Standing on Broadway, 160 Years Ago

In my novel, The Better Angels, a group of time travelers journey back to Civil War-era New York City to solve a mystery. One of the locations they explore is 209 Broadway in lower Manhattan. Let’s pretend you, like my characters, can time travel. What will you see when you journey 160 years into the past and arrive in 1860?

Vintage drawing of St. Paul's Chapel in Manhattan
St. Paul’s Chapel

At 209 Broadway you’ll find St. Paul’s Chapel. It was built in 1766. George Washington worshipped there on his inauguration day. Many years later, on 9/11 it will be given the name “the little chapel that stood.” Exhausted rescue workers and first responders will use it as a place of rest and refuge.

Looking to your right you see the studio of Mathew Brady, the city’s most famous photographer. Here, Brady takes many of his most famous portraits, including those of Dolley Madison, Daniel Webster, Winfield Scott, Commodore Matthew C. Perry, Walt Whitman, and John Audubon.

Drawing of 19th century Broadway showing Barnum's Museum, Brady's Studio, St. Paul's Chapel, and the Astor House
Drawing of 19th century Broadway showing Barnum’s Museum, Brady’s studio, St. Paul’s Chapel, and the Astor House.
Picture of Abraham taken in 1860 by Mathew Brady.
Abraham Lincoln in 1860

Now look to your left to see the Astor House, the most fashionable hotel in the city. It was built by John Jacob Astor and opened in 1836. Brady has lodgings at the Astor House which allows him to rub elbows with many of the political and cultural leaders of the time. In February 1860, Brady will take the first ever photograph of presidential candidate Abraham Lincoln. Lincoln will return to the Astor House a year later on the way to his first inauguration. One sad footnote to the Astor House is that John Jacob Astor’s great grandson, John Jacob Astor IV, will die on the Titanic in April 1912.

Drawing of the Astor House in 19th century New York City.
The Astor House, with St. Paul’s Chapel to the left.

Now look directly across the street. If you have 25 cents, you can visit the most famous tourist attraction of the time: Barnum’s American Museum. It opened in 1841 and attracted thousands of visitors who wandered among the fabulous exhibits of animals, inventions, archaeological artifacts, and oddities on display. In 1865, the museum will be destroyed by fire.

Vintage drawing showing 19th century view of Barnum's Museum and Mathew Brady's photography studio
Bird’s eye view from roof of St. Paul’s Chapel showing Barnum’s Museum across the street and Brady’s photography studio to the south (right).

Once you return to present-day New York, what do you see? To your left you see a Staples where the Astor House stood. Barnum’s has been replaced by a bank and a clothing store. On the site of Brady’s studio is an early twentieth-century building whose tenants include media and publishing firms. But turn around. St. Paul’s Chapel, now more than 250 years old, still stands. It is the oldest surviving church building in Manhattan.