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From the History
of the New York Police Department One of the earliest statutes of the General Assembly in 1683 was for the relief of the
poor. In 1699 a law was passed for the relief of the poor at their homes; and about 1714 the first alms house was built, on
the present site of the City Hall. In 1793 a lottery of £10,000 was granted for a new alms house, and the large brick
building on the Park near Chambers Street was erected. This building was destroyed by fire in 1854. In 1811, a tract on the
East river, at the foot of Twenty-sixth Street, was bought; and the first stone was laid August 1, 1811. The main building
at Bellevue Hospital was opened April 22, 1816, as a hospital, penitentiary, and alms house, at a cost of $421,109.
The buildings occupied by the alms
house stood at Bellevue, on the banks of the East River. The principal building fronted the river. It was a plain stone structure,
three stories high, with slated roof. The first stone of the alms house was laid August 1, 1811, and it was opened in the
beginning of the year 1816. The inappropriateness of the location of the alms house at Chambers Street soon became manifest,
and in 1810 the site at Bellevue, containing between six and seven acres, was purchased and buildings commenced, which was
finished and occupied in 1812. The city authorities then agreed to devote the old buildings toward encouraging several enterprises
of a public character then recently started, and accordingly appropriated its rooms for their occupancy, and adopted for it
the name of New York Institution.
A committee of the Common Council which was appointed
to consider the subject, reported on February 12, 1816, that "an entire new modification" of the Justices' Courts
was desirable. This committee recommended that the city be divided into five districts, of which the Ninth Ward was specified
as one. Four Justices were to be appointed by the Council of appointment--a body many of the functions of which are nor vested
in the Governor of the State--for the first four districts; the Corporation was to appoint two for the Fifth District or Ninth
Ward. All these Justices were to hold court at such times and places as the Corporation might direct, and they were to make
a return of all their fees, paying the amount of them monthly to the Chamberlain. Fuel, candles and stationery were to be
supplied by the city.
Source: Our Police Protectors Holice and Debbie
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