The Rail-Road Exchange

The Library of Congress includes this flyer in its ephemera collection, with a possible date of 1847 and no more information than that. Apparently Abner A. Pond’s Rail-Road Exchange offered board and lodging (single meals 25 cents) on Broadway, with its entrance at 25 & 27 Maiden Lane. “This House adjoins the square used as a depot by the Mohawk and Hudson Rail Road Company, and opposite the Ticket Office of the Boston Rail Road, and contiguous to the Steamboat Landings.”

The 1850 Census listed him as Abner “Pound,” who was from Massachusetts and whose occupation was “Hotell.” He was 48 years old in 1850; wife Henryetta was 45. Their children were Agustus, Albert, Nancy and Thomas; Agustus, the oldest at 18, was a bartender. Pond had a number of Irish porters, hackmen and maids living on the premises as well. His Exchange was likely located on what is now a little park at the foot of Maiden Lane. It doesn’t appear in the 1840 city directory.

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