Tammany Hall

Tammany Hall, also known as the Society of St. Tammany, the Sons of St. Tammany, or the Columbian Order, was an American political organization founded in 1786 and incorporated on May 12, 1789, as the Tammany Society. It became the main local political machine of the Democratic Party and played a major role in controlling New York City and New York state politics. Though initially an independent social organization, at its peak, Tammany Hall became synonymous with the New York County Democratic Party.

At its founding, the Society of St. Tammany was a social fraternal organization and one branch of a network of Tammany societies throughout the new United States of America. Politically, its members were Jeffersonian republicans opposed to the Manhattan aristocracy. As the immigrant population of New York grew, Tammany Hall became an important social and political organization, for Irish Catholic immigrants in particular. Following the 1854 mayoral election and the resulting mayoralty of Fernando Wood, Tammany Hall controlled Democratic Party nominations and political patronage in Manhattan for over a century through its organized network of loyal, well-rewarded, and largely Irish Catholic district and precinct leaders. It also gained support from the New York City business community for its efficient, if corrupt, solutions to problems.

At its peak, Tammany Hall also played a major role in state and national politics, particularly during the Gilded Age, when New York was sharply contested as a swing state, and it hosted the 1868 Democratic National Convention. Its positions typically represented the interests of its immigrant, ethnic, and Catholic voter base, in addition to the personal interests of its leadership. Prominent members or associates of Tammany included Aaron Burr, Martin Van Buren, Fernando Wood, Jimmy Walker, Robert F. Wagner, and Al Smith.

The Tammany Hall organization was also a frequent vehicle for political graft, most famously during the leadership of William M. Tweed, whose 1873 conviction for embezzlement gave the organization its national reputation for corruption. In the following decades, many reformist New York politicians developed national reputations opposing or criticizing Tammany influence, including Samuel J. Tilden, Grover Cleveland, Theodore Roosevelt, Franklin D. Roosevelt, Fiorello La Guardia, Robert Moses, Thomas E. Dewey, Jacob Javits, and Ed Koch.

Tammany Hall declined during the twentieth century, following the 1898 consolidation of greater New York City, which forced it to compete directly with other local organizations, and decades of sustained opposition from reform activists and changing demographics in Manhattan. It was dissolved in 1967.

History

Background

Before 1898, New York City was coterminous with the island of Manhattan and New York County. As the population center of New York state, one of the largest states in the new United States of America, in addition to its status as a commercial center for the continent, struggles for control of city, county, state, and national offices were fierce.

The 1686 charter divided the city into six wards and established a Common Council consisting of an alderman and assistant alderman from each ward. Until 1938, wards were the smallest political units in New York City and the building block of its political organizations.

Under the 1686 charter, the mayor of New York City was appointed by the state government. In 1821, the Common Council was given authority to elect the mayor until, in 1834, the state constitution was amended to require the election of the mayor by direct popular vote.

The first Grand Sachem of the Tammany Society was William Mooney, a Nassau Street upholsterer. Although Mooney held the nominal leadership role, wealthy merchant and philanthropist John Pintard established the Society's constitution and its various Native American titles. Pintard declared the Society to be "[a] political institution founded on a strong republican basis whose democratic principles will serve in some measure to correct the aristocracy of our city."

Although many of its earliest civic activities were not explicitly political, the Tammany Society attracted supporters of Governor George Clinton and U.S. secretary of state Thomas Jefferson. At the time, New York state politics were divided between the Clintons, the Schuyler family (including U.S. treasury secretary Alexander Hamilton), and the Livingston family. In 1793, the Society hosted Edmond-Charles Genêt, the controversial representative of the French First Republic to the United States. Through Burr's influence, Tammany emerged as the center of Jeffersonian politics in New York City. However, Burr alienated many supporters by opposing Jefferson in the contingent election in the United States House of Representatives, after the electoral college vote resulted in a tie between Burr and Jefferson.

In 1802, the Society became embroiled in party politics when U.S. senator DeWitt Clinton, the nephew of the governor, publicly attacked Burr, resulting in a duel between Clinton and Burr supporter John Swartwout. Clinton resigned from the Senate in 1803 to become mayor of New York City and used the position to distribute patronage to his family and supporters, alienating Tammany and emphasizing the growth of the spoils system in the city.

After Burr killed Alexander Hamilton in a duel, he was forced to leave politics in shame. He was succeeded as Tammany leader in 1805 by Matthew L. Davis, a friend and supporter who instituted many of the innovations which would establish the Society as a powerful political machine. Davis began by securing a state charter for the society as a charitable organization and establishing the General Committee of Tammany Hall, which would thereafter play kingmaker in party politics in New York City.

Corruption scandals tainted Tammany Hall from its early days. In 1808, local opinion turned against Tammany after public investigations by the New York Common Council revealed that a number of officials were guilty of embezzlement and other abuses of power. For example, New York City comptroller Benjamin Romaine was found guilty of using his authority to acquire land without payment and was ultimately removed from his office, despite the Council being controlled by Democratic-Republicans. In response to growing public disapproval and election defeats, Davis organized the Society's first public relations stunt, reinterring the remains of thirteen Revolutionary War soldiers who died in British prison ships and were buried in shallow graves at Wallabout Bay. On April 13, 1808, a dedication ceremony was held and symbolic coffins were sailed to Brooklyn. The state voted to provide $1,000 to build a monument, but the money was pocketed, and the monument was not built until 1867.

In response to the scandals, the Society began to accept immigrants as members and accepted outside involvement from a Democratic-Republican Committee consisting of influential local party members, who could name new sachems. This was the case for Federalists who joined the Society. Tammany Hall managed to gain power, as well as reduce Clinton and his followers to just a small fraction.

Nevertheless, under Davis's leadership, Tammany became a powerful opposition to both DeWitt Clinton and the Federalist Party in New York City, and Tammany's fortunes waxed and waned in proportion to Clinton's. In 1806, Tammany briefly supported Clinton against the Livingston family, led by Edward Livingston and Morgan Lewis, before the feud quickly resumed. Tammany forced Cheetham's removal as printer, and Clinton was forced to pull his support and patronage for the rising political star. Perhaps the most important innovation of the Tammany machine during this period was an emphasis on incorporating new membership rather than cooperating with other political societies and organizations. During the period during and after the war, Tammany accepted a number of former Federalists who were rewarded handsomely. During Clinton's term as governor, upstate politician Martin Van Buren and his allies in the city, a group known as the Albany Regency, gained control of Tammany. They used the machine to push for expanded voting rights, which culminated in the enfranchisement of all white men in 1821, enhancing Tammany influence. During the 1828 presidential election, Tammany leaders met with Andrew Jackson and agreed to endorse him after he promised to give them control over federal patronage jobs in the city. After he was elected president, Jackson fulfilled his promise. By utilizing its control over federal employment in New York City and status as the city affiliate of the national Democratic Party, Tammany controlled most of New York City elections afterwards. By 1855, 34 percent of the city's voter population was composed of Irish immigrants. By providing these new arrivals with patronage employment, job referrals, legal aid, food, shelter, employment insurance, and other extralegal services, including citizenship and naturalization services, Tammany secured the lifelong support of the large and growing Irish population, which would form the majority of its electoral base for the next century. In exchange for these services, the Tammany political machine harvested Irish immigrant votes.

By 1854, the support Tammany Hall received from immigrants would firmly establish the organization as the leader of New York City's political scene.

Gang violence and corruption

During the 1834 elections, the first in which the popular vote elected the mayor, both Tammany and the Whigs, from their headquarters at the Masonic Hall, battled in the streets for votes and engaged in voter intimidation. Voter intimidation efforts and the collapse of the American economy in the Panic of 1837 led to the rise of political gangs, who used violence and threats of violence to secure political power within the city. During the 1840s, competing political gangs fought for physical territory in a struggle to control the Tammany Society and the city. Isaiah Rynders, a Tammany leader from the sixth ward and member of the General Committee, coordinated campaigns of violence against Tammany opponents (including the growing nativist movement) and rival factions. Many of the gang leaders coordinated their activities from saloons, which became a target of prohibitionists and reformers.

As the economy began to recover in the 1850s, Tammany profited. In 1852, Tammany gained sweeping control of the City Council, which soon gained a reputation for its corruption. Although aldermen received no formal salary, they used their considerable explicit and implicit authority, which included the power to appoint police and license saloons, to grant franchises for streetcar lines and ferries, and to sit as judges in criminal court, to enrich themselves, their friends, and the Society. Fraudulent real estate deals using city funds or land and expensive boondoggles became common practice, and aldermen used the implicit threat of financial harm from legislation to extract fees from business and land owners. In June 1853, a movement to reform the city charter grew as the public became aware of corruption on the Council, whom they dubbed the "Forty Thieves." The reformers proposed competitive bidding for city contracts and franchises, and harsh punishments for bribery. In response, Wood left (or was expelled from) Tammany and formed a rival society, Mozart Hall, named for its building at Broadway and Bleecker.

Running for a third term in 1859 on a Mozart Hall ticket, Wood won over divided opposition by attacking Tammany as "kid glove, scented, silk stocking, poodle-headed, degenerate aristocracy" and peeling away Irish and German immigrant support. During the 1860s, Mozart Hall remained a force in city politics, particularly in the German community. During the American Civil War, Mozart Hall aligned with the Copperhead faction of the Democratic Party, against Tammany, which supported the war faction. In 1861, Tammany continued to oppose Wood, splitting the Democratic vote and resulting in the election of Republican George Opdyke. After the war ended, before gradually losing influence and disbanding in 1867.

Tweed ring (186773)

thumb|437x437px|During the reign of [[William M. Tweed|Boss Tweed, editorial cartoonist Thomas Nast denounced Tammany as a ferocious tiger mauling the country, personified as Columbia. The tiger became a lasting symbol of Tammany Hall.]]

After Wood's departure from Tammany Hall in 1858, he was succeeded as grand sachem by William M. Tweed. Over the next decade, Tweed consolidated control over city and state politics considerably while enriching himself beyond any of his predecessors. "Boss" Tweed's rule came to exemplify the corruption of urban political machines and boss rule prior to the Gilded Age, and his conviction for embezzlement was a rallying point for political reform.

Although Tweed was elected to the state senate, his real power came from appointed positions in various branches of the city government. These appointees gave Tweed access to city funds and contractors, thereby controlling public works programs, from which he embezzled funds directly and through more complex racketeering and protection schemes. He also used these programs to provide jobs for the immigrants, especially Irish laborers, who provided Tammany's electoral base. According to Tweed biographer Kenneth D. Ackerman:

<blockquote>It's hard not to admire the skill behind Tweed's system. ... The Tweed ring at its height was an engineering marvel, strong and solid, strategically deployed to control key power points: the courts, the legislature, the treasury and the ballot box. Its frauds had a grandeur of scale and an elegance of structure: money-laundering, profit sharing and organization.</blockquote>

Under Tweed's domination, New York City urbanized the Upper East and Upper West Sides of Manhattan, construction of the Brooklyn Bridge began, land was set aside for the Metropolitan Museum of Art, orphanages and almshouses were constructed, and social services expanded to unprecedented levels. Beginning in 1869, John T. Hoffman and A. Oakey Hall, both Tweed proteges, served as governor of the state and mayor of the city, respectively. Through their explicit involvement or implicit permission, Tweed was able to expand his operations into practically every aspect of city and state governance. All of this activity also enriched Tweed and elevated him and his allies to the city's wealthy elite, many of whom also engaged in the graft and corruption. Some elites tolerated the Tweed ring because of Tammany's ability to control the immigrant population, but this reputation was undermined by the sectarian Orange Riots of 1870 and 1871. Following the riots, Harper's Weekly and The New York Times, which was the city's only Republican newspaper, began intensified targeted public campaigns against Tweed. The Harper's campaign was particularly effective in undermining Tweed among illiterate New Yorkers, who made up a large majority of the Tammany base, through the work of editorial cartoonist Thomas Nast.

Tweed's rapid decline began on January 21, 1871, when county auditor James Watson was fatally injured in a sleigh accident. Watson, who kept the books and records of the Tweed ring, died one week later. Although Tweed placed his house under watch and another member of the ring attempted to destroy the records, Watson's successor provided city accounts to his patron, former New York sheriff James O'Brien, who turned them over to The Times. The records, which showed enormous frauds doubling the state debt from $50 million to $113 million over two years, reinforced the earlier Times stories.

Reform era (187288)

In response to the Tweed allegations, Tammany elected John Kelly, the former county sheriff, as grand sachem. Kelly was not implicated in the Tweed ring, had a reputation for honesty, and was a devout Catholic related by marriage to archbishop of New York John McCloskey. He removed Tweed associates from the Society and tightened the grand sachem's authority over the Tammany hierarchy. Tammany rebounded rapidly, winning back control of city government in the 1874 elections.

In 1886, Kelly was succeeded by his top lieutenant, Richard Croker. In the mayoral election that year, the United Labor Party, an alliance of labor unions, and its nominee Henry George threatened Tammany's status as the representatives of the urban working class. George initially hesitated to run but was convinced to do so after Tammany covertly offered him a seat in Congress to stay out of the mayoral race. To counter George's appeal, Croker allied with the anti-Tammany "Swallowtail" faction to nominate Abram Hewitt for mayor. Hewitt, the leader of the Swallowtails, was the son-in-law of Peter Cooper and had an impeccable reputation; his nomination effectively reunified the Democratic elite with Tammany. Hewitt went on to defeat George and Republican former state assemblyman Theodore Roosevelt.

Following the 1886 campaign, Croker adopted several United Labor Party innovations, in particular the use of political clubhouses. Because Tammany's ward heelers controlled the city's saloons, the new party had organized via "neighborhood meetings, streetcorner rallies, campaign clubs, Assembly District organizations, and trade legions–an entire political counterculture." Croker established the clubhouses, with one in each Assembly district, to take the place of the saloons and involved women and children by sponsoring family excursions and picnics. Under Croker, Tammany appeared more respectable and less obviously connected to saloons and gangs, and the clubhouses created a more efficient framework for patronage distribution; applicants simply had to volunteer at their local club. The clubs attracted a strong membership of middle-class ethnic voters. Grant and Croker established a vast patronage network, which continued under Grant's successor, Thomas Francis Gilroy, and included essentially the entire city workforce. By 1890, Croker had unprecedented and uncontested control within New York City.

Croker also developed a new stream of income from the business community. Instead of bribing individual officeholders, businesses paid Tammany directly. The payments were then distributed as necessary. By 1892, Tammany controlled the state legislature in Albany as well. Through his influence in Albany, Croker was careful to maintain a pro-business climate of laissez-faire and low taxes, while mending fences with labor through legislation which addressed union concerns. Republican boss Thomas C. Platt adopted similar methods, meaning that the two men essentially controlled the state between them.

State investigations

During the 1890s, Tammany once again faced public scrutiny. In a series of three investigations, each supported by Republican boss Thomas C. Platt, the Republican state legislature held public hearings into Tammany corruption. The first of these, in 1890, was chaired by Jacob Sloat Fassett. Although the committee revealed potential bribes involving Croker's hotel business, its hearings resulted in no indictments. Republicans lost the legislative elections in 1890, and Fassett lost his campaign for governor in 1891.

In 1894, a special committee of the state senate, chaired by Clarence Lexow, focused on corruption within the New York City Police Department. This committee was convened after Charles Henry Parkhurst and John Erving conducted undercover investigations into prostitution and corruption and preached against the police and Tammany Hall. As a result of the Lexow investigations, Croker remained in a self-imposed European exile until 1898 and another Committee of Seventy was formed which included Hewitt, J. P. Morgan, Cornelius Vanderbilt II, and Elihu Root, some of the city's richest and most respectable men. In the 1894 election, they supported millionaire dry goods merchant William L. Strong for mayor and forced Tammany's initial candidate, department store magnate Nathan Straus, to withdraw for fear of social ostracization. Strong won the election handily over Hugh J. Grant, whose record as mayor was tarnished by the police investigation, and Republicans swept the state election as well.

A final state investigation began in 1899 at the urging of Theodore Roosevelt, who was elected governor. This investigation was chaired by Republican assemblyman Robert Mazet and led by chief counsel Frank Moss. Moss revealed further details about Croker's corporate alliances, and the hearings yielded memorable quotes from Croker and police chief Bill Devery. The committee also began the first investigations into the ice trust scandal.

Consolidation of Greater New York

In addition to the election of Strong, reformers pressed for consolidation of New York County (which had absorbed the Bronx) with its surrounding towns. On December 14, 1894, voters in the towns of New York County, Kings County (consisting entirely of the consolidated city of Brooklyn, which had overtaken New York as the largest city in the country), Richmond County (on Staten Island), and Queens County voted to consolidate into one city with a unified municipal government. The immediate impact of consolidation was to dramatically weaken Tammany Hall, which now had to compete with other Democratic Party machines, in particular the Brooklyn machine led by Hugh McLaughlin, and the Republican Party and reform movements, which was far more popular in Brooklyn and the Queens suburbs. After the victory, Croker returned to the United States in 1898 to oppose reformers' efforts to outlaw Sunday drinking and otherwise enforce their own authoritarian moral concepts on immigrant populations with different cultural outlooks.

Consolidated city and declining influence (18981932)

From 1898 to 1945, New York City politics revolved around the conflict between the political machines and reformers. In quiet times, the machines had the advantage of their core of solid supporters, and they exercised control of city and borough affairs and played a major role in the state legislature. In times of crisis, however, particularly the Great Depression, reformers took control of key offices, notably the mayor's office. The reformers were never unified; they operated through a complex network of independent civic organizations, each focused on its own particular agenda. Their membership generally consisted of civic-minded, educated middle-class men and women, usually with expert skills in a profession or business, who deeply distrusted the machines as corrupt.

Rather than establishing one citywide Democratic machine, separate organizations flourished in each of the boroughs, with Tammany Hall remaining the most prominent of the five. The other machines had similar structures to Tammany, with local clubs and a single boss. Republican local organizations were much weaker, but they played key roles in forming reform coalitions. Most of the time they looked to Albany and Washington for their sphere of influence.

Murphy era (190224)

In 1901, Seth Low defeated Van Wyck, whose administration was tarnished by the ice trust scandal, and Croker resigned as boss. His chosen successor, Lewis Nixon of Staten Island, resigned within months as well, explaining "I find that I cannot retain my self-respect and remain the leader of the Tammany organization."

From 1902 until his death in 1924, Tammany was led by Charles Francis Murphy, with Timothy Sullivan leading the organization in the Bowery and serving for many of the early years as their spokesman in the legislature and Congress. Murphy's tenure restored some degree of respectability to Tammany and extended its influence in national politics, culminating in the nomination of Al Smith for president of the United States at the 1928 Democratic National Convention. Murphy sponsored a number of working class reform movements through Smith, who served as governor between 1919 and 1928, and Robert F. Wagner. According to Edward J. Flynn, Murphy advised Tammany politicians to avoid involvement in gambling, prostitution, the police department, or the public school system.

In 1903, Murphy successfully engineered the election of George B. McClellan Jr. as mayor. Under Murphy and McClellan, Tammany faced a stern, independent challenge from William Randolph Hearst, the wealthy and ambitious publisher of The New York Journal. While Tammany supported Hearst's election to Congress in 1902 and his unsuccessful campaign for governor in 1906, he broke with the organization to challenge McClellan in 1907 on a platform calling for public ownership of municipal utility corporations. The bitter and spirited 1907 campaign resulted in a narrow victory for McClellan and accusations of electoral fraud by Hearst. Thereafter, Hearst had a contentious relationship with Tammany, competing and compromising with the machine on nominations. Hearst managed to dominate Tammany mayor John F. Hylan from 1917 to 1925, but he lost control when Smith and Wagner denied Hylan renomination in 1925 in favor of Jimmy Walker. Hearst then moved back to his native California.

Walker mayoralty and the Seabury Commission (1925–1932)

After Murphy's death in 1924, Tammany began a long period of declining influence. Murphy was succeeded by George Washington Olvany, the first boss to have received a college education. Olvany exercised loose control of the machine, and familiar corruption schemes returned under the Jimmy Walker mayoralty.

In 1928, Franklin D. Roosevelt was elected governor. Though Roosevelt had allied with Smith, he had opposed Tammany influence as a reformist state legislator and appointed Bronx boss Edward J. Flynn as Secretary of State against Tammany advice. The 1929 stock market crash and increasing press attention on organized crime during Prohibition brought further difficulties, and Olvany resigned in 1929. John F. Curry defeated Eddy Ahearn for the leadership, and Curry proceeded to make a series of poor decisions. Under increasing scrutiny from the press and an investigation by U.S. attorney Charles H. Tuttle, several New York judges were implicated in involvement with organized crime figures, including Arnold Rothstein, and embezzlement, racketeering, and bribery schemes. In August 1930, state judge and Upper West Side Tammany leader Joseph Force Crater disappeared. Roosevelt and the state legislature launched three investigations into judicial and police corruption, chaired by Samuel H. Hofstadter and led by Samuel Seabury. The Seabury investigations resulted in the dismissals of several Tammany judges and officials, indictments of Tammany figures, and the resignation of Jimmy Walker. and Roosevelt and James Farley stripped Tammany of its federal patronage privileges in favor of Flynn. Roosevelt also recruited Joseph V. McKee to run for mayor against the Tammany candidate, John P. O'Brien, in 1933. After withdrawing his support for McKee, Roosevelt complied in the election of Republican and Fusion nominee Fiorello LaGuardia, effectively removing even more patronage from Tammany control.

As mayor, LaGuardia reorganized the city government with non-partisan officials and sought to develop a clean and honest city government. The shock from these defections caused Tammany ally Augustus Pierce to collapse and die of a heart attack in the aldermanic chambers. LaGuardia filled the city's appointive offices, and the power of Tammany Hall was reduced to a shadow of its former grandeur. In 1937, LaGuardia defeated Jeremiah T. Mahoney to become the first anti-Tammany mayor to win re-election Tammany came to depend on criminal bosses, such as Arnold Rothstein, to maintain some measure of street control. Rothstein's murder in 1928 weakened Tammany.

In 1935, Governor Herbert H. Lehman appointed Thomas E. Dewey as special prosecutor. Dewey obtained the conviction of Lucky Luciano, a powerful mob figure and strong Tammany ally. While Luciano maintained control of his criminal organization from prison until his deportation to Italy in 1946, his conviction gave Dewey the prestige necessary to win election as Manhattan District Attorney and prosecute the political allies of organized crime, particularly within Tammany Hall. In 1939, Dewey prosecuted and secured the conviction of longtime Tammany leader Jimmy Hines on bribery charges. The Dewey prosecutions and the imprisonment of Hines weakened the machine's power in the criminal underworld. When Costello was called as a witness in disbarment proceedings against Aurelio, he freely admitted that he had secured Aurelio's nomination and the election of Michael Kennedy as grand sachem of Tammany Hall. While Aurelio avoided disbarment and even won re-election, Kennedy resigned his position within Tammany in January 1944. In the meantime, young lawyers and other reform-minded Democrats founded the Lexington Democratic Club on the Upper East Side in 1949, after being denied access to Tammany Hall politics by the old guard.

The police scandal contributed to the establishment of the Kefauver Committee, a United States Senate investigation into organized crime. Though the hearings did not directly impact Tammany, they reinforced its apparent connection to organized crime. O'Dwyer returned to testify but was unable to offer a persuasive explanation for his visit to Costello's apartment in 1941, when he first sought Tammany support in his campaign for mayor. In 1953, he successfully engineered the election of Robert F. Wagner Jr. as mayor over incumbent Vincent Impellitteri, elevating him to the status of kingmaker. In 1954, he supported W. Averell Harriman for the nomination for governor over Franklin D. Roosevelt Jr. After convincing Roosevelt to accept a nomination for attorney general as a consolation prize, DeSapio successfully blocked his election while securing election for Harriman. In exchange for all these benefits, immigrants assured Tammany Hall they would vote for their candidates.

1857–1858 – Isaac Vanderbeck Fowler
1858 – Fernando Wood
1858–1871 – William M. Tweed
1937–1942 – Christopher D. Sullivan
1942 – Charles H. Hussey
1942–1944 – Michael J. Kennedy
1944–1947 – Edward V. Loughlin
1947–1948 – Frank J. Sampson
1948–1949 – Hugo E. Rogers
1949–1962 – Carmine DeSapio
1962–1964 – Edward N. Costikyan (as chair of the New York Democratic Committee)
1964–1967 – J. Raymond Jones

Headquarters

Early locations

In its very early days, the Tammany Society met in the back rooms of various taverns, most often in Barden's Tavern on Broadway, near Bowling Green. These back rooms served as unofficial campaign headquarters on election days. In 1791, the society opened a museum designed to collect artifacts relating to the events and history of the United States. Originally presented in an upper room of City Hall, it moved to the Merchant's Exchange when that proved to be too small. The museum was unsuccessful, and the Society severed its connections with it in 1795.thumb|225px|170 Nassau Street in 1893In 1798, the Society moved to more permanent and spacious quarters in the "Long Room" of Martling's Tavern, at Nassau Street and Spruce Street, near where New York City Hall is today. The Tammany Society controlled the space, which it dubbed "The Wigwam", and let other responsible political organizations it approved of use the room for meetings. This space became commonly known as "Tammany Hall".

14th Street headquarters (18681927)

thumb|225px|Tammany Hall on [[14th Street (Manhattan)|East 14th Street between Third Avenue and Irving Place in Manhattan, New York City (1914). The building was demolished .]]

By the 1860s, under William M. Tweed, Tammany had greater influence and wealth, so new headquarters was deemed desirable. The cornerstone for a new headquarters was laid on July 14, 1867, at 141 East 14th Street, between Third Avenue and Fourth Avenue. The building at Nassau and Frankfort was sold to Charles Dana and his friends, who relocated The New York Sun newspaper to that location.

When Tammany leaders found that they needed $25,000 more in funds, a meeting was held, at which $175,000 was immediately pledged. The new building was completed in 1868. According to Edwin G. Burrows and Mike Wallace in Gotham: A History of New York City to 1898, the new headquarters "merged politics and entertainment, already stylistically similar" into one building.

<blockquote>The Tammany Society kept only one room for itself, renting the rest to entertainment impresarios: Don Bryant's Minstrels, a German theater company, classical concerts and opera. The basement–in the French mode–offered the Café Ausant, where one could see tableaux vivant, gymnastic exhibitions, pantomimes, and Punch and Judy shows. There was also a bar, a bazaar, a Ladies' Cafe, and an oyster saloon. All this–with the exception of Bryant's–was open from seven till midnight for a combination price of fifty cents.</blockquote>

The building had an auditorium big enough to hold public meetings, and a smaller one that became Tony Pastor's Music Hall, which was used as an early venue for the early development of vaudeville. The structure was topped off by a large-than-life statue of Saint Tammany. When Tammany started to lose its political influence, and its all-important access to graft, it could no longer afford to maintain the 17th Street building, and in 1943 it was bought by a local affiliate of the International Ladies Garment Workers Union. Tammany left, and its leaders moved to the National Democratic Club on Madison Avenue at East 37th Street, and the Society's collection of memorabilia went into a warehouse in the Bronx.

The building at 44 Union Square housed the New York Film Academy and the Union Square Theatre, and retail stores at street level, until a complete renovation of the building began in 2016. The New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission designated it in October 2013. The renovation, which included a gutting of the interior and the installation of a glass-domed roof, was substantially completed by July 2020.

Notes

References

Citations

Works cited

External links

Thomas Nast Gallery, 1870 – January 1871, editorial cartoons about Boss Tweed and Tammany Hall
Proposed Historic District: Tammany Hall, archive of a proposal to list Tammany Hall among the historic districts of the United States
Tammany Hall Links at DavidPietrusza.com