32 THE HISTORY OF COFFEE. 



of AYall street, because &quot; it was disagreeable to those that pass 

 to and from the Coffee-Iiouse, a place of great resort.&quot; The 

 meal-market was built in 1709, and occupied the site of the 

 ancient half-moon fortification and block-house of the Dutch 

 era. The Merchants Coffee-Iiouse was five stories high, the 

 entrance being even with the sidewalk ; a light balcony crossed 

 the front and side of the house at the second story. That it 

 was a business centre in the early days of the city may be 

 gathered from the following copy of an advertisement in the 

 newspapers of April 9, 1750 : &quot; For London. The Ship Brave 

 Hawke, John Bill, Commander ; &quot;Will sail in about Ten Days : 

 For Freight or Passage agree with John Troup, or said Master. 

 Just imported a parcel of Likely Negroes to be sold at publick 

 Vendue, To-morrow at Ten o Clock, at the Merchants Coffee 

 House.&quot; A New York price-current of August 6th, 1750, 

 quotes coffee at 20 pence per pound. The Merchants Coffee- 

 House w r as destroyed by fire on December 18th, 1804. The 

 site was afterwards occupied by the offices of the New York 

 Journal of Commerce, one of the most prominent commercial 

 newspapers in the country. While the bounds of the city 

 were somewhat limited, Broadway extending only as far as 

 Worth street, and the line of Canal street and Broadway was 

 so distant from the city that one of the Lutheran churches, to 

 whom was offered six acres of land at that point, declined the 

 gift because the land was not worth fencing in,- -coffee-houses 

 were numerous in ISTew York. Richard Clarke Cook, who had 

 bought the interest of Andrew Ramsey in the &quot;King s Arms - 

 on Dock street, near the Long Bridge, reopened it on May 7th, 

 1750, as &quot;The Gentlemen s and Exchange Coffee-Iiouse and 

 Tavern.&quot; Perhaps the most famous was the City Tavern. It 

 was built in the early part of the last century, by the Delancey 

 family, and still stands on the southeast corner of Broad and 

 Dock, now Broad and Pearl streets. In 1757 it was occupied by 



