Volume 18 , Issue 39

Walking With Old Sweet Sadie

Did you know that a part of upper Manhattan branches were in Harlem, once an Indian camp, but immortalized by the Battle of Harlem Heights, where Alexander Hamilton first distinguished himself as an artillery officer. Also, at 160th Street, was the famous Jumel Mansion, once occupied by Washington as his headquarters.

Then there was the Bayard House where Alexander Hamilton died after the duel with Burr. Let us not forget the old Chelsea Village district, further uptown, where Dr. Clement C. Moore wrote that childhood classic, "The Night Before Christmas."

If you had been living in Wall Street in 1812, you might have been wakened in the early hours of a Saturday, 20 June, by the staccato, excited shouts in the street: "War! War is declared. War - war declared last Thursday."

Hurrying to get the news you would have jointed the little knots of men with tall beaver hats, long-tailed coats, and tight-fitting colored trousers. Anxious hands grasped for the coveted copies of the Commercial Advertiser, heads appeared at second story windows to hear this read aloud above the gathering hubbub: "Most Awful Calamity - This morning at half past nine o'clock, General Bloomfield received by express from the Secretary of War at Washington the announcement of a Declaration of War in consequence of which at the head of the troops, he issues the following general orders..."

Wall Street back then was largely residential.

Good Night! Good Luck! Remember, "Love conquers Hate!"
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