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From the history of the New York City Police Department This action was repeated up to October 26, 1700, when the Mayor was ordered to appoint
a Constables' Watch, to consist of a Constable and twelve able men, to be the Watch of the city, "to take care, and
keep, and preserve the peace, etc., and that the constables of each ward do take their guns, and that the High Constable take
care that the said Watch be duly set and kept, and that the Mayor provide fire and wood for the same."
Two years subsequently it was ordered that all persons summoned to do duty on
the Constables' Watch who should neglect or refuse to serve, for every such offence should forfeit the sum of six shillings.
The old "Stadt Huys" at Coentis Slip had become so dilapidated that
the Mayor and Corporation--finding it impossible to meet there any longer--were compelled to remove to the house of George
Reparreck, next door, it was therefore, resolved to sell this rickety structure and to build a new Stadt Huys.
The principal event,
it is averred, which settled the character of Wall Street as the centre of interest in the city, and which brought about it
the leading men of business and professional life, was the erection (1699) of the City hall, opposite Broad Street, which
building became afterward the Capitol of the United States, and the site of which is still in use for public purposes. The
upper end of Broad Street was considerably elevated, and there was no continuation of the street beyond the City wall (Wall
Street). although a lane had been marked out on the present line of Nassau Street, which, being afterwards improved, was designated
as "the street that runs by the pie-woman's." The design of the proposed building, by John Evetts, architect,
was submitted in 1698, and the pan was approved. The foundation was laid in the fall of 1699, and the building was finished
in the following year. The City hall remained in use for the objects for which it was erected for about a century, and was
demolished in 1812, when the present City Hall was built. It is thus described: "The first floor was entered by a flight
of steps in front, which led into a corridor more then half the building in width, extending through to the rear. On the west
side of hall there was a room in the front appropriated to the fire engine of the City, and a dungeon in the rear for criminals.
On the opposite side was a branch of the hall opening into the keeper's room in the rear, and in front into a stairway
to the second story. This story was occupied in the centre above the hall by the court room, having on the east side--above
the engine-house--the jury-room. The opposite side was mostly taken up by the stairway, except the Common Council room, which
was in the northeast corner. The garret was used as the debtor's prison." As one of the adjuncts of the seat of justice,
a cage, pillory and stocks were set up in the public thoroughfare on the opposite side of the street. After the revolutionary
war this building received additional historic interest as the Capitol of the nation and the first place of meeting of the
Congress of 1789.
Our Police Protectors Holice and Debbie
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