Lot 14: James G. Bennett, Owner of NY Herald, Purchases Land Once Leased to P. T. Barnum’s American Museum to House his Newspaper

BENNETT, JAMES GORDON, SR. (1795-1872). Founder and publisher of the New York Herald. DS. (“James G. Bennett”). 5pp. Folio. New York, July 26, 1865. A contract between Bennett and American horticulturalist and landscape gardener HENRY WINTHROP SARGENT (1810-1882) and his wife CAROLINE (née Olmsted) Sargent for property of the New York Herald.

A Scottish immigrant to the United States, Bennett worked in the newspaper industry, becoming assistant editor of the New York Courier and Enquirer. In 1835, he founded the New York Herald which rose to prominence through its coverage of the murder of prostitute Helen Jewett and its use of woodcut illustrations, eventually becoming the highest circulation newspaper in the United States.

Our contract is regarding the area known at the time as 218 and 220 Broadway situated at the corner of Broadway, Park Row and Ann Street in Manhattan. During the 1830s, the property was purchased by Francis Olmstead which, after his death, devolved to his daughter Caroline and her husband Henry W. Sargent. Beginning in 1841, the Sargents leased the property to American showman P.T. Barnum who built his enormously popular museum that, at its zenith, greeted 15,000 daily visitors. It burned down in a terrible conflagration on July 13, 1865. Less than two weeks later, the Sargents entered into the present contract with Bennett selling the property for $500,000.

Construction on the Herald’s massive Second Empire marble and cast-iron building was begun in December 1865 and completed two years later, one year after Bennett’s son took over the reins. An eccentric bachelor the younger Bennett gained journalistic prominence for orchestrating Sir Henry M. Stanley’s successful search for David Livingstone in Africa, but his erratic editorial judgment and news policies as well as his predilection for lavish entertainment negatively affected the newspaper and dissipated its resources. At the end of the 19th century, the younger Bennett moved the Herald further up Broadway, hiring McKim, Meade & White to design a building at 34th Street at what is still known as Herald Square. The Herald’s Ann Street building was demolished by its new owner in 1895. By the outbreak of World War I, the Herald was in an increasingly precarious financial position, and, by the time Bennett died, it was operating at a huge deficit.

A member of a prominent Boston family, Sargent devoted himself to horticultural pursuits from his picturesque Hudson Valley estate Wodenethe, penning articles for Horticulturist, a garden guide entitled Skeleton Tours, and supplements to Andrew Downing’s Cottage Residences and A Treatise on the Theory and Practice of Landscape Gardening. Through the latter, he influenced American landscape architecture during its formative years. It’s not clear if his wife was related to famed landscape architect Frederick Law Olmsted.

Penned on lined paper the pages of which are bound by a string in the upper margin. Signed at the bottom by Bennett, Sargent and his wife to the left of colored paper seals and additionally signed by a witness. Folded with normal wear. In very good condition. An uncommon document related to New York City real estate.