Edward Cornelius Delavan (1793-1871): Hotel owner, wine importer, temperance movement leader (Section 53, Lot 10)
Edward Cornelius Delavan was the owner of the famous downtown hotel and restaurant the Delavan
Edward Cornelius Delavan (1793-1871): Hotel owner, wine importer, temperance movement leader (Section 53, Lot 10)
Edward Cornelius Delavan was the owner of the famous downtown hotel and restaurant the Delavan House, notorious for open bribery and assorted shenanigans of state legislators during the Tammany Hall era. The booze flowed freely at his hotel, and he was a successful wine merchant who, later in life, did an about-face and became a rabid teetotaler and fanatical leader of a national temperance movement.
Delavan was born and raised in Westchester County, and his father died when he was 8. He moved to Albany with his mother, two sisters and a brother. Edward became an apprentice in a printer’s office at 13. He left to work at his brother’s Albany hardware store.
The brothers began visiting Europe in 1814 to find more wine sources for their burgeoning wine importing business. Delavan also branched out and began speculating on real estate. He shrewdly bought parcels around the Erie Canal before it was being developed and the land rose sharply in value. He made considerable profit and in 1829 helped found the Canal Bank of Albany.
That same year, he was recruited by the Rev. Nathaniel Hewitt and became an anti-alcohol proselytizer and extremist. Convinced of the evils of liquor, he began spending large sums to back the temperance movement and formed the New York State Temperance Society. He reportedly dumped all the bottles of his valuable wine cellar into the street.
He was joined in temperance activities by his friend Dr. Eliphalet Nott, a Presbyterian minister who became president of Union College. Delavan became a longtime college trustee and a major donor. He gave Union a notable collection of minerals and shells in 1858.
Delavan bankrolled temperance newspapers and became a national leader of the cause. He was elected chairman of the American Temperance Union in 1836. He argued against the use of sacramental wine in church services, controversial even 