NEW YORK CITY TIMELINE - 1802

Jun 1
The first book fair is held, in New York City.

Sep 13

The Board of Trinity, developing vacant property
known as the Church Farm, resolves to erect a
chapel.

November

Manhattan's Hanover Square fire engine house

is moved to the Old Slip.

Nov 24 

George Colman the Younger's English romantic
comedy The Battle of Hexham is performed at
New York's Park Theatre. Washington Irving
will attend an early performance.

December


Burr is removed from the Manhattan Water
Company board, along with crony John 
Swartwout. Swartwout, believing De Witt
 Clinton to be behind the ouster, challenges
him to a duel, which is held in New Jersey.
After five rounds, in which Swartwout is
wounded in the thigh and ankle, and still
neither man will concede, Clinton leaves
the field.

New York City

Brooklyn-to-Manhattan ferry operator Richard

Woodhull hires Benjamin Franklin's 

grandnephew Jonathan Williams, an engineer,

to lay out streets in 13 acres in what will become

the Williamsburgh section of Brooklyn.    **

Washington Irving begins clerking in the office

of former state attorney general Josiah Hoffman.

In addition to his Jonathan Oldstyle letters for his

brother Peter's newspaper, he begins writing for

Peter's pro-Burr paper The Correction.    **    New

street commissioner Joseph Browne recommends

that Manhattan's Collect Pond be filled in, using 

dirt from nearby Bunker Hill. His proposal is 

rejected. He has retained his job as Manhattan

Water Company superintendent while also 

gaining his city position.    **    Robert McQueen's

factory begins replacing the Manhattan Water

Company's horse pumps with steam-driven

models. By year's end 21 miles of pipe have been

laid by the water company, at a cost of close to

$45,000. The bank has invested $132,000 in 

its waterworks, supplying 1,683 customers. 

Annual expenses are $11,500; revenues $12,000.

**    Burr's 1800 loan of $48,000 from the

Manhattan WaterCompany bank has grown to

$120,000 by mid-year. He is removed from the

bank's board  along with John Swartwout -

by year's end.    **    Alexander Hamilton's

18-room mansion in northern Manhattan,

named "Th Grange" for his Scottish ancestral

home, is completed.    **    A 2 1/2 

story wood-fronted building is erected on

Christopher Street and the future Bleecker Street.
    

**    Released from a Parisian prison, where he

had been incarcerated for anti-Christian

segments in his Age of Reason, Thomas Paine, in

poor health returns to New York and moves into

a 2 1/2 story home between Columbia - later

renamed Grove - Street and  Reason - later

named Raisin then Barrow - Street.    **    A

building committee is formed to make plans for

a new City Hall.

© 2014 David Minor / Eagles Byte