The Infamous Mayor of Duffyville

Here in my East Harlem neighborhood, we’ve got a ton of public transportation options to get us all over the city. The M15 goes up and down 1st and 2nd Avenues. The M101, M102 and M103 bus runs up and down 3rd and Lexington Avenues.

On the corner of 2nd and 106 we’ve got the M106 crosstown bus and in about 10 minutes a walk down 2nd Ave gets us to the Q train’s 96th Street Station and another crosstown bus, the M96. I love having all these choices but ever since we’ve lived in this neighborhood, my go to has been the 6 train. I can be standing on the platform of the 103rd Street Station in about 5 minutes.

Also known as the IRT Lexington Avenue Line, the 6 train’s 103rd Street Station is located on East 103rd Street and Lexington Avenue. The station opened on July 17, 1918 as part of the Dual Contracts between the Interborough Rapid Transit Company (IRT) and the Brooklyn Rapid Transit Company (BRT) that extended subway service above 42nd Street from the original subway system that opened between 1904 and 1908.

The station has two entrances, one on the southwest corner and one at the southeast corner. At the southeast corner is a bodega and at the southwest corner is the deep red brick of Saints George & Demetrios Greek Orthodox Church. Both entrances are located at the bottom of a steep hill that rises sharply up to 102nd Street. 

Before urbanization, Manhattan had a lot more hills than it does today, but there are still quite a few that were way too difficult for city developers to flatten thanks to a huge ridge of Manhattan schist that rises abruptly uptown. There’s Great Hill in Central Park, Carnegie Hill on the Upper East Side, Sugar Hill in Harlem, Long Hill in Fort Tryon Park and Inwood Hill in Inwood Hill Park.

When you visit Morningside Park at 110th and Columbus and see the huge cliffs of Manhattan schist that separate Morningside Heights from the Harlem Plain, you can understand why city planners couldn’t extend the Manhattan grid system over this area and why the Ninth Avenue Elevated Train took an abrupt right turn at Columbus and 110th.

Duffy’s Hill

The hill at the entrances of the 103rd Street Station is the steepest hill in Manhattan, quickly rising 28 feet from 103rd Street to 102nd Street in only 200 feet. In 1905, the National Board of Fire Underwriters reported that the hill on Lexington Avenue had a 12.6% grade.

Before the subway system was built, the New York Railways Company operated a cable car that ran straight up the steep hill on Lexington Avenue. It was incredibly dangerous and there were so many accidents on this section of the line that a 24 hour guard station was installed at the bottom of the hill on 103rd Street with guards working in 12 hour shifts. 

During one dramatic incident, a few of the neighborhood troublemakers jammed a steel bolt into the channel of the cable system at the top of the hill. When the cable car hit the bolt the car stopped dead on its tracks as if it had hit a stone wall. The cable car operator flew forward over the dashboard and out onto Lexington Avenue, passengers were ejected out on either side of the cable car and two men were thrown backwards with such force that they split the wooden seats at the rear of the car in half. Fortunately a doctor in the neighborhood attended to all the injured riders and a few were transported to the hospital.

For all the years that I’ve been riding the 6 train I assumed that the steep hill at the entrance of the 103rd Street Station was the start of Carnegie Hill. But it’s not. Carnegie Hill starts one train stop down on Lexington Avenue at 96th Street. The hill that rises at the bottom of 103rd and Lex is actually called Duffy’s Hill. It got its moniker more than 100 years ago from one of the neighborhood’s more infamous residents, Michael J. Duffy.

Michael J. Duffy

Duffy was born on 11th Street in the East Village in 1840. He attended public school and learned the bricklayer trade. During the Civil War, Duffy served in the 177th New York Volunteer Infantry as part of the Second Zouaves and retired as a Second Lieutenant. After the war he got married, had four children, was a volunteer fireman and partnered up with a former police captain in the funeral business. As interesting as all this is, it’s relatively unremarkable for someone born in mid-19th Century New York City. But Duffy was anything but unremarkable.

Michael J. Duffy was a major building developer in the latter half of the 19th Century, Together with his brother Thomas, he built over 800 houses in New York City, with the greatest concentration located from 94th Street to 104th Street between Third Avenue and Lexington Avenue.

His impact on this part of East Harlem was so significant that people started calling the area Duffyville and he became known as the Mayor of Duffyville. A group of boys that caused trouble in the neighborhood was called The Duffyville Gang and residents started calling the steep hill on Lexington Avenue Duffy’s Hill.

In 1894, Duffy built 26 row houses on the south side of East 101st Street starting at the southwest corner of Park Avenue and continuing around the corner onto the west side of Lexington Avenue for a total cost of $250,000. Almost immediately after they were built Duffy sold 15 of the row houses for $18,000 a piece. There’s no question that, as a developer, Michael Duffy played a significant role in New York City’s northward expansion. But hold onto your seats folks, because his story doesn’t end there.

The Fight for the Broadway Railroad

Since the early 1850s, there were many attempts by a variety of railroad companies to secure a grant from the City of New York for the rights to construct a surface railroad on Broadway.

“Of all the streets and avenues, Broadway was the most coveted. This great artery, the principal residential and business street, offered the most glittering inducements to franchise seekers. In July, 1852, Jacob Sharp and others presented a petition to the common council asking for permission to construct a surface railroad on Broadway from South ferry to Fifty-ninth street. The principal property-owners on Broadway, thinking it would ruin their property, protested vigorously”.

– Municipal Affairs: A Quarterly Magazine Devoted to the Consideration of City Problems from the Standpoint of the Taxpayer and Citizen, Volume 4, 1900, pp112-113

Over the next thirty years there were multiple attempts by railroad companies to coerce city officials including members of the Common Council as well as the Board of Alderman at the infamous Tammany Hall to allow a surface railroad to be constructed on Broadway. By 1880 and after multiple attempts with the Board of Alderman, the interested companies tried to obtain rights through the legislature. 

Since 1874, no general street railway acts were passed by the legislature with the exception of the Rapid Transit Act of 1875 and even that explicitly excluded Broadway from the streets where railroads were allowed to be built. Over the next nine years there were multiple attempts to enact general laws for the construction of railways and in 1883 a law, which still excluded Broadway, was passed but didn’t have the governor’s approval. 

Then in 1884, a law was enacted that gave Tammany Hall’s Board of Alderman the power to grant rights to construct railroad franchises on any street, including Broadway. After more than three decades, a window of opportunity had finally opened. Jacob Sharp’s Broadway Surface Railroad Company and the Broadway Railroad Company were the two main competitors seeking a grant to build street level railroads on Broadway.

Alderman Duffy

Duffyville was located in New York City’s 12th Ward, now part of East Harlem, and in 1882 Michael J. Duffy became a member of Tammany Hall when he was elected Alderman of the 12th Ward, a position he held until 1885. 

On August 6, 1884 a franchise resolution was presented to the Board of Alderman for the right to construct a railway on Broadway with zero compensation to the City of New York. Alderman Hugh J. Grant proposed an amendment to the resolution that they offer the rights to franchise to the highest bidder at public auction, arguing that many years prior, the city was offered $1M for the rights to construct a railroad on Broadway and that surely it was worth at least that now, if not much more. 

In spite of massive public opposition, Grant was the only one of the twenty-two aldermen present who voted against adopting the resolution to grant Jacob Sharp’s Broadway Surface Railroad Company the right to construct a surface railroad on Broadway without having to pay the City of New York anything.

In response, the other major competitor, the Broadway Railroad Company, publicly announced that they’d be willing to pay the city several hundred thousand dollars for the franchise rights and then, in a letter to Mayor Edson, upped their offer to $1M which prompted a separate company, the New York Cable Company, to offer the same amount.

On August 18, Mayor Edson vetoed the aldermen’s decision stating:

“I am convinced that this franchise can be sold for at least one million dollars, upon such terms and conditions as will protect the great thoroughfare from desecration, insure a proper construction and the use of rails which will produce the least possible obstruction in the streets, and at the same time guarantee efficient service. In such circumstances, to grant the consent asked for by “the Broadway Surface Railroad Company,” without compensation would, in my judgment, be equivalent to giving a private corporation for its unrestricted use, property of the city of the value of a million dollars”.

– Municipal Affairs: A Quarterly Magazine Devoted to the Consideration of City Problems from the Standpoint of the Taxpayer and Citizen, Volume 4, 1900, p140

In the face of massive public opposition, Tammany’s Board of Alderman vocally proclaimed that they would pass the resolution over Mayor Edson’s veto. Two influential taxpayers secured an injunction but in a matter of days the injunction was removed and on August 30, 1884 during a special, somewhat secretive, meeting The Board of Aldermen voted in favor of the resolution.

New Yorkers Push Back

The citizens of New York City were outraged by the audacity of the alderman. On the evening of September 4, 1884 a huge crowd of people met at Chickering Hall and signed a petition that ultimately pressured the aldermen to rescind their August 30th decision. Public outcry crescendoed throughout the fall of 1884. The mayor of New York continued to pressure the aldermen and the New York Board of Trade publicly announced their opposition to the construction of any railway on Broadway.

Then, on November 13, the Board of Aldermen changed course again and passed a resolution granting Jacob Sharp’s Broadway Surface Railroad Company the rights to construct a horse railroad on Broadway from The Battery to Union Square citing that “public necessity requires the construction of a railroad on Broadway”. The fare would be five cents to ride the entire route.

The resolution stipulated that Sharp’s company would pay 3% of its gross receipts to the city treasury for a period of 5 years and afterwards would make an annual payment of 5% of its gross receipts plus $40,000. Less than two weeks later, Mayor Edson vetoed the resolution yet, despite his opposition, the Board of Aldermen passed the resolution on December 5, 1884.

The Boodle Board

It was clear to everyone in New York City that there was massive corruption surrounding the decision to grant Jacob Sharp the rights to build a railroad on Broadway. Sharp was accused of bribing The Board of Aldermen to vote in his favor. In the newspapers, reporters dubbed these aldermen “The Boodle Board”, a Dutch word meaning bribe money. When indictments were issued in 1886 six aldermen immediately fled to Canada and Europe. 

Michael J. Duffy, The Mayor of Duffyville, along with Aldermen Fullgraff and Alderman Waite turned state’s evidence in exchange for their freedom. When later describing Duffy’s testimony, one reporter for The New York Times wrote: “The tenor of his testimony revealed a certain genial shamelessness which was upon the whole, in gratifying contrast to the abject demeanor of his fellow-informer”.

During the trial of Alderman McQuade, Fullgraff revealed that both Jacob Sharp’s Broadway Surface Railroad Company and the Broadway Railroad Company had offered the Board of Aldermen bribes to vote in their favor. During his testimony given on November 19, 1886, Fullgraff stated:

“A special meeting of the board was held in my factory in Fulton street in the month of May, 1884. There were thirteen members present. They were DeLacy, Dempsey, McLoughlin, Sayles, McQuade, McCabe, Kenney, Jaehne, Cleary, Reilly, O’Neill, Duffy and myself. It was proposed that the thirteen should vote together on everything that came up except on political issues. 

It was determined to have a meeting at McLoughlin’s house a week later. At this meeting the same thirteen were present. The first subject taken up was the Broadway franchise. It was stated that a cable railroad company had applied for the privilege. It was said that the company had offered $750,000, half cash and half bonds, and that the Broadway Company had offered $500,000 in cash. I think Jaehne said the acceptance of $750,000 from the cable road would be risky as the bonds could be traced. He thought the Broadway Surface people would be safer”

– Municipal Affairs: A Quarterly Magazine Devoted to the Consideration of City Problems from the Standpoint of the Taxpayer and Citizen, Volume 4, 1900, p139

Boodle Board Aftermath

On May 20, 1886, Aldermen Henry W. Jaehne, who confessed to his role in the scheme, was sentenced to 9 years and 10 months of hard labor at Sing Sing prison for accepting a bribe of $20,000 for his vote. On December 20, 1886, Alderman Arthur J. McQuade was sentenced to 7 years in prison and to pay a fine of $5,000. He was released from Sing Sing on October 4, 1888 and at a new trial on July 20, 1889 was acquitted.

On February 12, 1887 Alderman “Honest” John O’Neill was sentenced to four and a half years in prison and fined $2,000 for his role. Jacob Sharp was sentenced to four years in prison and was required to pay a $5,000 fine but received a stay and new trial but died April 5, 1888 before his trial was held.

After years of trials and testimony the public began to lose interest in The Boodle Board. All the remaining indictments were eventually dismissed and the aldermen who fled the country eventually returned to New York City, paid fines for their participation in the bribery scheme and lived out their lives as people slowly forgot all about what happened.

Duffy’s Confession

In the spring of 1888, while he was on trial for a totally separate incident, Michael Duffy offered the following:

“If you’d like to know what I did with the $10,000 I got from the Broadway Road, I spent it with the boys”.

– Michael J. Duffy, The Mayor of Duffyville

In an absolutely bizarre twist, in 1890, The Mayor of Duffyville tried to sue one of the men who handed him his share of the Broadway railroad bribe money, claiming the man didn’t give him the total amount he was promised and wanted the rest of it. The case never went to trial.

On Christmas Eve 1903 Michael J. Duffy caught a cold and died on January 4, 1904 from a lung infection in one of his buildings that no longer exists at the base of Duffy’s Hill by the southeast entrance of the 103rd Street Station.

Fourteen of Duffy’s 26 buildings are still standing on 101st between Park and Lexington and the other day I walked up Duffy’s Hill to check them out. One of them was being renovated and I had a chance to peek inside the front door.