanwhile, the docks and wharves continued to
expand north on the East river, as well as along the Hudson.

As both the city and its populaton grew, new institutions and services were provided to meet New York's growing needs. The Manhattan company was chartered to provide the city with a more stable water supply, liveries and stables accomodated transport around town, while passage abroad and between cities on ships was more reliable and frequent. Growth was also accompanied by an expansion of entertainment options. Dozens of theaters, taverns, coffee shops, and several public gardens opened, as well as sideshows featuring wax art and wild animals, and some below-board activities such as gambling, cock-fighting, and shuffleboard. The huge and opulent City Hotel opened in 1794, the first of New York's great hotels, and City Hall underwent a lavish makeover as part of its function as the temporary national capital.

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By the early 1811s the demand for space and New York's economic expansion fully demanded a more regulated use of space. The state legislature determined a rectilinear grid, with roughly five blocks to the mile ("avenues") on the northwest-southeast axis, and twenty blocks to the mile ("streets") on the southwest-northeast axis. Broadway was a rare-exception to this imposed grid, which has also remained mostly intact to this day.

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