1885 and 1886 : Images from Albert Tissandier's trips to North America during 1885 and 1886, in the approximate order of their creation.

Prince Street police station

Image depicts the Eighth Precinct station house, 128 Prince Street (southwest corner of Prince and Wooster), Manhattan. The building is shown draped in mourning, although Tissandier has not indicated the cause. On the right side of the sheet is what appears to be detail of four cards affixed above the door, the top one with the wording "We mourn over loss" (with Tissandier's translation "Nous regrettons notre pauvre mort"). The middle of the three lower cards appears to be a photograph of the deceased. This sketch was made one day after Tissandier's arrival in New York on the steamship "Amérique" from Le Havre (original passenger manifest on Family History Library microfilm 1027352 [NARA M237, roll 484], list no. 362). A fuller view of this building (which is no longer standing) can be found in a book by Augustine E. Costello, Our Police Protectors : History of the New York Police from the Earliest Period to the Present Time, 3rd ed. ([New York, NY] : A.E. Costello, 1885; reprinted Montclair, NJ : Patterson Smith, 1972), p. 350. Costello says (p. 348): "The Eighth Precinct is bounded by Canal Street, Broadway, Houston Street, and the west track of the railroad in West Street. The station house at No. 128 Prince Street covers historical ground, and the walls enclose old structures. One was a watch-house, and the other the quarters of Engine Company No. 11, Volunteer Fire Department .... The building has never been a healthy one, and a more substantial and better built house is sorely needed. The cells underground are dungeons, both damp and noisome." A table on p. 401 of the same book says that the building was 25.2 feet wide and 101.2 feet deep and was first occupied by the police department in 1868.