Day Has Got to Break Some Time: The Real-life History of The Gilded Age in NYC, Season 3 Episode 5

Scenes among the spectators at the Polo Grounds, 1885. Baseball was becoming so popular that people would crowd around the park, sitting on carriages and climbing trees to get a view of the action. From Frank Leslie’s Illustrated Newspaper May 25, 1885, Vol 60 Iss 1548.

Baseball and Black Baseball Clubs

A fantastic scene in the show has Peggy and her paramour, Dr. Kirkland, attending a baseball game, which may take place in Newport. Rhode Island. The area had a sizable Black community, one that had its own high society, along with not only Black baseball players, but entire Black baseball teams, including the Newports and the Providence Colored Greys. These teams played each other but also participated in exhibition games and Emancipation Day celebrations.

Smaller local baseball clubs were where Black players could enjoy their favorite game, as in 1884 there were only two Black baseball players in the Major League, brothers Fleet and Weldy Walker, who both played for the Toledo Bluestockings (they would be forced out of the league, with baseball remaining segregated until 1947).

The score between the Philadelphia Excelsiors and Brooklyn Uniques, October 3rd, 1867. From the New York Daily Herald, October 4, 1867.

Interestingly, Brooklyn had several baseball clubs as well. In 1867 the first “Colored Championship” was held at the Satellite Grounds in Williamsburg, with the Philadelphia Excelsiors facing the Brooklyn Uniques. The Excelsiors carried the day, and just the next week played the Monitor Club. Later in the month the Uniques played the Monitor to see who would be the Brooklyn champion, with the latter winning bragging rights.

The Tenderloin

A scene in one of the city’s dance halls. Similar scenes could be found at any number of establishments in the Tenderloin district, including the Haymarket. From Mysteries of New York by Alfred Trumble, 1882.

By the end of the Civil War, New York’s entertainment district had pushed up past Union Square Park into what was colorfully referred to as the Tenderloin. The name was attributed to policeman Alexander “Clubber” Williams, whose own nickname arose from the frequent and enthusiastic use of his nightstick. When Williams was transferred to the area he remarked that he had previously been dining on chuck roast but now would be enjoying the tenderloin, a reference to the rampant bribes and kickbacks that he’d receive from the dance halls, gambling dens, saloons, and brothels in the area.

The Haymarket

One of the more infamous haunts was The Haymarket, which occupied an odd triangular plot. Its main entrance was on 6th Avenue, and the complex, part of which encompassed an old public bath, rose to three stories in parts. Opened in 1872 as the Argyle, it was initially a theater offering variety acts. However, proprietor Billy McMahon realized that it couldn’t compete with larger houses, and transformed it into a dance hall. Renamed The Haymarket after the well-known London theatre, it included a dance floor, suitable for 400 dancers, who were serenaded by an orchestra atop a small stage at one end of the hall.

Patrons enjoying a drink and a laugh at tables alongside the dance floor. From The New York Sun, March 29, 1903.

Men paid 25 cents each to enter, while women were admitted for free. Small tables lined the sides of the hall where folks could rest and have a strong drink. Those inclined could head upstairs to the balcony level, where there were curtained-off areas for can-can dances and all manner of sexual “circuses.” People seeking male prostitutes could go to a separate part of the complex for similar entertainments. Those seeking to gamble could go to another section. During warm evenings the doors along 30th Street would be thrown open, beckoning visitors to enter the establishment.

Enticing visitors onto the dance floor. From The Tammany Times, 1905.

For a period the old Haymarket was closed and the space was used as a museum and a theatre before being converted back into a dance hall called the Newmarket (the older name was interchangeably used). Touted as a “cleaned up” version with better bouncers and fewer thieves preying on patrons, it proved to be every bit as popular as ever. The prostitution and police bribes continued just as they had in previous years, although to the consternation of manager Ed Corey it was periodically raided to see if there were any violations of the Raines Law, which restricted when and where liquor could be served. After one raid in 1903, Corey made sure that the newspapers published that there were rooms available at the Haymarket, and that all drinks came with a sandwich.

The exterior of the Haymarket as it looked during the day, before coming alive at night (botton). From The New York Sun, March 29, 1903.

Although the Haymarket continued operating, much of the character of the old Tenderloin had changed, and the main theatre district had moved up to 42nd Street and parts north. Reformers had set their sights upon the Haymarket and pressured the city to revoke its dance hall licence, which was done in 1911. Without the dancing, fewer patronized the Haymarket, and after a final raid it was closed for good. The complex was demolished in 1913.

The shabby exterior of the Haymarket, seen from 6th Avenue. From the Annual Report of the Committee of Fourteen for the Suppression of Raines Law Hotels in New York City, January 1909.

Catch up on all of The Gilded Age posts from Season 3: