At No. 624 Broadway, between Houston and Bleecker Streets, was Laura Keene's theatre. On March 1, 1858, Polly Marshall made her first appearance on any stage at that theatre. Later it became the Olympic Theatre.
At Broadway and Bleecker Streets, a well was drilled, in 1832, which was four hundred and forty-eight feet deep, and which yielded forty-four thousand gallons of water a day.
Tripler Hall was at No. 677 Broadway, near Bond Street. Adelina Patti appeared there on September 22, 1852, when ten years old, giving evidence of her future greatness. She sang there for some time, usually accompanied by the boy violinist, Paul Julien.
Tripler Hall had been renamed the Metropolitan Hall, when it was destroyed by fire in 1854. Lafarge House, which stood next it, was also burned. The house was rebuilt on the site, and opened in September, 1854, under the name of the New York Theatre and Metropolitan Opera House.
Rachel the great was first seen in America at this house, September 3, 1855. Later the house became the Winter Garden.
The first marble-fronted houses in the city were built on Broadway, opposite Bond Street, in 1825. They were called the Marble Houses, and attracted much attention. Being far out of the city, excursions were made to view them. Afterwards they became the Tremont House, and are still in use as a hotel.
A pipe for a well was sunk in Broadway, opposite Bond Street, in April, 1827, it being thought that enough water for the supply of the immediate neighborhood could be obtained therefrom. The water was not found, however.
No. 31 Bond Street was the scene of a celebrated murder. The house is torn down now, but it was identical with the one which now stands at No. 29. On January 3, 1857, Dr. Harvey Burdell, a dentist, was literally butchered there, being stabbed fifteen times. A portion of the house had been occupied by a widow named Cunningham, and her two daughters. After the murder, Mrs. Cunningham claimed a widow's share of the Doctor's estate, on the ground that she had been married to him some months before. This claim started an investigation, which resulted in Mrs. Cunningham's being suspected of the crime, arrested, tried and acquitted. Soon after her acquittal, she attempted to secure control of the entire Burdell estate, by claiming that she had given birth to an heir to the property. The scheme failed, for the physician through whom she obtained a new-born child from Bellevue Hospital, disclosed the plot to District Attorney A. Oakey Hall. The woman and her daughters left the city suddenly, and were not heard of again. The mystery of the murder was never solved.