Burns remained the proprietor until 1762, when it was taken over by a Mrs. Steele, who gave it the name of the King's Arms. Edward Barden became the landlord in 1768. In later years it became known as the Atlantic Garden house. Traitor Benedict Arnold is said to have lodged in the old tavern after deserting to the enemy. The Bank coffee house belonged to a later generation, and had few of the characteristics of the earlier coffee houses. It was opened in 1814 by William Niblo, of Niblo's Garden fame, and stood at the corner of William and Pine Streets, at the rear of the Bank of New York. The coffee house endured for probably ten years, and became the gathering place of a coterie of prominent merchants, who formed a sort of club. The Bank coffee house became celebrated for its dinners and dinner parties. Fraunces' tavern, best known as the place where Washington bade farewell to his army officers, was, as its name states, a tavern, and can not be properly classed as a coffee house. While coffee was served, and there was a long room for gatherings, little, if any, business was done there by merchants. It was largely a meeting place for citizens bent on a "good time." Then there was the New England and Quebec coffee house, which was also a tavern. [Illustration: THE TONTINE BUILDING OF 1850 Northwest corner of Wall and Water Streets; an omnibus of the Broadway-Wall-Street Ferry line is passing] _The Tontine Coffee House_ The last of the celebrated coffee houses of New York bore the name, Tontine coffee house. For several years after the burning of the Merchants coffee house, in 1804, it was the only one of note in the city. Feeling that they should have a more commodious coffee house for carrying on their various business enterprises, some 150 merchants organized, in 1791, the Tontine coffee house. This enterprise was based on the plan introduced into France in 1653 by Lorenzo Tonti, with slight variations. According to the New York Tontine plan, each holder's share reverted automatically to the surviving shareholders in the association, instead of to his heirs. There were 157 original shareholders, and 203 shares of stock valued at L200 each. [Illustration: NIBLO'S GARDEN, BROADWAY AND PRINCE STREET, 1828] The directors bought the house and lot on the northwest corner of Wall and Water Streets, where the original Merchants coffee house stood, paying L1,970. They next acquired the adjoining lots on Wall and Water Streets, paying L2,510 for the former, and L1,000 for the latter. The cornerstone of the new coffee house was laid June 5, 1792; and a year later to the day, 120 gentlemen sat down to a banquet in the completed coffee house to celebrate the event of the year before. John Hyde was the first landlord. The house had cost $43,000. [Illustration: COFFEE RELICS OF DUTCH NEW YORK Spice-grinder boat, coffee roaster, and coffee pots at the Van Cortlandt Museum]