Lights and Shadows of New York Life: or, the Sights and Sensations of the Great CityMcCabe, James Dabney
History
Lights and Shadows of New York Life: or, the Sights and Sensations of the Great City
McCabe, James Dabney
New York (N.Y.) -- Description and travel; New York (N.Y.) -- Social life and customs -- 19th century
James McCreery & Co., at the corner of Broadway and Eleventh street,
occupy a part of the ground floor of the magnificent edifice of the
Methodist Book Concern. They do not make as extensive a display as their
competitors, but are well known in the city for their rich and elegant
goods. The ball and wedding dresses imported and made by this house are
among the richest ever seen in New York.
XXIV. BLEECKER STREET.
Perhaps very few people out of the great city know Bleecker Street at
all; perhaps they have passed it a dozen times or more without noticing
it, or if they have marked it at all have regarded it only as a passably
good-looking street going to decay. But he who does not know Bleecker
street does not know New York. It is of all the localities of the
metropolis one of the best worth studying.
It was once the abode of wealth and fashion, as its fine old time
mansions testify. Then Broadway north of it was the very centre of the
aristocracy of the island, and Bond street was a primitive Fifth avenue.
Going west from the Bowery, nearly to Sixth avenue, you will find rows of
stately mansions on either hand, which speak eloquently of greatness
gone, and as eloquently of hard times present. They have a strange
aspect too, and one may read their story at a glance. Twenty-five years
ago they were homes of wealth and refinement. The most sumptuous
hospitality was dispensed here, and the stately drawing rooms often
welcomed brilliant assemblages. Now a profusion of signs announce that
hospitality is to be had at a stated price, and the old mansions are put
to the viler uses of third-rate boarding houses and restaurants.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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