CHAPTEB XL.
 

(ISOO.)

East Side of Broadway, Between Dnane and Pearl Streeta—Hasonic Hall—

The UoTgan Mnrder-^The Be Pnyster Dairy—The WMte

Condnit Honse—Another Condnlt Garden.

It was well toward the beginning of the nineteenth century when tbe
Improvement of the east side of Broadway between Duaue and Pearl streeta
was t>egun, but before its dawn the whole front had been built upon. Moat
of the structures were of wood, with the exception of two wblch had heen
erected by a l^Ir. Nichols. These were of brick and coosldered of an excel¬
lent class- Among their occupants In after years were William Cutting, a
forebear of the present New York family; John C. Stevens, John Tonnole.
Jr.> and Mr. Rapolje, whoso present descendants are prominent in New
Vork buslDoss and social life. About 1S19 John McKesson, and afterward
11. H. 3chleQ!elIn, resided In No. 306. a house which at that period surpassed
any of Its nelghbora. Several of the frame buildings stood until near tbe
middle of 1800, while others were demollBhed In 1326 to supply the site for
old Masonic Hall, an ediflce of the pure Oothlc atylo. Its front built of east¬
ern gray granite, with the sides and interior walls of brick, aud its upper
windows commanding a view of the city, harbor and adjacent country. An
apartment In this building which became a favorite resort of assemblies of
citizens was considered the flnest In point of beauty of any other for a
similar purpose In the United States. The cost of constructing Masonic
Hall was 150,000. Quite a sum of money at that time, which was raised by
the fraternity In tbe city.

The prosperity of Masonic Hall began to wane soon after tho building
was completed, as the following short history of the antl-Masonlc excite¬
ment which started In 1826 will show. One William Morgan, a recreant
Mason or Batavia, N. T., threatened to expose the secrets of the fraternity
because of some fancied wrong done him. He suddenly disappeared, and it
was charged that he had been abducted and afterward murdered by the
fraternity. Political strife In the city was strong at the time, and the
charge was soon converted Into a political weapon. A combination wsa
formed against the Masons, who at this time were a large and flourishing
body, extravagant rumors of diabolical practice in their conclaves wero cir¬
culated, and at the elections of 1S27 tho people threw aside previous party
alloglancea and ranged themselves as Mssons or anti-Masons at the polls.
A number of prominent papers opened a crusade against the society, public
meetings wero held at which members who had withdrawn from it de¬
nounced It as a bed of wickedness and Intriguing, and it was persecuted in

I9S