City Building on the Eastern Frontier Shaw, Diane Published by Johns Hopkins University Press Shaw, Diane. City Building on the Eastern Frontier: Sorting the New Nineteenth-Century City. Johns Hopkins University Press, 2004. Project MUSE. doi:10.1353/book.60323. https://muse.jhu.edu/. For additional information about this book https://muse.jhu.edu/book/60323 [ Access provided at 29 Sep 2021 09:02 GMT with no institutional affiliation ] This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. City Building on the Eastern Frontier CREATING THE NORTH AMERICAN LANDSCAPE Gregory Conniff George F. Thompson Edward K. Muller Series Founder and Director David Schuyler Consulting Editors Published in cooperation with the Center for American Places, Santa Fe, New Mexico, and Staunton, Virginia City Building on the Eastern Frontier Sorting the New Nineteenth-Century City DIANE SHAW The Johns Hopkins University Press Baltimore and London © 2004 The Johns Hopkins University Press All rights reserved. Published 2004 Printed in the United States of America on acid-free paper 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 The Johns Hopkins University Press 2715 North Charles Street Baltimore, Maryland 21218-4363 www.press.jhu.edu Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Shaw, Diane, 1959– City building on the eastern frontier : sorting the new nineteenth-century city / Diane Shaw. p. cm. — (Creating the North American landscape) Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 0-8018-7925-6 (hardcover : alk. paper) 1. City planning—New York (State)—History—19th century. 2. Cities and towns—New York (State)—History—19th century. 3. Architecture—New York (State)—History—19th century. I. Title. II. Series. HT167.N5S53 2004 307.1′216′0974709034—dc22 2003024909 A catalog record for this book is available from the British Library. Pages 211–13 constitute an extension of this copyright page. Family This page intentionally left blank Contents Acknowledgments ix ONE Vernacular Urbanism and the Mercantile Network of New Cities 1 TWO Planning the Sorted City: Commercial, Industrial, and Civic Districts 19 THREE Building the Sorted City: The Three Epitome Districts 41 FOUR Refining the Sorted City: Appearances in the Commercial District 64 FIVE Gentrifying the Sorted City: Social Sorting in the Commercial District 87 SIX The Reynolds Arcade and Athenaeum 123 SEVEN Transportation and the Changing Streetscape 139 Notes 157 Index 201 Illustrations precede page 1. This page intentionally left blank Acknowledgments This project began as something of an adventure. With an 1841 illustrated gazetteer of New York State cities in one hand and a modern AAA road map in the other, I crisscrossed the state, looking for signs of the nineteenth cen- tury. Of course, I had anticipated that the passage of time, not to mention the ravages of urban renewal, would be an obstacle, but there were times I simply could not correlate what I was seeing with the historical views. The Erie Canal was notoriously hard to find, having been largely paved over, al- though appellations such as Erie Boulevard in Syracuse provided some his- torical memory of the original artery. Even better was Rochester’s Broad Street bridge, which was carried across the Genesee River on the original stone arches of the Erie Canal boat aqueduct. There were other persisting elements too. Next to a cliff of industrial buildings, the Genesee still plunged into a dramatic waterfall. The Four Corners was still a prime com- mercial intersection, which even included a 1920s replacement of the 1820s arcade. And a nearby block still held a Monroe County courthouse and other civic institutions. The original pattern of new cities sorted into commercial, industrial, and civic districts proved durable. Perhaps I could find the nineteenth century after all. I could not have truly found it, however, without help. As historians, we are indebted to those whose research and writing has influenced our own work. I trust that this book and its citations indicate where many of my intellectual debts lie. But every author is further indebted to the people and institutions that helped bring the book to fruition. It is with pleasure and gratitude that I can try to thank them here. A number of institutions provided valuable financial support. A Uni- versity Fellowship and Humanities Graduate Research Grant from the Uni- versity of California at Berkeley provided a year’s stipend to support my ini- tial research. An Albert J. Beveridge Grant from the American Historical Association, a Carter Manny Citation of Merit from the Graham Founda- ix x ACKNOWLEDGMENTS tion, and a Berkman Faculty Development Grant from Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) helped me shape the project. A subsequent fellowship from the New York State Archives Larry J. Hackman Residency Program enabled me to do additional research. A summer stipend from the late Paul Christiano, then provost at Carnegie Mellon, and a grant from the CMU- administered Falk Fund provided additional research support to complete the book. Departmental support from the CMU School of Architecture al- lowed me to present portions of this work at the Vernacular Architecture Forum, Society of Architectural Historians, Society of American City and Regional Planning History, Association of American Geographers, and New York State History conferences. Librarians, archivists, and curators have provided particular assistance in this project, especially Judy Haven and Michael Martin of the Onondaga Historical Association, Karl Kabelac and Melissa Mead of the Department of Rare Books and Special Collections at the University of Rochester Li- braries, Andrew Kitzmann of the Erie Canal Museum, Jane Mebus at the Philadelphia Print Shop, and Craig Williams of the New York State Mu- seum. The staff at the Rochester Pubic Library, the New York Public Library, and the Columbia University libraries were extremely helpful. The Inter- Library Loan staff at Carnegie Mellon did a superb job. I remain indebted to my dissertation advisors Dell Upton, Paul Growth, and Mary P. Ryan, who challenged me to think about the multiple dimen- sions of nineteenth-century urbanization. Since that time this project has profited from the careful readings that friends and colleagues have given the manuscript. Ted Muller and Elizabeth Thomas deserve tremendous credit for helping me navigate between the big picture and the local story of these new cities. Members of the Vernacular Architecture Forum and a National Endowment for the Humanities summer institute provided valu- able and collegial discussion. Under real time pressure Bill Littmann gave the final manuscript his scholarly and editorial review. Martha McNamara has offered unflagging moral support. Maureen Fellows and Brian Ladd even offered their homes. Sergio de Orbeta provided great technical assis- tance. Elizabeth Gratch copyedited the manuscript with a thoughtful hand. George Thompson and Randy Jones of the Center for American Places have been true and patient backers of the project. This book has turned out to be a family affair. My sister edited an early version with her characteristic grace, humor, and eagle eye. My father, a model parent-professor, gave a thoughtful and nuanced reading of a later version. My mother and brother both sensibly knew when not to ask about ACKNOWLEDGMENTS xi the book’s progress. My husband, Kai Gutschow, deserves even more credit for this project than his splendid maps suggest. His scholarship and de- signer’s eye helped shape this book. He has been my partner and champion through the entire process. To my children, Josefina and Benjamin, who only know that I have been busy, I say, whew, let’s play. This page intentionally left blank City Building on the Eastern Frontier This page intentionally left blank Fig. 1. 1841 Map of New York State with key cities along the Erie Canal and Hudson River highlighted. Fig. 2. Redrawn 1811 Plat of Rochester. Within the Four Corners formed by the intersection of Buffalo, Mill, and Carroll streets, Nathaniel Rochester sorted commercial, milling, and civic functions. At the 1825 opening of the Erie Canal, the procession encompassed: (1) The canal turnout at Child’s Basin, (2) the Presbyterian church behind the courthouse, (3) the vicinity of Christopher’s Mansion House hotel. Fig. 3. Map of Rochester at midcentury. Fig. 4. Redrawn 1819 Plat of Syracuse. The juncture of Salina Street, the Genesee Turnpike, and the Erie Canal formed the city center at Clinton Square and the ad- jacent triangular Hanover Square. Fig. 5. Map of Syracuse at midcentury. Fig. 6. (top) 1815 road surveyors map of Rochester, showing that actual settlement followed Nathaniel Rochester’s compact plan at the Four Corners. Fig. 7. (bottom) Sketch of Clinton Square during the 1820s, drawn from memory by a Syracuse resident. A contiguous row of shop houses and the Bogardus Inn (later the Mansion House hotel) defined the northern edge of the compactly built Clinton Square. Other than their size, little distinguished these commercial build- ings from houses. Fig. 8. (top) Basil Hall’s 1827 Sketch of Buffalo Street, Rochester. Architectural distinctions clearly delineate the adjacent commercial and civic districts. Shop houses feature display windows and signboards. The civic “pocket” features the high-style Monroe County Courthouse, behind it the Presbyterian church; across the street peeks the Episcopal church tower and, in front of the courthouse terrace, stands a law office. Fig. 9. (bottom) Duttenhofer’s 1826 Sketch of Erie Canal Aqueduct, Rochester, showing the proxemics of milling and shipping. The canal aqueduct crosses above the Genesee River, passes the mills, and enters the canal basin within the indus- trial district. Fig. 10. (top) 1837 view of the maturing Rochester civic pocket at Buffalo and Fitzhugh streets. The Monroe County Courthouse is encircled by a pair of temple- fronted law and medical offices, a Neoclassical church with a small chapel or Sun- day school beside it, a Gothic Revival church, and an adjacent Greek Revival pub- lic school.