A History of the New York Swamp

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History of the Swamp

The art of tanning was introduced in New York coeval with its settlement. The rotund Dutchmen who  were under the rule of Perter Minuit and his successors wore a garb of leather, and the artizans added a leather apron ! These were made from deerskins. The agile animals that furnished these skins could be killed near the site of the present swamp. In the possession of the Beekman family are antlers of deer which William Beekman, their ancestor, shot in Beekman Street and its vicinity about 1688.

In 1664, New York, or--as it had been previously named--New Amsterdam, came into the possession of the Enlgish. Some tanners from London came here. They introduced the apprentice system. Seven years was the term of service for a boy of the age of fourteen years, at which they were indentured. The early tanners made their leather into shoes, and the trades were not separated until about the time of the Revolution.

In 1669 the first patent known here was granted to Adriasen and Christopher Van Lear for a "mill to grind or rasp the rind of bark of oaks to be used in tanning." The tanning properties of the hemlock tree were then unkown. Outside of New York there was a tannery owned by the Hunlst family at Greenwood, Brooklyn. All the rest of these establishments, with their contiguous shoe shops, were located near the present corner of Broad and Beaver Steets. Conrent Ten Eyck was the first tanner. He located near that corner in 1653. Tanners were ordered outside of the city wall(Wall Street) at the time of the English occupation and were located near Maiden Lane.

A relic of the old Dutch tanners has come down to the present day. It is the coat of arms of John Harpending, who owned most of "Shoemakers' Pasture," a name given to sixteen acres of land running north from Maiden Lane, between Gold and Nassau streets, to the Park. He gave the money and land with which to build the church at the corner of Fulton and William Streets, and his coat of arms, consisting of an old fashioned graining plate and beam, surmounted by a currier's knife, used by tanners, hung over the pulpit until it was demolished in 1875.

Five tanners in 1680 bought and occupied Shoemakers' Pasture. Eventually it came into the possession of John Harpending, one of the original purchasers. In 1696 he cut it up into 164 house lots, and from the proceeds of their sale he became a very rich man. It is now the center of the mercantile section of New York, but it was a wild, rough tract when the tanners bought it.

After this tract was sold the tanners settled around the "Collect," or lake, on Centre street, where now stands the "Tombs" prison. It was famous as the pond where Robert Fulton conducted his experiments. He propelled upon its surface, by steam, a small boat, before he sailed the Clermont up the North River.

Only upper leather was tannered here in those early days, and it was thought necessary for the hides to lay in the vats for a year. All sole leather was imported from London. As late as 1768 Governor Moore wrote to the "Lords of Trade" in London: "The tanning of leather has been carried on here (in New York) for many years. Leather is greatly inferior, in quality, to that made in Europe, and the tanners have not yet arrived at the perfection of making sole leather."

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The tanners did not remain very long at the Collect pond. About 1790 they began to cluster around the swamp. James Brooks and Jacob Lorillard, who had formerly tanned in Centre and in Magazine street, appear in the directory of 1800 as located in Jacob street.

George Washington once lived on the border of the Swamp. In 1798, having taken the oath of office as first President of the United States on the spot where his statute now stands in Wall Street, he took up his official residence in the large mansion at No. 3 Cherry street, near Frankfort street. This remained the Executive Mansion for one year,  or until the capital was removed to Philadelphia. The members of the cabinet were housed in Franklin Square, at the junction with Frankfort street, and its vicinity. Every day after dinner the state coach with four cream-colored horses, drove Lady Washington and the President either up the leafy Bowery or through Pearl street to the Battery, the great pleasure ground of New York. ...................

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Visitors to the Executive Mansion had to pass the Swamp, for it was the northernmost , boundary of the city. All beyond was pasture, or at best, farms and forest. To most of them the view of tanneries, with the vats laid down in parallel rows was an unwonted sight. .....

Colonel John Mansfield, a Lynn shoemaker, commanded the Lynn and Salem  Regiment at Bunker Hill. Roger Sherman, of Connecticut, shoemaker, and Francis  Lewis, of New York, hide dealer, represented these trades in the first Continental Congress. They were among the signers of the Immortal Declaration. These men, no doubt, visited their beloved General, and later, perhaps, partook of the hospitality of their fellow craftsmen in Francfort street.

About the beginning of last century the Swamp was a favorite place for turkey shooting on Thanksgiving day and other holidays. The Pearl street boys used to build forts of the spent tan, piked with cattle horns, and defend them against the invaders who came from "Fly Market," or .....

Early Swamp tanners

The old tanners who did business in the Swamp previous to 1800 sold their product to dealers on  the west side, who in turn supplied the shoe makers who were their only customers. ......
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The Swamp began to figure in the political history of New York about the commencement of the present century. The prominent leather dealers became leaders in the political parties and officers of the organization had their headquarters at the celebrated Washington and Tammany Halls. .....