The first entry in the Diary bears the date of May 18, 1828; the last of April 30, 1851, just four days before his death.

That last entry shows that he felt that the end was near at hand.

"Has the time come ?" he asks, and then quotes seven stanzas from James Montgomery's "What is Prayer ?", adding four stanzas of his own.
Just eleven months to a day before the last entry, under date of May 30, 1850, Hone commented on the swiftly changing aspect of the city.

To him the renovation of Broadway seemed to be an annual occurrence.

If the houses were not pulled down they fell of their own accord.