t the fashionable promenade. At this
time long rows of poplar trees lined the sidewalks. The principal hotels
and theatres, restaurants, and pleasure resorts were to be found along
the street, and Broadway became what it has since been, a miniature of
the great city of which it is the chief artery.

After passing Canal street, along which, in the early part of the present
century, a considerable stream, spanned at Broadway by a stone bridge,
flowed across the island to the Hudson, Broadway grew rapidly. In 1820
the site of the St. Nicholas Hotel was occupied by a store, four dwelling
houses, and a coach factory, the last of which was sunk below the level
of the street. Back of the present hotel was a hill on which were the
remains of an earthwork, thrown up during the Revolution. The hotel was
erected in 1852. In 1823 the site of the Metropolitan Hotel was vacant.
The block between Prince and Houston streets, on the west side, was
occupied by two large houses, a garden, and several shanties.

On the east side of Broadway, above Bleecker street, was a fine pleasure
resort, called "Vauxhall Garden." It was opened by a Frenchman named
Delacroix, about the beginning of this century. The location was then
beyond the city limits. The Bible House and Cooper Institute mark its
eastern boundary. Lafayette Place was cut through it in 1837. Astor
Place was its northern boundary, and the site of the Astor Library was
within its limits. The entrance to the grounds was on Broadway.

From Astor Place, originally known as Art street, the progress of
Broadway was rapid. By the year 1832, it was almost entirely built up to
Union Square. In 1846, Grace Church was erected, the original edifice,
built about 1800, having stood at the corner of Broadway and Rector
streets, just below Trinity Church. In 1850, the Union Place Hotel,
corner of Broadway and Fourteenth street, and in 1852, the St. Denis
Hotel, corner of Broadway and Eleventh street, were built. Union Square
was laid off originally in 1815, and in its present shape in 1832.

Above Union Square, Broadway was originally known as the Bloomingdale
road, and was lined with farms and country seats. Madison Square was
laid off about 1841. The Fifth Avenue Hotel was built about fifteen
years later, and the remainder of the street is of very recent growth,
possessing but little local interest.

Broadway has grown with the extension of the city northward. The upper
blo