The wagon department constitutes a very important branch of the business. The vehicles and horses are accommodated in a fine stable on Amity Street, near Broadway. The building was formerly a Baptist church, and was presided over by the Rev. Dr. Williams. When the congregation went higher up town, they sold the old church, which found a purchaser in Mr. Stewart. He converted it into a stable, and has since more than doubled its size. The floor was taken up, a sewer built to carry off the waste water, and the place paved with brick and cement. It is now one of the best stables in the city. It contains over forty horses, and five grooms are on hand to attend to them. There are eight wagons employed at the up-town store to deliver parcels to purchasers, while thirteen single wagons are used by the lower store to cart single cases around town. In addition to these, there are ten double trucks to haul heavy goods. Twenty-seven drivers are employed, and thirteen hundred bushels of oats and fifty tons of hay are fed out during a year. The place is in charge of a watchman at night, and during the day is managed by a superintendent. At half-past eight the trucks report at the down-town store, and remain there all day. At the same moment one of the light wagons is dispatched to the retail store, and at once takes out the early sales. In an hour another wagon follows it, and this course is pursued all day until six o'clock, when the last wagon takes the last sales. By this system purchasers receive their parcels with dispatch, and the immense business of the day is entirely finished. Every week the superintendent of the stables makes a report of the condition of the horses and wagons, and this "stable report" is carefully inspected at head-quarters. In case of sickness or stubborn lameness, the horses are sent to the country to recruit.
Mr. Stewart has a farm at Tuckahoe, where the invalid horses are kept, and where much of their provender is raised. This farm is noted for the valuable marble quarry which furnished the stone from which his new mansion on Fifth Avenue is built.