THE HISTORY OF COFFEE. 31 



scenes and players whose actions made the pulses of the nation 

 throb in high excitement, or calmed them to deep repose. The 

 early records show that in 1643 Martin Krigier became the 

 owner of a plot of land on the west side of what is now called 

 Broadway, nearly opposite the north end of the Bowling Green, 

 and built on it Krigier s Tavern. It soon became a resort of the 

 fashionable men of the day, and was at times the headquarters 

 of the Dutch Governor, William Kieft. It was removed in 

 after-years, and on its site was built the &quot; King s Arms Tavern.&quot; 

 During the excitement previous to the He volution, it was 

 known as Burn s Coffee-House, and was used for the meetings 

 of merchants and the associations of &quot; Liberty Boys.&quot; On the 

 31st of October, 1765, the merchants engaged in the importa 

 tion of English goods met at Burn s Coffee-House, arid adopted 

 resolutions to import no more goods from England until the 

 Stamp Act was repealed. Two hundred merchants signed the 

 resolutions. During the same evening a non-importation soci 

 ety was formed in the same place, and a committee on cor 

 respondence appointed, comprising many of the well-known 

 merchants of New York. During the Revolution the house 

 became the headquarters of General Gage, of the British army. 

 Years rolled on, and when Time touched the spot again it w r as 

 changed into the Atlantic Gardens. In the summer of 1860 



o 



the ground was purchased by the Hudson River Railroad Com 

 pany, and the old house was removed to make room for a 

 freight depot. 



At the foot of Wall street, still known among the old mer 

 chants as Coffee-House Slip, was the Merchants Coffee-House. 

 It stood on the southeast corner of Wall and Water streets, and 

 before the erection of the Tontine Coffee-House, in 1792, was, 

 in fact, the Merchants Exchange, and political headquarters 

 of colonial times. . In 1762 a petition was presented to the 

 city authorities for the removal of the meal-market at the foot 



