The New-York Historical Society Quarterly Bulletin
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THE NEW-YORK HISTORICAL SOCIETY QUARTERLY BULLETIN VOL. VIII OCTOBER, 1924 No. 3 TCRENW- HOTEL SOUSASBAND PAINS FIREWORKS mmzNBZcK FIFTH AVENUE AND BROADWAY At 23rd Street, New York City, 1892. Site of the Flatiron Building NEW YORK: 170 CENTRAL PARK WEST PUBLISHED BY THE SOCIETY AND ISSUED TO MEMBERS mxMmp^t^*^*-* -itiiiijii. THE NEW-YORK HISTORICAL SOCIETY, 170 CENTRAL PARK WEST (Erected by the Society 1008) Wings to be erected on the 76th and 77th Street comers OFFICERS OF THE SOCIETY For Three Years, ending 1926 PRESIDENT FOREIGN CORRESPONDING SECRETARY JOHN ABEEL WEEKES ARCHER MILTON HUNTINGTON FIRST VICE-PRESIDENT DOMESTIC CORRESPONDING SECRETARY WALTER LISPENARD SUYDAM THOMAS T. SHERMAN SECOND VICE-PRESIDENT RECORDING SECRETARY J. ARCHIBALD MURRAY WILLIAM RHINELANDER STEWART THIRD VICE-PRESIDENT TREASURER ARTHUR H. MASTEN R. HORACE GALLATIN FOURTH VICE-PRESIDENT LIBRARIAN FRANCIS ROBERT SCHELL ALEXANDER J. WALL Robert H. Kelby, Librarian Emeritus THE SYLVAN STEAMBOATS ON THE EAST RIVER NEW YORK TO HARLEM. An interesting bit of transportation history of the City of New York well remembered by many old New Yorkers may be told in connection with the fine line of steamboats which plyed the East River from Harlem to Peck's Slip. The record of these "Sylvan" boats is definitely preserved in the five splendid water-color paint ings which have recently become the property of The New York Historical Society and are reproduced in this issue of the Bulletin, while the boats themselves have all been destroyed with the pos sible exception of one, as this article will hereafter relate. At the time that these steamboats were built traveling from the lower end of Manhattan Island to Harlem, was accomplished by the stages and later the horse cars and it is variously recorded that a trip from City Hall to Harlem Bridge by the horse car took from one hour and a half to two hours for the journey. The elevated roads which later succeeded in diverting the passengers from the steamboats had not been built, and there was no more lovely vista than the banks along the East River from Jones' Wood north, where the shore was dotted by country homes with large grounds of well- to-do New Yorkers, to whom the ever-changing panorama of steam and sail boats must have been an attractive feature from the ve randas of their splendid homes. The Harlem and New York Navigation Company was incor porated in 1856 with a capital of $150,000 under a general act of April 15, 1854, which provided for the incorporation of companies for the navigation of lakes and rivers, and the same year 1856 the "Sylvan Shore,'' the first of this company's line of "Sylvan" boats, was built at Morrisania, N. Y. The second, the "Sylvan Grove," was built in 1858, the third, "Sylvan Stream," built at New York City 1863, fourth, "Sylvan Glen," built at Brooklyn, N. Y., 1869, and fifth and last, the "Sylvan Dell," built at Greenpoint in 1872. The Company is first noted in Wilson's Business Directory of 1863-4 with address at Third Avenue, corner of East 130th Street, 59 60 THE NEW-YORK HISTORICAL SOCIETY The last appearance was in the directory of 1881-2. The boats ran from Harlem to Pier 24, East River, foot of Peck's Slip, and from an advertisement in the New York Tribune of July 4, i860, it is apparent that the Harlem and New York Navigation Company co-operated with the Harlem and Spuyten Duyvil Navigation Company which also docked at the foot of East 130th Street and ran smaller boats to places beyond Harlem. The advertisement reads: "Fourth of July on the Harlem River. The Steamers, Emily, Tiger and Trumpeter, will leave their wharf, at Harlem for High Bridge every half hour during the day, and for the Century House, 215th Street, near King's Bridge hourly, touch ing at Macomb's Dam, Tomlinson's Woods, Morris's Dock and Fordham Landing, and 'connecting with the steamers Sylvan Shore and Sylvan Grove, which leave Peck Slip and Harlem every hour throughout the day". One would naturally ask why two boat lines were needed for the Harlem River service, and why the Sylvan line of boats did not run beyond the Harlem Bridge. The reason being that at that time no boat drawing over two feet of water could navigate the shallow Harlem. An interesting account of the Harlem and Spuyten Duyvil Navigation Company is given in the first report to the stockholders by L. G. Morris, the President of the Company, dated November 14, i860: "As the Harlem River never had been looked upon as a navi gable stream by the public until the time of our commencing to navigate it under this incorporation, there had been no landings established by law or otherwise excepting Morris' private dock and Berrian's landing at Fordham. This involved immediate outlay in building temporary structures at 3rd Avenue, Macomb's Dam, High Bridge, Tomlinson's Woods and 215th Street and we had to apply to Police, Harbor Masters, etc., to establish the right to pro tect and maintain private landings over private property, which was successful. ... It was deemed expedient that the Company should own, equip and fully man three boats, to enable them to run week day boats and three boats on Sundays, not that we sup posed the route would in itself pay for such an outfit, but thought iIO > •-3 W t* r «! Cd a r w THE "SYLVAN SHORE," BUILT 1856 From a painting by James Bard. 62 THE NEW-YORK HISTORICAL- SOCIETY it expedient to accommodate and carry the public on all emergen cies, and we determined to try and get extra excursions for the third boat on week days to help pay expenses. We did something in the excursion line but not with sufficient success to make it profitable, which confines our receipts to the legitimate business between Third Avenue and 215th Street. "The Emily was placed on the route on the 24th of March, and ran alone until the 18th of May, when the Tiger was started and July 4th the Trumpeter was put on." The receipts from March through October, i860, were #12,659.77, which at six cents each makes the number of persons carried during that time 210,996; the distance being a little less than five miles each way. For those traveling beyond Harlem, there was also a stage line which ran to the Village of Morrisania which connected with the boats plying to the city. Then as now we find the Fourth of July the grand outing day on the steamboats and advertisements in the newspapers between 1860-1880 show these boats were used for excursions to all places of interest on the Hudson River, Harlem River and down the Bay on each Independence Day as well as on Sundays when not serving as transportation steamers, as they did during the week. The Sylvan boats operated by the Harlem and New York Navi gation Company left 130th Street for Peck's Slip, stopping at 120th Street and at Astoria, and the express boats made the run in half an hour. The queen of the fleet was the "Sylvan Dell", which was celebrated for her speed. But this company was not without its rival, for the Morrisania Steamboat Company also operated a line of boats from Mott Haven to Fulton Street. They were, the "Harlem", "Morrisania" and "Shady Side". The latter, built in 1873, was the last of this group to be constructed. It was built to run from New York to Fort Lee (known as Shady Side) and taken over by the opposition line because the Harlem was getting slow. These boats docked on the northerly side of the Harlem Bridge and the Sylvan boats on the southerly side. Early Harlem residents still recall the keen rivalry and com petition of these two companies and in order to gain patronage these companies oftentimes raced their boats, in which contests 83 c •> 9* w p >< Cd a w THE "SYLVAN GROVE," BUILT 1858 From a painting by James Bard. CO 64 THE NEW-YORK HISTORICAL SOCIETY the Sylvan boats fared best. The boats also carried freight in addition to the passengers. One writer in the Harlem Home News of March 27, 1918, recalling his boyhood days states that when he went to the old 125th Street school all the lads knew the name of the boats by their whistle and bell. The "Sylvan Dell," known as the speediest of the boats, carries on her bow mast a significant flag not carried by the other boats. It has a race horse with a jockey for a flag instead of the usual let ters, of the name of the boat. The boats ran on a varying schedule of one half hour to 2 hours apart. Dodd's Express Railway and Steamboat Register for 1869 gives the time of the Sylvan boats leaving Harlem, between 7 A.M. to 6.15 P.M. daily except Sundays as follows: 7, 8, 9.15, 11.30, 1.30^ 3.15, 4.15, 5.15 and 6.15. The slow, tiresome trip of the Third Avenue horse cars from lower Manhattan to Harlem, made the trip on the trim Sylvan boats an attraction and this mode of travel evidently increased, judging from the regularity with which new boats were added from the first built in 1856 to the fifth in 1872 and the fact that a rival company had also stepped in as a competitor. From an account in the New York Tribune of October 21, 1876, it is shown that an attempt was made to consolidate these two companies but with what success has not been learned, but we have not found that they were made.