The King's Arms was built of wood, and had a front of yellow brick, said to have been brought from Holland. The building was two stories high, and on the roof was an "observatory," arranged with seats, and commanding a fine view of the bay, the river, and the city. Here the coffee-house visitors frequently sat in the afternoons. It is not shown in the illustration.

The sides of the main room on the lower floor were lined with booths, which, for the sake of greater privacy, were screened with green curtains. There a patron could sip his coffee, or a more stimulating drink, and look over his mail in the same exclusiveness affected by the Londoner of the time.

The rooms on the second floor were used for special meetings of merchants, colonial magistrates and overseers, or similar public and private business.

The meeting room, as above described, seems to have been one of the chief features distinguishing a coffee house from a tavern. Although both types of houses had rooms for guests, and served meals, the coffee house was used for business purposes by permanent customers, while the tavern was patronized more by transients. Men met at the coffee house daily to carry on business, and went to the tavern for convivial purposes or lodgings. Before the front door hung the sign of "the lion and the unicorn fighting for the crown."

For many years the King's Arms was the only coffee house in the city; or at least no other seems of sufficient importance to have been mentioned in colonial records. For this reason it was more frequently designated as "the" coffee house than the King's Arms. Contemporary records of the arrest of John Hutchins of the King's Arms, and of Roger Baker, for speaking disrespectfully of King George, mention the King's Head, of which Baker was proprietor. But it is generally believed that this public house was a tavern and not rightfully to be considered as a coffee house. The White Lion, mentioned about 1700, was also a tavern, or inn.

The New Coffee House

Under date of September 22, 1709, the Journal of the General Assembly of the Colony of New York refers to a conference held in the "New Coffee House." About this date the business section of the city had begun to drift eastward from Broadway to the waterfront; and from this fact it is assumed that the name "New Coffee House" indicates that the King's Arms had been removed from its original location near Cedar Street, or that it may have lost favor and have been superseded in popularity by a newer coffee house. The Journal does not give the location of the "New" coffee house. Whatever the case may be, the name of the King's Arms does not again appear in the records until 1763, and then it had more the character of a tavern, or roadhouse.

The public records from 1709 up to 1729 are silent in regard to coffee houses in New York. In 1725 the pioneer newspaper in the city, the New York Gazette, came into existence; and four years later, 1729, there appeared in it an advertisement stating that "a competent bookkeeper may be heard of" at the "Coffee House." In 1730 another advertisement in the same journal tells of a sale of land by public vendue (auction) to be held at the Exchange coffee house.

The Exchange Coffee House

By reason of its name, the Exchange Coffee House is thought to have been located at the foot of Broad Street, abutting the sea-wall and near the Long Bridge of that day. At that time this section was the business center of the city, and here was a trading exchange.

That the Exchange coffee house was the only one of its kind in New York in 1732 is inferred from the announcement in that year of a meeting of the conference committee of the Council and Assembly "at the Coffee House." In seeming confirmation of this conclusion, is the advertisement in 1733 in the New York Gazette requesting the return of "lost sleeve buttons to Mr. Todd, next door to the Coffee House." The records of the day show that a Robert Todd kept the famous Black Horse tavern which was located in this part of the city.

Again we hear of the Exchange coffee house in 1737, and apparently in the same location, where it is mentioned in an account of the "Negro plot" as being next door to the Fighting Cocks tavern by the Long Bridge, at the foot of Broad Street. Also in this same year it is named as the place of public vendue of land situated on Broadway.

By this time the Exchange coffee house had virtually become the city's official auction room, as well as the place to buy and to drink coffee. Commodities of many kinds were also bought and sold there, both within the house and on the sidewalk before it.

The Merchants Coffee House

In the year 1750, the Exchange coffee house had begun to lose its long-held prestige, and its name was changed to the Gentlemen's Exchange coffee house and tavern. A year later it had migrated to Broadway under the name of the Gentlemens' coffee house and tavern. In 1753 it was moved again, to Hunter's Quay, which was situated on what is now Front Street, somewhere between the present Old Slip and Wall Street. The famous old coffee house seems to have gone out of existence about this time, its passing hastened, no doubt, by the newer enterprise, the Merchants coffee house, which was to become the most celebrated in New York, and, according to some writers, the most historic in America.

It is not certain just when the Merchants coffee house was first opened. As near as can be determined, Daniel Bloom, a mariner, in 1737 bought the Jamaica Pilot Boat tavern from John Dunks and named it the Merchants coffee house. The building was situated on the northwest corner of the present Wall Street and Water (then Queen) Street; and Bloom was its landlord until his death, soon after the year 1750. He was succeeded by Captain James Ackland, who shortly sold it to Luke Roome. The latter disposed of the building in 1758 to Dr. Charles Arding. The doctor leased it to Mrs. Mary Ferrari, who continued as its proprietor until she moved, in 1772, to the newer building diagonally across the street, built by William Brownejohn, on the southeast corner of Wall and Water Streets. Mrs. Ferrari took with her the patronage and the name of the Merchants coffee house, and the old building was not used again as a coffee house.

The building housing the original Merchants coffee house was a two-story structure, with a balcony on the roof, which was typical of the middle eighteenth century architecture in New York. On the first floor were the coffee bar and booths described in connection with the King's Arms coffee house. The second floor had the typical long room for public assembly.

During Bloom's proprietorship the Merchants coffee house had a long, hard struggle to win the patronage away from the Exchange coffee house, which was flourishing at that time. But, being located near the Meal Market, where the merchants were wont to gather for trading purposes, it gradually became the meeting place of the city, at the expense of the Exchange coffee house, farther down the waterfront.

Widow Ferrari presided over the original Merchants coffee house for fourteen years, until she moved across the street. She was a keen business woman. Just before she was ready to open the new coffee house she announced to her old patrons that she would give a house-warming, at which arrack, punch, wine, cold ham, tongue, and other delicacies of the day would be served. The event was duly noted in the newspapers, one stating that "the agreeable situation and the elegance of the new house had occasioned a great resort of company to it."

Mrs. Ferrari continued in charge until May 1, 1776, when Cornelius Bradford became proprietor and sought to build up the patronage, that had dwindled somewhat during the stirring days immediately preceding the Revolution. In his announcement of the change of ownership, he said, "Interesting intelligence will be carefully collected and the greatest attention will be given to the arrival of vessels, when trade and navigation shall resume their former channels." He referred to the complete embargo of trade to Europe which the colonists were enduring. When the American troops withdrew from the city during the Revolution, Bradford went also, to Rhinebeck on the Hudson.

During the British occupation, the Merchants coffee house was a place of great activity. As before, it was the center of trading, and under the British régime it became also the place where the prize ships were sold. The Chamber of Commerce resumed its sessions in the upper long room in 1779, having been suspended since 1775. The Chamber paid fifty pounds rent per annum for the use of the room to Mrs. Smith, the landlady at the time.

In 1781 John Stachan, then proprietor of the Queen's Head tavern, became landlord of the Merchants coffee house, and he promised in a public announcement "to pay attention not only as a Coffee House, but as a tavern, in the truest; and to distinguish the same as the City Tavern and Coffee House, with constant and best attendance. Breakfast from seven to eleven; soups and relishes from eleven to half-past one. Tea, coffee, etc., in the afternoon, as in England." But when he began charging sixpence for receiving and dispatching letters by man-o'-war to England, he brought a storm about his ears, and was forced to give up the practise. He continued in charge until peace came, and Cornelius Bradford came with it to resume proprietorship of the coffee house.

Bradford changed the name to the New York coffee house, but the public continued to call it by its original name, and the landlord soon gave in. He kept a marine list, giving the names of vessels arriving and departing, recording their ports of sailing. He also opened a register of returning citizens, "where any gentleman now resident in the city," his advertisement stated, "may insert their names and place of residence." This seems to have been the first attempt at a city directory. By his energy Bradford soon made the Merchants coffee house again the business center of the city. When he died, in 1786, he was mourned as one of the leading citizens. His funeral was held at the coffee house over which he had presided so well.

The Merchants coffee house continued to be the principal public gathering place until it was destroyed by fire in 1804. During its existence it had figured prominently in many of the local and national historic events, too numerous to record here in detail.

Some of the famous events were: The reading of the order to the citizens, in 1765, warning them to stop rioting against the Stamp Act; the debates on the subject of not accepting consignments of goods from Great Britain; the demonstration by the Sons of Liberty, sometimes called the "Liberty Boys," made before Captain Lockyer of the tea ship Nancy which had been turned away from Boston and sought to land its cargo in New York in 1774; the general meeting of citizens on May 19, 1774, to discuss a means of communicating with the Massachusetts colony to obtain co-ordinated effort in resisting England's oppression, out of which came the letter suggesting a congress of deputies from the colonies and calling for a "virtuous and spirited Union;" the mass meeting of citizens in the days immediately following the battles at Concord and Lexington in Massachusetts; and the forming of the Committee of One Hundred to administer the public business, making the Merchants coffee house virtually the seat of government.

When the American Army held the city in 1776, the coffee house became the resort of army and navy officers. Its culminating glory came on April 23, 1789, when Washington, the recently elected first president of the United States, was officially greeted at the coffee house by the governor of the State, the mayor of the city, and the lesser municipal officers.

As a meeting place for societies and lodges the Merchants coffee house was long distinguished. In addition to the purely commercial organizations that gathered in its long room, these bodies regularly met there in their early days: The Society of Arts, Agriculture and Economy; Knights of Corsica; New York Committee of Correspondence; New York Marine Society; Chamber of Commerce of the State of New York; Lodge 169, Free and Accepted Masons; Whig Society; Society of the New York Hospital; St. Andrew's Society; Society of the Cincinnati; Society of the Sons of St. Patrick; Society for Promoting the Manumission of Slaves; Society for the Relief of Distressed Debtors; Black Friars Society; Independent Rangers; and Federal Republicans.

Here also came the men who, in 1784, formed the Bank of New York, the first financial institution in the city; and here was held, in 1790, the first public sale of stocks by sworn brokers. Here, too, was held the organization meeting of subscribers to the Tontine coffee house, which in a few years was to prove a worthy rival.

Some Lesser Known Coffee Houses

Before taking up the story of the famous Tontine coffee house it should be noted that the Merchants coffee house had some prior measure of competition. For four years the Exchange coffee room sought to cater to the wants of the merchants around the foot of Broad Street. It was located in the Royal Exchange, which had been erected in 1752 in place of the old Exchange, and until 1754 had been used as a store. Then William Keen and Alexander Lightfoot got control and started their coffee room, with a ball room attached. The partnership split up in 1756, Lightfoot continuing operations until he died the next year, when his widow tried to carry it on. In 1758 it had reverted into its original character of a mercantile establishment.

Then there was the Whitehall coffee house, which two men, named Rogers and Humphreys, opened in 1762, with the announcement that "a correspondence is settled in London and Bristol to remit by every opportunity all the public prints and pamphlets as soon as published; and there will be a weekly supply of New York, Boston and other American newspapers." This enterprise had a short life.

The early records of the city infrequently mention the Burns coffee house, sometimes calling it a tavern. It is likely that the place was more an inn than a coffee house. It was kept for a number of years by George Burns, near the Battery, and was located in the historic old De Lancey house, which afterward became the City hotel.

Burns remained the proprietor until 1762, when it was taken over by a Mrs. Steele, who gave it the name of the King's Arms. Edward Barden became the landlord in 1768. In later years it became known as the Atlantic Garden house. Traitor Benedict Arnold is said to have lodged in the old tavern after deserting to the enemy.

The Bank coffee house belonged to a later generation, and had few of the characteristics of the earlier coffee houses. It was opened in 1814 by William Niblo, of Niblo's Garden fame, and stood at the corner of William and Pine Streets, at the rear of the Bank of New York. The coffee house endured for probably ten years, and became the gathering place of a coterie of prominent merchants, who formed a sort of club. The Bank coffee house became celebrated for its dinners and dinner parties.

Fraunces' tavern, best known as the place where Washington bade farewell to his army officers, was, as its name states, a tavern, and can not be properly classed as a coffee house. While coffee was served, and there was a long room for gatherings, little, if any, business was done there by merchants. It was largely a meeting place for citizens bent on a "good time."

Then there was the New England and Quebec coffee house, which was also a tavern.

The Tontine Coffee House

The last of the celebrated coffee houses of New York bore the name, Tontine coffee house. For several years after the burning of the Merchants coffee house, in 1804, it was the only one of note in the city.

Feeling that they should have a more commodious coffee house for carrying on their various business enterprises, some 150 merchants organized, in 1791, the Tontine coffee house. This enterprise was based on the plan introduced into France in 1653 by Lorenzo Tonti, with slight variations. According to the New York Tontine plan, each holder's share reverted automatically to the surviving shareholders in the association, instead of to his heirs. There were 157 original shareholders, and 203 shares of stock valued at £200 each.

The directors bought the house and lot on the northwest corner of Wall and Water Streets, where the original Merchants coffee house stood, paying £1,970. They next acquired the adjoining lots on Wall and Water Streets, paying £2,510 for the former, and £1,000 for the latter.

The cornerstone of the new coffee house was laid June 5, 1792; and a year later to the day, 120 gentlemen sat down to a banquet in the completed coffee house to celebrate the event of the year before. John Hyde was the first landlord. The house had cost $43,000.

A contemporary account of how the Tontine coffee house looked in 1794 is supplied by an Englishman visiting New York at the time:

The stock market made its headquarters in the Tontine coffee house in 1817, and the early organization was elaborated and became the New York Stock and Exchange Board. It was removed in 1827 to the Merchants Exchange Building, where it remained until that place was destroyed by fire in 1835.

It was stipulated in the original articles of the Tontine Association that the house was to be kept and used as a coffee house, and this agreement was adhered to up to the year 1834, when, by permission of the Court of Chancery, the premises were let for general business-office purposes. This change was due to the competition offered by the Merchants Exchange, a short distance up Wall Street, which had been opened soon after the completion of the Tontine coffee house building.

As the city grew, the business-office quarters of the original Tontine coffee house became inadequate; and about the year 1850 a new five-story building, costing some $60,000, succeeded it. By this time the building had lost its old coffee-house characteristics. This new Tontine structure is said to have been the first real office building in New York City. Today the site is occupied by a large modern office building, which still retains the name of Tontine. It was owned by John B. and Charles A. O'Donohue, well known New York coffee merchants, until 1920, when it was sold for $1,000,000 to the Federal Sugar Refining Company.

The Tontine coffee house did not figure so prominently in the historic events of the nation and city as did its neighbor, the Merchants coffee house. However, it became the Mecca for visitors from all parts of the country, who did not consider their sojourn in the city complete until they had at least inspected what was then one of the most pretentious buildings in New York. Chroniclers of the Tontine coffee house always say that most of the leaders of the nation, together with distinguished visitors from abroad, had foregathered in the large room of the old coffee house at some time during their careers.

It was on the walls of the Tontine coffee house that bulletins were posted on Hamilton's struggle for life after the fatal duel forced on him by Aaron Burr.

The changing of the Tontine coffee house into a purely mercantile building marked the end of the coffee-house era in New York. Exchanges and office buildings had come into existence to take the place of the business features of the coffee houses; clubs were organized to take care of the social functions; and restaurants and hotels had sprung up to cater to the needs for beverages and food.

New York's Pleasure Gardens

There was a fairly successful attempt made to introduce the London pleasure-garden idea into New York. First, tea gardens were added to several of the taverns already provided with ball rooms. Then, on the outskirts of the city, were opened the Vauxhall and the Ranelagh gardens, so named after their famous London prototypes. The first Vauxhall garden (there were three of this name) was on Greenwich Street, between Warren and Chambers Streets. It fronted on the North River, affording a beautiful view up the Hudson. Starting as the Bowling Green garden, it changed to Vauxhall in 1750.

Ranelagh was on Broadway, between Duane and Worth Streets, on the site where later the New York Hospital was erected. From advertisements of the period (1765–69) we learn that there were band concerts twice a week at the Ranelagh. The gardens were "for breakfasting as well as the evening entertainment of ladies and gentlemen." There was a commodious hall in the garden for dancing. Ranelagh lasted twenty years. Coffee, tea, and hot rolls could be had in the pleasure gardens at any hour of the day. Fireworks were featured at both Ranelagh and Vauxhall gardens. The second Vauxhall was near the intersection of the present Mulberry and Grand Streets, in 1798; the third was on Bowery Road, near Astor Place, in 1803. The Astor library was built upon its site in 1853.

William Niblo, previously proprietor of the Bank coffee house in Pine Street, opened, in 1828, a pleasure garden, that he named Sans Souci, on the site of a circus building called the Stadium at Broadway and Prince Street. In the center of the garden remained the stadium, which was devoted to theatrical performances of "a gay and attractive character." Later, he built a more pretentious theater that fronted on Broadway. The interior of the garden was "spacious, and adorned with shrubbery and walks, lighted with festoons of lamps." It was generally known as Niblo's garden.

Among other well known pleasure gardens of old New York were Contoit's, later the New York garden, and Cherry gardens, on old Cherry Hill.

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Chapter XIV

COFFEE HOUSES OF OLD PHILADELPHIA

William Penn is generally credited with the introduction of coffee into the Quaker colony which he founded on the Delaware in 1682. He also brought to the "city of brotherly love" that other great drink of human brotherhood, tea. At first (1700), "like tea, coffee was only a drink for the well-to-do, except in sips."[93] As was the case in the other English colonies, coffee languished for a time while tea rose in favor, more especially in the home.

Following the stamp act of 1765, and the tea tax of 1767, the Pennsylvania Colony joined hands with the others in a general tea boycott; and coffee received the same impetus as elsewhere in the colonies that became the thirteen original states.

The coffee houses of early Philadelphia loom large in the history of the city and the republic. Picturesque in themselves, with their distinctive colonial architecture, their associations also were romantic. Many a civic, sociological, and industrial reform came into existence in the low-ceilinged, sanded-floor main rooms of the city's early coffee houses.

For many years, Ye coffee house, the two London coffee houses, and the City tavern (also known as the Merchants coffee house) each in its turn dominated the official and social life of Philadelphia. The earlier houses were the regular meeting places of Quaker municipal officers, ship captains, and merchants who came to transact public and private business. As the outbreak of the Revolution drew near, fiery colonials, many in Quaker garb, congregated there to argue against British oppression of the colonies. After the Revolution, the leading citizens resorted to the coffee house to dine and sup and to hold their social functions.

When the city was founded in 1682, coffee cost too much to admit of its being retailed to the general public at coffee houses. William Penn wrote in his Accounts that in 1683 coffee in the berry was sometimes procured in New York at a cost of eighteen shillings nine pence the pound, equal to about $4.68. He told also that meals were served in the ordinaries at six pence (equal to twelve cents), to wit: "We have seven ordinaries for the entertainment of strangers and for workmen that are not housekeepers, and a good meal is to be had there for six pence sterling." With green coffee costing $4.68 a pound, making the price of a cup about seventeen cents, it is not likely that coffee was on the menus of the ordinaries serving meals at twelve cents each. Ale was the common meal-time beverage.

There were four classes of public houses—inns, taverns, ordinaries, and coffee houses. The inn was a modest hotel that supplied lodgings, food, and drink, the beverages consisting mostly of ale, port, Jamaica rum, and Madeira wine. The tavern, though accommodating guests with bed and board, was more of a drinking place than a lodging house. The ordinary combined the characteristics of a restaurant and a boarding house. The coffee house was a pretentious tavern, dispensing, in most cases, intoxicating drinks as well as coffee.

Philadelphia's First Coffee House

The first house of public resort opened in Philadelphia bore the name of the Blue Anchor tavern, and was probably established in 1683 or 1684; colonial records do not state definitely. As its name indicates, this was a tavern. The first coffee house came into existence about the year 1700. Watson, in one place in his Annals of the city, says 1700, but in another 1702. The earlier date is thought to be correct, and is seemingly substantiated by the co-authors Scharf and Westcott in their History of the city, in which they say, "The first public house designated as a coffee house was built in Penn's time [1682–1701] by Samuel Carpenter, on the east side of Front Street, probably above Walnut Street. That it was the first of its kind—the only one in fact for some years—seems to be established beyond doubt. It was always referred to in old times as 'Ye Coffee House.'"

Carpenter owned also the Globe inn, which was separated from Ye coffee house by a public stairway running down from Front Street to Water Street, and, it is supposed, to Carpenter's Wharf. The exact location of the old house was recently established from the title to the original patentee, Samuel Carpenter, by a Philadelphia real-estate title-guarantee company, as being between Walnut and Chestnut Streets, and occupying six and a half feet of what is now No. 137 South Front Street and the whole of No. 139.

How long Ye coffee house endured is uncertain. It was last mentioned in colonial records in a real estate conveyance from Carpenter to Samuel Finney, dated April 26, 1703. In that document it is described as "That brick Messuage, or Tenement, called Ye Coffee House, in the possession of Henry Flower, and situate, lying and being upon or before the bank of the Delaware River, containing in length about thirty feet and in breadth about twenty-four."

The Henry Flower mentioned as the proprietor of Philadelphia's first coffee house, was postmaster of the province for a number of years, and it is believed that Ye coffee house also did duty as the post-office for a time. Benjamin Franklin's Pennsylvania Gazette, in an issue published in 1734, has this advertisement:

Flower's advertisement would indicate that Ye coffee house, then venerable enough to be designated as old, was still in existence, and that Flower was to be found there. Franklin also seems to have been in the coffee business, for in several issues of the Gazette around the year 1740 he advertised: "Very good coffee sold by the Printer."

The First London Coffee House

Philadelphia's second coffee house bore the name of the London coffee house, which title was later used for the resort William Bradford opened in 1754. The first house of this name was built in 1702, but there seems to be some doubt about its location. Writing in the American Historical Register, Charles H. Browning says: "William Rodney came to Philadelphia with Penn in 1682, and resided in Kent County, where he died in 1708; he built the old London coffee house at Front and Market Streets in 1702." Another chronicler gives its location as "above Walnut Street, either on the east side of Water Street, or on Delaware Avenue, or, as the streets are very close together, it may have been on both. John Shewbert, its proprietor, was a parishioner of Christ Church, and his establishment was largely patronized by Church of England people." It was also the gathering place of the followers of Penn and the Proprietary party, while their opponents, the political cohorts of Colonel Quarry, frequented Ye coffee house.

The first London coffee house resembled a fashionable club house in its later years, suitable for the "genteel" entertainments of the well-to-do Philadelphians. Ye coffee house was more of a commercial or public exchange. Evidence of the gentility of the London is given by John William Wallace:

One of the many historic incidents connected with this old house was the visit there by William Penn's eldest son, John, in 1733, when he entertained the General Assembly of the province on one day and on the next feasted the City Corporation.

Roberts' Coffee House

Another house with some fame in the middle of the eighteenth century was Roberts' coffee house, which stood in Front Street near the first London house. Though its opening date is unknown, it is believed to have come into existence about 1740. In 1744 a British army officer recruiting troops for service in Jamaica advertised in the newspaper of the day that he could be seen at the Widow Roberts' coffee house. During the French and Indian War, when Philadelphia was in grave danger of attack by French and Spanish privateers, the citizens felt so great relief when the British ship Otter came to the rescue, that they proposed a public banquet in honor of the Otter's captain to be held at Roberts' coffee house. For some unrecorded reason the entertainment was not given; probably because the house was too small to accommodate all the citizens desiring to attend. Widow Roberts retired in 1754.

The James Coffee House

Contemporary with Roberts' coffee house was the resort run first by Widow James, and later by her son, James James. It was established in 1744, and occupied a large wooden building on the northwest corner of Front and Walnut Streets. It was patronized by Governor Thomas and many of his political followers, and its name frequently appeared in the news and advertising columns of the Pennsylvania Gazette.

The Second London Coffee House

Probably the most celebrated coffee house in Penn's city was the one established by William Bradford, printer of the Pennsylvania Journal. It was on the southwest corner of Second and Market Streets, and was named the London coffee house, the second house in Philadelphia to bear that title. The building had stood since 1702, when Charles Reed, later mayor of the city, put it up on land which he bought from Letitia Penn, daughter of William Penn, the founder. Bradford was the first to use the structure for coffee-house purposes, and he tells his reason for entering upon the business in his petition to the governor for a license: "Having been advised to keep a Coffee House for the benefit of merchants and traders, and as some people may at times be desirous to be furnished with other liquors besides coffee, your petitioner apprehends it is necessary to have the Governor's license." This would indicate that in that day coffee was drunk as a refreshment between meals, as were spirituous liquors for so many years before, and thereafter up to 1920.

Bradford's London coffee house seems to have been a joint-stock enterprise, for in his Journal of April 11, 1754, appeared this notice: "Subscribers to a public coffee house are invited to meet at the Courthouse on Friday, the 19th instant, at 3 o'clock, to choose trustees agreeably to the plan of subscription."

The building was a three-story wooden structure, with an attic that some historians count as the fourth story. There was a wooden awning one-story high extending out to cover the sidewalk before the coffee house. The entrance was on Market (then known as High) Street.

The London coffee house was "the pulsating heart of excitement, enterprise, and patriotism" of the early city. The most active citizens congregated there—merchants, shipmasters, travelers from other colonies and countries, crown and provincial officers. The governor and persons of equal note went there at certain hours "to sip their coffee from the hissing urn, and some of those stately visitors had their own stalls." It had also the character of a mercantile exchange—carriages, horses, foodstuffs, and the like being sold there at auction. It is further related that the early slave-holding Philadelphians sold negro men, women, and children at vendue, exhibiting the slaves on a platform set up in the street before the coffee house.

The resort was the barometer of public sentiment. It was in the street before this house that a newspaper published in Barbados, bearing a stamp in accordance with the provisions of the stamp act, was publicly burned in 1765, amid the cheers of bystanders. It was here that Captain Wise of the brig Minerva, from Pool, England, who brought news of the repeal of the act, was enthusiastically greeted by the crowd in May, 1766. Here, too, for several years the fishermen set up May poles.

Bradford gave up the coffee house when he joined the newly formed Revolutionary army as major, later becoming a colonel. When the British entered the city in September, 1777, the officers resorted to the London coffee house, which was much frequented by Tory sympathizers. After the British had evacuated the city, Colonel Bradford resumed proprietorship; but he found a change in the public's attitude toward the old resort, and thereafter its fortunes began to decline, probably hastened by the keen competition offered by the City tavern, which had been opened a few years before.

Bradford gave up the lease in 1780, transferring the property to John Pemberton, who leased it to Gifford Dally. Pemberton was a Friend, and his scruples about gambling and other sins are well exhibited in the terms of the lease in which said Dally "covenants and agrees and promises that he will exert his endeavors as a Christian to preserve decency and order in said house, and to discourage the profanation of the sacred name of God Almighty by cursing, swearing, etc., and that the house on the first day of the week shall always be kept closed from public use." It is further covenanted that "under a penalty of £100 he will not allow or suffer any person to use, or play at, or divert themselves with cards, dice, backgammon, or any other unlawful game."

It would seem from the terms of the lease that what Pemberton thought were ungodly things, were countenanced in other coffee houses of the day. Perhaps the regulations were too strict; for a few years later the house had passed into the hands of John Stokes, who used it as dwelling and a store.

City Tavern or Merchants Coffee House

The last of the celebrated coffee houses in Philadelphia was built in 1773 under the name of the City tavern, which later became known as the Merchants coffee house, possibly after the house of the same name that was then famous in New York. It stood in Second Street near Walnut Street, and in some respects was even more noted than Bradford's London coffee house, with which it had to compete in its early days.

The City tavern was patterned after the best London coffee houses; and when opened, it was looked upon as the finest and largest of its kind in America. It was three stories high, built of brick, and had several large club rooms, two of which were connected by a wide doorway that, when open, made a large dining room fifty feet long.

Daniel Smith was the first proprietor, and he opened it to the public early in 1774. Before the Revolution, Smith had a hard struggle trying to win patronage from Bradford's London coffee house, standing only a few blocks away. But during and after the war, the City tavern gradually took the lead, and for more than a quarter of a century was the principal gathering place of the city. At first, the house had various names in the public mind, some calling it by its proper title, the City tavern, others attaching the name of the proprietor and designating it as Smith's tavern, while still others used the title, the New tavern.

The gentlefolk of the city resorted to the City tavern after the Revolution as they had to Bradford's coffee house before. However, before reaching this high estate, it once was near destruction at the hands of the Tories, who threatened to tear it down. That was when it was proposed to hold a banquet there in honor of Mrs. George Washington, who had stopped in the city in 1776 while on the way to meet her distinguished husband, then at Cambridge in Massachusetts, taking over command of the American army. Trouble was averted by Mrs. Washington tactfully declining to appear at the tavern.

After peace came, the house was the scene of many of the fashionable entertainments of the period. Here met the City Dancing Assembly, and here was held the brilliant fête given by M. Gerard, first accredited representative from France to the United States, in honor of Louis XVI's birthday. Washington, Jefferson, Hamilton, and other leaders of public thought were more or less frequent visitors when in Philadelphia.

The exact date when the City tavern became the Merchants coffee house is unknown. When James Kitchen became proprietor, at the beginning of the nineteenth century, it was so called. In 1806 Kitchen turned the house into a bourse, or mercantile exchange. By that time clubs and hotels had come into fashion, and the coffee-house idea was losing caste with the élite of the city.

In the year 1806 William Renshaw planned to open the Exchange coffee house in the Bingham mansion on Third Street. He even solicited subscriptions to the enterprise, saying that he proposed to keep a marine diary and a registry of vessels for sale, to receive and to forward ships' letter bags, and to have accommodations for holding auctions. But he was persuaded from the idea, partly by the fact that the Merchants coffee house seemed to be satisfactorily filling that particular niche in the city life, and partly because the hotel business offered better inducements. He abandoned the plan, and opened the Mansion House hotel in the Bingham residence in 1807.