as well as its great need of change to raise it to the level of
European improvement--ventured to say that, in his opinion,
speaking of Broadway, "There was not a building in the whole
street, a few special cases excepted, that would probably be
standing thirty years hence." The writer has reason to know that
this opinion was deemed extravagant, and was regarded as a
consequence of European rather than of American reasoning. If the
same opinion were uttered to-day, it would meet with more
respect. Buildings now stand in Broadway that may go down to
another century, for they are on a level with the wants and
tastes of a capital; but none such, with a single exception,
existed at the time of which we are writing.

{seventeen years since = Cooper had returned to New York in
November 1833, after a seven year sojourn in Europe}

In these facts are to be found the explanation of the want of
ancient edifices in America. Two centuries and a half are no very
remote antiquity, but we should regard buildings of that, or even
of a much less age, with greater interest, did the country
possess them. But nothing was constructed a century since that
was worth preserving on account of its intrinsic merits; and,
before time can throw its interest around them, edifice after
edifice comes down, to make way for a successor better suited to
the wants and tastes of the age. In this respect New York is even
worse off than the other ancient places of the country--ancient
as things can be regarded in America--its great growth and
commercial spirit demanding sacrifices that Philadelphia and
Boston have as yet escaped. It is quite within the scope of
probable things, that, in a very few years, there should not be