re 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 th