{"id":8158,"date":"2014-09-08T16:13:36","date_gmt":"2014-09-08T16:13:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.genealogybank.com\/?p=8158"},"modified":"2014-09-08T16:13:36","modified_gmt":"2014-09-08T16:13:36","slug":"old-newspapers-tell-the-history-of-two-manhattan-taverns","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/old-newspapers-tell-the-history-of-two-manhattan-taverns.html","title":{"rendered":"Old Newspapers Tell the History of Two Manhattan Taverns"},"content":{"rendered":"

Introduction<\/em><\/strong>: Duncan Kuehn is a professional genealogist with over eight years of client experience. She has worked on several well-known projects, such as \u201cWho Do You Think You Are?\u201d and researching President Barack Obama\u2019s ancestry. In this blog post, Duncan searches old newspapers to find the history of two taverns in Manhattan that archaeologists recently excavated.<\/em><\/p>\n

I recently read an article on the website Archaeology<\/a> about an archaeological dig in Lower Manhattan at 50 Bowery.* They have unearthed the remains of two historic taverns built on the same location.\u00a0 The older of the two, the \u201cBull\u2019s Head,\u201d was from the colonial-era. It was \u201cbuilt in the 1740s by a butcher near New York City\u2019s first slaughterhouse.\u201d The second tavern, the \u201cAtlantic Garden\u201d which opened in 1858, was \u201ca tourist destination in its day\u2014it was known for its German food and beer, and as a place for music and parties.\u201d<\/p>\n

I wanted to know more about the history of the two taverns, so I turned to GenealogyBank\u2019s Historical Newspaper Archives<\/a> to learn more.<\/p>\n

Genealogy Tip:<\/em><\/strong> When searching through the newspaper archives, I entered phrases (enclosed in quotation marks) into the Include Keywords field to find the exact phrase in the newspaper articles. In this case I ran two searches, one with \u201cBull\u2019s Head\u201d and one with \u201cAtlantic Garden.\u201d<\/p>\n

Interesting Tavern Tidbits<\/strong><\/p>\n

I found an article in a German American newspaper that discussed the origins of the area.<\/p>\n

\"article<\/a>
New Yorker Volkszeitung (New York, New York), 23 November 1919, page 14<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

I only have an elementary understanding of the language, so I went to Google Translate<\/a> and typed in the German paragraph that I was interested in. A loose translation told me that the tavern was opened in 1760.<\/p>\n

I also learned that:<\/p>\n

Most of the guests were cattle drivers because of the proximity to the slaughter houses. However, Washington had rested there after the British troops marched along the Bowery Road to exit the city.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The abundance of cattle drivers explains all the newspaper notices I found announcing cattle and horse auctions taking place at the tavern, such as this ad from a 1780 newspaper.<\/p>\n

\"ad<\/a>
Royal American Gazette (New York, New York), 8 August 1780, page 2<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

I also found an interesting reference to the story about George Washington, in another newspaper. This article explained that Washington had used the tavern as one of his headquarters during the Revolutionary War.<\/p>\n

\"Atlantic<\/a>
New York Herald (New York, New York), 3 January 1895, page 10<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Land History<\/strong><\/p>\n

Note that this article also reports: \u201cIt is said that $1,000,000 was offered for the property by the Third Avenue Railroad Company when the company was looking for ground for a new power house.\u201d Assuming that the offer was made about 1880 and adjusting for inflation, the railroad was willing to pay about $17 million for the premium Manhattan location!<\/p>\n

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Then I found this well-written newspaper article, telling about the history of this plot of land in New York City.<\/p>\n

\"Famous<\/a>
Worcester Daily Spy (Worcester, Massachusetts), 28 January 1902, page 3<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

I learned that originally the land was owned by the Trinity Church. It was covered in trees and was a beautiful spot to build a gathering place for the local drovers (people who drive sheep or cattle to the market) as they came into town.<\/p>\n

The old newspaper article provided this description:<\/p>\n

The Bull\u2019s Head [Tavern] was built in the old Dutch style, with plenty of solid bricks and gables; and it had a number of trees around it, under the shade of which, in fine weather, the worthy burghers and butchers smoked their pipes and swallowed their schnapps. The land on which the tavern stood belonged to Trinity church, then as now a wealthy corporation, and the tavern itself had for a time been a farm-house on the Trinity farm. But the trustees of the Church accepted Van der Burgh\u2019s proposition to lease the farm-house for tavern purposes, and so the first prominent inn of the city was started\u2014indirectly, at least\u2014under the auspices of a church.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

A church would seem to be an odd landlord for such a raucous establishment! The article says this of Adam Van der Burgh:<\/p>\n

His voice was loud, but pleasant; his laugh contagious; his appearance emblematic of good cheer, and he knew almost everybody, especially the butchers and politicians\u2014the two most needful classes for him to know.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

As Van der Burgh\u2019s tavern thrived, he soon attracted the ire of the local women \u201cwho went so far as to hold a meeting, and to protest against the alienating influences\u201d of the place. He weathered that storm, but went too far when he built the first race track in New York immediately in front of his tavern. This drew the wrath of his landlord the Trinity Church. In response, Van der Burgh closed the race track \u201cand, apparently from spite, abandoned the Bull\u2019s Head tavern.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Tavern Keepers <\/strong><\/p>\n

This newspaper article explained that during the American Revolution, the tavern was owned by John Jacob Astor\u2019s brother Henry.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/a>
Evening News (San Jose, California), 19 October 1900, page 7<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

In addition to owning the Bull\u2019s Head Tavern, Henry Astor was a butcher. A brilliant idea came to him: he beat the competing butchers by \u201criding far out along the Bowery land, meeting the drovers as they brought their cattle to town and buying their stock, which he sold to the other butchers at his own price.\u201d<\/p>\n

I found this illustration, showing what the Bull\u2019s Head Tavern looked like in 1820.<\/p>\n

\"illustration<\/a>
New York Herald-Tribune (New York, New York), 11 October 1894, page 2<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

In 1825, the tavern was moved from the Bowery to Twenty-Fourth Street and Third Avenue. I learned this from the following newspaper article announcing the closing of the Bull\u2019s Head Tavern. After 80 years in its second location, the tavern was closed down completely and the furnishings and fixtures were auctioned off.<\/p>\n

\"Passing<\/a>
Springfield Republican (Springfield, Massachusetts), 24 May 1905, page 11<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

In the meantime, back at 50 Bowery, the spot was used as a stove factory before the Atlantic Garden was opened in 1858.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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As the next newspaper article reported, soon after William Kramer opened the Atlantic Garden it became the recruiting station for the German regiments during the Civil War. Next door was the Thalia Theater where German language operas were sung. A passageway was built between the theater and the Garden to facilitate the opera patrons running over \u201cfor a bite and a sip between the acts.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Atlantic<\/a>
Duluth News-Tribune (Duluth, Minnesota), 20 June 1909, page 13<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

According to another newspaper article, Atlantic Garden became the center of German life in the city and was \u201ca resort modeled after the amusement gardens of German cities.\u201d<\/p>\n

This old newspaper article also reported that the Atlantic Garden was about to be closed in 1911\u2014slated to be torn down in preparation for a modern theatre and eight-story office building.<\/p>\n

\"article<\/a>
Grand Forks Daily Herald (Grand Forks, North Dakota), 20 August 1911, page 7<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Historical Professional Parallels<\/strong><\/p>\n

And that brings us back to the archaeology article I read recently, that spurred me to do this research. Just as the archaeologists dug through the earth to find \u201cliquor bottles, plates, and mugs,\u201d we dug through a few hundred years\u2019 worth of newspaper articles to learn more about the people and buildings. Long-dead Van der Burgh, Astor, and Kramer left their mark in more ways than one. Their objects will fascinate those on-site. And a brief glimpse into their lives fascinates us. Well done, men!<\/p>\n

Most genealogists know that newspapers help tell the stories of our ancestors\u2019 lives\u2014but, as this article has shown, newspapers also tell us about the times and places our ancestors lived in.<\/p>\n

Genealogy Tip:<\/em><\/strong> Even though this research was about taverns in New York City, note the variety of states where relevant newspaper articles were found, including: California, Massachusetts, Minnesota and North Dakota. This is a reminder that you should begin your search with a broad geographical scope; you never know where a newspaper article was published that might be about your ancestor or area of interest.<\/p>\n

_________<\/p>\n

* \u201cHistoric Taverns Unearthed in New York City.\u201d Archaeology.com. May 5, 2014. Accessed June 1, 2014. http:\/\/archaeology.org\/news\/2083-140505-bowery-tavern-beer<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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Introduction: Duncan Kuehn is a professional genealogist with over eight years of client experience. She has worked on several well-known projects, such as \u201cWho Do You Think You Are?\u201d and researching President Barack Obama\u2019s ancestry. In this blog post, Duncan searches old newspapers to find the history of two taverns in Manhattan that archaeologists recently […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[12713],"tags":[7829,7832,7828,7827,558,7831,465,7834,1941,455,878,2020,27,4818,530,7837,7826,7835,7836,7830,1087,7833],"class_list":["post-8158","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-genealogy-research-tips","tag-adam-van-der-burgh","tag-astor","tag-atlantic-garden-tavern","tag-bulls-head-tavern","tag-george-washington","tag-henry-astor","tag-historical-newspapers","tag-kramer","tag-manhattan","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-newspaper-archives","tag-newspapers","tag-newspapers-for-genealogy","tag-ny","tag-taverns","tag-the-bowery","tag-third-avenue-railroad-company","tag-trinity-church","tag-van-der-burgh","tag-washington","tag-william-kramer"],"acf":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8158","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8158"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8158\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8158"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8158"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8158"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}