Posted on 12/29/2014 5:36:50 AM PST by NYer
“Yesterday was New Year’s Day, and I had lovely presents,” wrote 10-year-old Catherine Havens in her diary, which chronicles a year in the life of a privileged city schoolgirl, on January 2, 1850.
The diary is a wonderful artifact, describing her home on Fifth Avenue and Ninth Street, her favorite candy stores on Eighth Street, and the afternoons she spends rolling hoops and playing in Washington Square.
And it also gives contemporary readers a glimpse into what New Year’s Day was like for the city’s elite 165 years ago.
At the time, the colonial Dutch tradition of receiving male callers all day was in still full swing among upper class families, with smartly dressed gentlemen making short (often inebriated) visits to the ladies of a household.
“We had 139 callers, and I have an ivory tablet and write all their names down on it,” wrote Catherine.
“We have to be dressed and ready by 10 o’clock to receive. Some of the gentleman come together and don’t stay more than a minute; but some go into the back room and take some oysters and coffee and cake, and stay and talk.”
“The gentlemen keep dropping in all day and until long after I have gone to bed; and the horses look tired, and the livery men make a lot of money.”
Calling had romantic overtones. “Mr. Woolsey Porter and his brother, Mr. Dwight Porter always come in the evening and sit and talk a long time. They are very fond of one of my sisters.”
Catherine ends her New Year’s Day entry with a thought about the future.
Catherine ends her New Year’s Day entry with a thought about the future.
“Next January we shall be half through the nineteenth century. I hope I shall live to see the next century, but I don’t want to be alive when the year 2000 comes, for my Bible teacher says the world is coming to an end then, and perhaps sooner.”
She lived until 1939, almost making it to her 100th birthday.
Lower Manhattan in 1850
A window into the past. Happy New Year, ping!
Thanks for the window into the past. The postcard of lower Manhattan was especially interesting. My daughter and son in law live in Tribeca not too far from the Courthouse.
Happy New Year!!
…”and the afternoons she spends rolling hoops and playing in Washington Square”
…I sell real estate and sometimes in areas where the “great flight” took place. I always imagine the way it used to be where kids were playing, Dad was coming home from work in his new LaSalle etc. Roll hoops in Washington Square now and you’ll get pistol whipped.
Well I would stack up any average 19th century American with nearly any citizen of our current population. Most people today don't know where eggs come from. If you put the average citizen of today outdoors for 24 hours they would claim assault.
Just about any person of 19th century America was better educated, more aware of the natural world and more capable of living independent, then the idiots that roam the streets of America today.
I was thinking just about the same thing.
Great post, thank you for sharing! This book and others can be read for free on openlibrary.org!
IMO, the Bible teacher was pretty spot on. At least socially and morally.
I just bought this book for my mother. She grew up on 8th street near 5th avenue in the 30s. She has told me stories of playing around New York as a little girl, going where ever she pleased alone, and was completely safe.
She particularly remembers going to a hotel called the Plaza Vendome. It was a luxury hotel, and had a huge swimming pool in it in the basement. No one was ever there and she payed a quarter and got the pool all to herself.
Remarkable diction and perceptiveness for a 10 year old compared to today.
How much of that is a difference in income, a difference in the education system, and/or a difference in the cultures belief in a need for education?
“I hope I shall live to see the next century, but I don’t want to be alive when the year 2000 comes, for my Bible teacher says the world is coming to an end then, and perhaps sooner.”
Ya gotta just love those biblical scholars. They know. They know because they are smarter than us.
Just an aside: Mary Boykin Chestnut’s “A Diary From Dixie” is also quite a glimpse into Southern society by a woman who knew a lot of the principle participants including Jefferson Davis.
Manhattan is filled with lots of hidden treasures from the past. While not the same hotel, check out another indoor pool in the Woolworth Building.
The Secret Pool In The Woolworth Building
The Scouting NY blog is filled with many fascinating, out of the way places. The blogmaster scouts film locations in NY for the film industry.
I loved this! A slice of NYC history from a first person perspective. I love Americana and the rich history of NYC in particular. Thank you for posting it.
Actually, on a nice summer night you can sit in Washington Square Park and play chess or read a novel under the street lamps. Still beautiful after all these years.
That is a very cool website.
You realize, don’t you, that a quarter was a small fortune in the 1930s to most Americans. :-)
It is a treasure chest brimming with gems. Did you have a chance to visit the home page?
Yes, lots of stuff there.
Thanks for posting this! I could spend all day, (and do quite a bit), looking/reading about American History.
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