The tall file cabinets in the Municipal Library, termed the Vertical Files, provide an unending glimpse of the workings of City government over centuries.  One recent find, in the “City Hall” file is a typewritten report on expenses related to a tea room at the City Hall in 1800s.

The report, written by Municipal Librarian Barbara S. Peterson, depicts the give-and-take over reimbursements between the Council and the Comptroller. It illustrates the importance of a balance of powers within government. The report was prepared in June 1925 based on research in Municipal Library holdings including the Proceedings of the Board of Aldermen and Minutes of the Common Council.

The report below is a transcript from the original document in the Municipal Library.

The Common Council of New York City was first granted a salary in April 1850, at which time provision was made for a payment of $4.00 per day for each day the Council was in session. This provision was repealed in December of that year. The Common Council did not intend, however, to be without some share of the City’s money. A “Tea Room” was established in the City Hall under the management of one James Taylor, keeper of the City Hall. There the Board of Aldermen and the Assistant Aldermen assembled for refreshment before starting the regular business at five o’clock in the afternoon.

The Comptroller’s report for the year 1850, lists under the heading “Contingent Expenses of the Common Council,”

“Paid for Tea Room Supplies . . . $2,061.65.”

For the year 1851 the report reads,  

 “Paid for Refreshments for Members . . . $5,185.82.”

ln 1852, the Comptroller received a bill for tea room expenses amounting to $9,672.82, which he refused to pay, setting forth his reasons at length in the annual report published February 14, 1853. His chief reason was that the money had not been appropriated for that special purpose.

The amended charter of 1830, provided that no money should be “drawn from the city treasury, except the same shall have been previously appropriated to the purpose for which it was drawn.” The Department of Finance, with the Comptroller as the chief officer, was provided for in the amended charter of 1849. It was to have “control of all the fiscal concerns of the Corporation.” 

Among the unnecessary expenses which had been the object of the charter of 1830 to make impossible in the future, were refreshments in the City Hall and Almshouse and refreshments for the court and jury. In reference to the last item of only $100, Stephen Allen, in reporting the amendment to the Senate said, “It is entirely new in the annals of Corporation accounts.” Celebrations and parades made other expenses complained of, having their parallel in Comptroller Flagg’s report for the year 1852, with expenses for the funeral of Daniel Webster amounting to $6,447.35, this in spite of “the injunction contained in the will of that eminent man, to wit: ‘I wish to be buried without the least show or ostentation.’”

“As for the account for refreshments at the City Hall,” says Comptroller Flagg, “although made out by the head of a bureau in the Finance Department, they are a novelty in the history of auditing accounts for disbursement of public money. The last account paid, before I entered on the duties of the office, for refreshments for the month of December, was stated and verified as follows: 

“Corporation of New York,

To Jas. Taylor Dr. 

To refreshments furnished the Common Council, for the month of December, 1852, viz: 

Beef, pork, vegetables, bread, butter, tea, coffee, milk, sugar, chickens, oysters, eggs, cake, pepper, mustard, salt, vinegar and help, ...................... $776.46.”

To this an affidavit was annexed stating that the amount was just and that the articles named, ‘were purchased for, and consumed by, the members of the Common Council, and others, by their authority.’” 

The Comptroller then goes on to state that the former payment were made “under pretense of authority from the commissioners, consisting of the Mayor, and the Aldermen of each ward.”

He claims that no appropriation was made for the item of refreshment and he is not aware of any authority of the expenditure,

The Board had provided for the expenditure in a way satisfactory to themselves by an ordinance adopted by them February 3, 1852:

“Resolution that the keeper of the City Hall be directed to furnish refreshments to the members of the common Council, whenever they meet in session, and that the Comptroller be authorized to pay all bills for the same, when duly certified.”

The Comptroller’s report was received by the Board and “was laid on the table and ten times the usual number directed to be printed.” 

The New York Daily Times for February 15, stated in the editorial column that the comptroller’s report was “one of the most timely and valuable documents ever issued from that Department,”

The New York Tribune of the same date, commented on the report as follows: 

“As to the Tea Room, the Controller thinks the expenditures have no justifiable basis to rest upon. In view of the illegality of the refreshment bills, Mr. F. refuses to pay any of them, . . . It seems that there was a hint of this given out at City Hall, since Mr. Keeper Taylor got in his December bill before the end of the month, when they were usually a full month behind date. The Controller also denounces the refreshments bill of the Aldermen as Commissioners of Excise.”

It may be that the necessity of getting out a bill two months earlier than usual accounts to some extent for the brevity of the bill the Comptroller made such slighting remarks about. 

Another expenditure which evidently got by before Mr. Flagg took up the duties of his office, was that involved in an ordinance passed April 1l, 1852: 

“RESOLVED, That the Commissioner of Repairs and Supplies procure a good and substantial oil-cloth, for the floor of the room in the City Hall, known as the tea-room, and cause the same to be laid therein; and to replace, with new furniture, such articles of furniture in said room, as are in worn out and dilapidated condition, and that this resolution be carried into immediate effect.”

Some idea can be obtained of the appearance of the tea room from this description in the Tribune for August 23, 1852:

“The City Fathers. - These worthy gentlemen are returning slowly to the City, and will appear in a few days upon the broad steps of the City Hall and the sacred porches of the Tea Room, the scene of their moral and physical glory. The corridors of the Hall have been remarkably silent for the past three weeks, and the hangers about there complain that the place is remarkably dull; there is no bribery, no bullying, no vote-buying, no juggling of contracts, no fun whatsoever to enliven the sultry hours....

“But the Fathers are coming back, and brushing up for the September session. They have kept very shy in regard to their intentions, but there is a large amount of business of importance to be faced. 

“Probably the most important business of the session will be that in relation to the coming election; and will be transacted over the champagne and game of the Tea Room. This would be very rich, but unfortunately reporters are not admitted.” 

Even before the Comptroller refused to foot the bills at the tea room, the question of abolishing it came before the Board of Aldermen in the form: 

“RESOLVED, That the Keeper of the City Hall be, and he is hereby directed not to furnish any refreshments to any person, whereby the expense of the same shall come out of the city treasury.”  

The now famous Tweed, then a mere Alderman, moved that the above resolution be laid on the table and the motion was carried. 

The Times the next morning made the following statement about this incident: 

“A flare up among the Patrons of the Corporation ‘Tea Room.’ - Last evening, several of the City Fathers declined entering the corporation ‘Tea Room’ to get their supper, as they have hitherto been in the practice of doing, one of them proclaimed it was an outrage to make the people pay $11,000 per annum, for what was consumed in that ‘Tea Room’ and he at once proceeded to Sherwood’s Saloon in Broadway, took supper, and paid for it out of his own purse. This action will probably result in the abandonment of Mr. Taylor’s department at the ‘Tea Room.’” 

The next move in the abandonment of the tea room was a communication from Comptroller Flagg to the Aldermen, dated March 7, 1853, “nominating Thomas Allaire, as keeper of the City Hall and Park, in the place of James Taylor.”

Definite abandonment of the room was not further considered until June 17, 1853, when the Board:

“RESOLVED, That the tea room lately used by the Common Council and known as the ‘tea room’ be set apart for the use of the Clerk of the Common Council…” 

Nov. 25, 1853, the Mayor approved an ordinance which provided:  

“That the Commissioner of Repairs and Supplies be, and he is hereby directed to advertise for proposals for the fitting up, in an appropriate manner, the room known as the ‘tea room’, for the use of the Clerk of the Common Council.” 

The sum of three hundred dollars was appropriated for the purpose. 

The Reform Charter of 1854 resulting from the evidence of graft of which the tea room is only one example, limited the expenditures of the city’s money for entertainment of any kind  to the celebration of three holidays, one of them Washington’s birthday. 

That the new Aldermen were not entirely reform members is indicated by the following incident. The celebration of Washington’s birthday in 1854 would have cost the City $541.42 if the Comptroller had not again refused to pay the bill as presented by James Taylor, stating his reasons in a communication to the Board. His letter reveals that the dinner had been given in honor of the veterans of the war of 1812. The Comptroller wrote: 

“The champagne, brandy and cigars were duly expended in the public and patriotic service of celebrating Washington’s birthday, from forty to sixty days. It did not appear from the evidence that the veterans of 1812 had any share of the three thousand cigars, the five gallons of brandy, and the twenty baskets of champagne.”