Street for the winter and spring. Anne C. Lynch, many years before her
marriage to Mr. Botta, had taught at the Packer Institute herself, and
at that time had a few rooms on West Ninth Street. She told me she
used to take a hurried breakfast standing by the kitchen table; then
saying good-bye to the mother to whom she was devoted, walked from
Ninth Street to the Brooklyn ferry, then up Joralemon Street, as she
was required to be present at morning prayers. Her means were limited
at that time and carfare would take too much. But it was then that she
started and maintained her "Saturday Evenings," which became so
attractive and famous that N.P. Willis wrote of them that no one of
any distinction thought a visit to New York complete without spending
a Saturday evening with Miss Lynch. People went in such numbers that
many were obliged to sit on the stairs, but all were happy. Her
refreshments were of the simplest kind, lemonade and wafers or
sandwiches. It has often been said that she established the only salon
in this country, but why bring in that word so distinctively belonging
to the French?

Miss Lynch was just "at home" and made all who came to her happy and
at their best. Fredrika Bremer, the celebrated Norwegian writer, was
her guest for several weeks at her home in Ninth Street. Catherine
Sedgwick attended several of her receptions, wondering at the charm
which drew so many. There Edgar Poe gave the first reading of "The
Raven" before it was printed. Ole Bull, who knew her then, was a
life-long friend to her. Fanny Kemble, Bryant, Halleck, Willis were
all devoted friends.

After her marriage to Professor Vincenzo Botta, nephew of the
historian Botta, and their taking a house in Thirty-seventh Street,
she gathered around her table the most interesting and distinguished