Nicholas J. Hayes

Nicholas J. Hayes (1856 – January 3, 1928) was a politician from New York City and one of the powers of the Democratic Party's Tammany Hall political machine for 30 years. His political power base was the 28th Assembly District (formerly the 33rd Assembly District) in lower East Harlem. He served as Fire Commissioner of New York City two times.

Early life Nick Hayes was born in 1858 in Troy, New York of Irish parents. The family later moved to New York, where Hayes was educated in St. Francis Xavier's School. As a boy he had several odd jobs. He worked for the pharmaceutical company of McKesson & Robbins on Fulton Street, then he became a grocer's clerk and later a clerk in a tea house.

According to an obituary in the New York Sun, Hayes "had a way of getting along pleasantly – a bland, ingratiating way which was to smooth the road for him in politics and soon became a protégé of Tammany Hall boss Richard Croker."

Political stronghold Hayes established the Pocasset Club to help him to get a hold on the district. The club would become one of the strongest clubs in the Tammany Hall organization. For years the clubhouse was at 208 East 116th Street from which Hayes ruled as the Tammany chieftain. The 28th Assembly District (formerly the 33rd Assembly District) in lower East Harlem became his political stronghold for the next 20 years. At the time the district was bounded roughly by 106th Street, Park Avenue, 119th Street and the East River and included Ward's Island and Randall's Island and the Little Italy section. It had the smallest vote of any Assembly district in Manhattan. Due to the new alliance the district would be the first to send an Italian-American to the Assembly – Cotillo – and would produce the first Italian Magistrate and Judge – Francis X. Mancuso. A report of the New York and National Boards of Fire Underwriters exonerated him from blame.

During the bitter contest between Mayor McClellan and Tammany Hall leader Charles Francis Murphy, which came near to disrupting Tammany Hall, Hayes managed to keep good relations with both political bosses. In 1918 he was appointed by Mayor John Francis Hylan to head the Department of Water Supply, Gas and Electricity and was continued in the post by Mayor Jimmy Walker in 1926. The day before, he had been charged by the Republican County Committee to have abandoned work on a municipal water supply for the Rockaways and had granted a private corporation the right to tap city mains and to sell the city's own water back to residents at "tremendous prices".

Hayes had been one of the powers of Tammany Hall for thirty years, and for the last ten years one of the elder statesmen. He was survived by his wife, Mrs. Mary L. Hayes; by a son, Matthias, and by three daughters, Katherine, Helen and Nora.