Mr. Downing and his oyster house: the life and good works of an African-American entrepreneur - 19th century New York, New York restaurateur, Thomas Downing

Everybody who was anybody in New York City between 1830 and 1860--bankers, stockbrokers, lawyers, merchants, businessmen, socialites--knew where to go when they wanted to have a good meal, leave a message, or make a deal: Downing's Oyster House, conveniently located at the corner of Broad and Wall streets.

Like the many oyster "cellars" uptown along Canal Street and the Bowery, the entrance to Downing's was a few steps below street level. Unlike the uptown establishments, however, Downing's was quite plush--"the very model of comfort and prosperity, with its mirrored arcades, damask curtains, fine carpet, and chandelier," according to a contemporary account. And whereas the Canal Street cellars catered to men given to rough behavior, fights and derring-do, Downing's appealed to New York's elite. His "was the only oyster house to attract the aristocracy as well as ladies in the company of their husbands or chaperons."

Leading politicians of the day also made it a headquarters of sorts, "dropping in to have a chat while enjoying their half-dozen Saddle Rocks or Blue Points," recalled one observer, who identified Downing's primarily as a "political rendezvous," but one frequented by nonpoliticians as well. Downing's regular clientele also included Philip Hone, a one-term mayor (1825-26) of the city. Hone noted in his diary in 1842 that Downing had catered the Boz Ball, which Hone considered the greatest affair of modern times. There he had introduced Mr. and Mrs. Charles Dickens to some 2,500 of New York's upper crust.

Dickens, the Earl of Carlisle (also known as Lord Morpheth), and other visitors from abroad dined at Downing's. Several well-known newspapermen were not only patrons but also friends. Many merchants, too, made lunch at Downing's a part of their regular routine: Rise early, have breakfast, go downtown to the counting houses, take care of the mail, attend to outside business at the Custom House or the bank, and then, about noontime, go to Downing's for a few raw oysters.

Downing did not limit his offerings, as the Canal Street and Bowery men did, to raw, fried or stewed oysters. His menu was far more elaborate, listing such dishes as scalloped oysters, oyster pie, fish with oyster sauce, and poached turkey stuffed with oysters.

Of New York City's two famous contemporary diarists, only George Templeton Strong, a leading New York attorney and vestryman at Trinity Church, saw fit to call attention to Thomas Downing's African-American heritage. Philip Hone merely extolled Downing as "the great man of oysters." Strong, however, described him in 1854, when he was about 63 years old, as "the former venerable Ethiop."

Downing was born free in Virginia in January 1791, to free parents at a time when Virginia was a slaveholding state. His parents had been freed because an itinerant revivalist preacher passing through Accomac County had convinced the populace that no person could be a slaveholder and a member of the Methodist Church at the same time. Moved by "religious fervor," Captain John Downing, the leading citizen and landowner of the area, promptly manumitted the few slaves he had. He then erected, around 1740, the Downing Meeting House, and appointed Thomas Downing's parents as its caretakers.

The black Downings worked hard, acquired their own land, and built a fine, though "humbled and unpretended," home to which the elite of the county repaired, especially on Sundays, before and after church. "The Wharton family, the West family, the Taylor family, the Custis family, of George Washington connection, the Wise family, and other like notables, were its visitants," Downing's son George T. Downing wrote in a brief nine-page biographical sketch.

During Thomas Downing's childhood, one of his best friends was Henry A. Wise, who was to become the governor of Virginia. Many years later, when Wise was sent to Congress, one of a committee to investigate Custom House affairs under Samuel Swarthouse, he sought his colored friend, the playmate of his youth, and spent much of his spare hours with him talking of old Virginia and of boyhood days," wrote George T. Downing.

Thomas Downing left home in Virginia at about age 21, following the troops north in the War of 1812 and stopping off for about seven years in Philadelphia. There he met and married Rebecca West. Their five children--George, Thomas and Henry (twins), james, and Peter Williams--were all born in New York City and educated in the African Free Schools. Downing reared his children "under Christian influences," teaching them 'to stand up for [their] rights, as well as those of the weaker ones, and repel invasion, by force, if necessary."

When Thomas Downing arrived in New York City in 1819, he brought with him just one marketable skill: He knew a lot about oysters. Born in Chincoteague--an island village located in an Atlantic Ocean inlet, just south of the Maryland-Virginia border--young Downing grew up working his family's land, fishing, digging clams, trapping terrapin, and raking oysters. He loved to eat oysters, and going into the oyster business must have made good sense to him, because, at the time, oyster eating was--as it had been for many, many years--one of New York City's most popular pastimes. Early European settlers had learned from the Indians about oysters, and from then on travelers from abroad had been raving about the taste and size of the oysters available in New York.