THE FIRST PRESIDENTIAL MANSION NO. 1 CHERRY STREET OCCUPIED BY GEORGE WASHINGTON FROM APRIL 23, 1789 TO FEBRUARY 23, 1790 ERECTED BY THE MARY WASHINGTON COLONIAL CHAPTER, D.A.R. APRIL 30, 1899
At No. 7 Cherry Street gas was first introduced into the city in 1825. This is the Cherry Hill district, sadly deteriorated from the merry days of its infancy. Its name is still preserved in Cherry Street, which is hemmed in by tenement-houses which the Italian population crowd in almost inconceivable numbers. At the top of the hill, where these Italians drag out a crowded existence, Richard Sackett, an Englishman, established a pleasure garden beyond the city in 1670, and because its chief attraction was an orchard of cherry trees, called it the Cherry Garden--a name that has since clung to the locality.
From New Amsterdam, which centered about the Fort, the only road which led through the island branched out from Bowling Green. It took the line of what is now Broadway, and during a period of one hundred years was the only road which extended the length of the island.
That Broadway, beyond St. Paul's Chapel, ever became a greatly traveled thoroughfare, was due more to accident than design, for to all appearances the road which turned to the east was to be the main artery for the city's travel, and all calculations were made to that end. Broadway really ended at St. Paul's.
Morris Street was called Beaver Lane before the name was changed in 1829. On this street, near Broadway, the first graveyard of the city was situated. It was removed and the ground sold at auction in 1676, when a plot was acquired opposite Wall Street. This last was used in conjunction with Trinity Church until city interment was prohibited.
On the office building at 41 Broadway there is fixed a tablet which bears the inscription:
THIS TABLET MARKS THE SITE OF THE FIRST HABITATIONS OF WHITE MEN ON THE ISLAND OF MANHATTAN ADRIAN BLOCK COMMANDER OF THE "TIGER" ERECTED HERE FOUR HOUSES OR HUTS AFTER HIS VESSEL WAS BURNED NOVEMBER, 1613 HE BUILT THE RESTLESS, THE FIRST VESSEL MADE BY EUROPEANS IN THIS COUNTRY THE RESTLESS WAS LAUNCHED IN THE SPRING OF 1614
Adrian Block was one of the earliest fur traders to visit the island after Henry Hudson returned to Holland with the news of his discovery. The "Tiger" took fire in the night while anchored in the bay, and Block and his crew reached the shore with difficulty. They were the only white men on the island. Immediately they set about building a new vessel, which was named the "Restless."