CHAPTER XX
 

PROGRESS OF THE CITY IN THE EARLY PART OF THE LAST CENTURY.
 

In previous chapters we have followed the growth of
the city prior to the year 1700, at which period the streets
had been laid out as high as Maiden lane. The property
between the present Broadway and Pearl street, on the
west and east sides, and between Maiden lane and near
the present line of Fulton street, on the south and north
sides, was then in fields, and embraced two estates; one
commonly called " The Shoemakers' Land," and the other,
" Vandercliff's Orchard."

The " Shoemakers' Land" was bounded very nearly by
the present Maiden lane, Ann street, Broadway, and a line
on the east, between William and Gold streets. The origin
of the name by which it was thus commonly distinguished,
arose from the circumstance previously referred to; that
an exclusion of all tan-pits from within the limits of the
city was ordered, by reason of which the settlement of
tanners and shoemakers, who had almost exclusively oc¬
cupied the old swamp grounds along the present Broad
street, above Beaver street, were driven to other quarters,
and seeking the nearest convenient locality, beyond the
city walls, established their tan-pits along Maiden lane,
which was a marshy valley.    An association of four shoe-