Downtown Walking Tour Site #7 - US Custom House - Part One

Outline of Fort Amsterdam

The Early Years

When the Dutch formed the New Netherlands colony, they founded New Amsterdam in 1624 to be the main HQ of the trading company. In 1625, Fort Amsterdam was built at the tip of Manhattan to protect the colony from France, England and Native Americans. The fort housed the headquarters of the Dutch West India Company which controlled the colony. The area around the fort was mainly residential. It was along the East River that the commercial and shipping concerns developed.

Romantic view of Fort George. 

During the existence of the fort, It changed hands 8 times. The main change though was August 27th 1664 when the British sailed into the harbor and demanded that the Dutch West India Company leave. Peter Stuyvesant tried to put up a fight; but, the business men of the colony had no interest in British guns destroying the colony and refused to support him. After this, the fort changed three times until the British to final control in 1691 until the Revolutionary War. 

Probably the most interesting takeover was by Jacob Leisler. When the British took over, King Charles II gave the colony to his brother James, then the Duke of York (Thus New York and New York City). When James II ascended the throne, he reorganized the northeast colonies and installed a Royal Governor and Council with no legislature. After James II was overthrown in the Glorious Revolution, rebellion broke out in the New England states. James Leisler seized control of the fort and governed New York City for two years until William III regained control. 

In 1775, The fort was captured by American colonists. The battle destroyed the northern side of the fort and it was torn down in 1790 to make room for an executive mansion. 

Government House

In July, 1789, the New York State Legislature called for a mansion to be built in the site of the fort for the President of the United States. However, the Capitol moved shortly after construction started to Philidelphia. After it was finished, New York State Governors used the mansion until the state capitol moved up to Albany in 1797. It then became a boarding house and then offices for the US Customs until 1814 when it was sold off to the city who divided the plot into 7 lots and houses were built there. 

One last cool bit of trivia. The fort's name would change 7 times during its' history. Amsterdam, James, Wilem Hendrick, back to James, William Henry, Anne, and George. 

Visit me for more info on the tour at Donnie Walks NYC. 

Downtown Walking Tour Site #6 - Bowling Green

Postcard of Bowling Green

Bowling Green is a cute little teardrop shaped park at the beginning of Broadway and is the oldest park in New York City. It was laid out by the Dutch in front of Fort Amsterdam. It first served as a cattle market and parade ground. In 1686, it became public property under the City Charter.

 The Overthrow of King George

In 1733, the city leased the land to three landlords for a peppercorn a year on the promise that they would improve the land. The landlords built a park that had trees, benches, paths and yes, a bowling green. In 1770, a gilded lead statue of King George III on a horse was installed in the center of the park to celebrate the overturning of The Stamp Act. However, tensions ran high and they had to build a fence around the park to stop graffiti and vandalism to the park. The fence is still there. On July 9, 1776, after the public reading of the Declaration of Independence; the statue was torn down and the lead was sent to foundries in Connecticut to be melted down and turned into bullets for the Patriots muskets.

After the Revolutionary War, the fort was torn down and the area became a fashionable residential area with mansions and townhouses. This area remain residential until the 1850's when the wealthy started to move uptown to areas such as Washington Square Park. The area then turned completely commercial by 1900.

The current layout of the park is from the late 1970s.

Here are a couple of pics I took of the park in spring. The fountain was surrounded with a red ring of tulips.

For information on my walking tour, visit me at Donnie Walks NYC

Main links for this post
http://www.nycgovparks.org/parks/bowlinggreen/history
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bowling_Green_(New_York_City)

Historical Figure - Jay Gould

Jay Gould (1836-1892) was a railroad baron and speculator. He was unscrupulous in his amassing of power; gaining control of 15% the nation's rail lines. While that may be said of most robber barons of that era, Gould was one of the worst. He was not above bribery and wrecking havoc in the stock market.

The two most famous examples was his  partnership with Boss Tweed and the cornering of the gold market.

He put Boss Tweed on the Board of Directors and in return, Boss Tweed passed legislation in the City Hall favorable to Gould.

In August 1869, Gould gathered friends and formed a group to start buying as much gold as possible. It was believed that the bonds being sold by the US Government to finance the Reconstruction would be bought back with gold. Once the price started to rise, hitting $162 an ounce, President Grant had the government start selling gold and that caused the gold market to crash on September 20th.

 To the left is a photograph of the price board that I found on wikipedia. It was entered into evidence at a Congressional Hearing regarding the crash.












For information on my walking tour, visit me at Donnie Walks NYC

Downtown Walking Tour Site #5 - 1 Broadway - International Merchantile Maine Building

The current building at 1 Broadway was built as the Headquarters of the International Mercantile Marine Company (IMM). IMM was founded October 1902 by JP Morgan by combining 5 major British and American Lines including the White Star Line and the American Line to compete with the huge Cunard Line.

However, the company was not able to garner much interest in its' securities. It was overleveraged because Morgan had paid too much for some of the lines and overestimated profits. That, and the sinking of the Titanic on 14 April, 1912 lead to its slow demise. It went into receivership in 1915 and by World War II it had divested all of its assets.

1 Broadway was originally occupied by Archibald Kennedy, a Scottish Peer, who built a mansion there in the 1700s. After the Revolutionary War, it was converted into a hotel. In 1884, it was torn down and replaced with an ornate office building called the Washington Building. It is the red building you see to the left in the postcard. In 1919, IMM acquired the building to build a booking hall for its' shipping lines. Because much of the building was already leased out, IMM had the architect reclad the facade and build the booking hall on the main floor.

The building has an ornate entrance on the Bowling Green side and is graced with nautical themes such as coats of arms from major ports. On the Battery Park side it has seperate entrances for First Class and Cabin Class.

One might ask, why build this booking hall if the company was in decline. Well, it had come out of receivership in a better state. But, more importantly, its' competitor, The Cunard Line had just opened it's own booking hall at 25 Broadway and IMM had to answer the challange.

The building is now occupied on the ground floor by Citibank which has kept the character of the booking hall. The famous law firm, Kenyon & Kenyon, occupies the rest of the building.

Main Entrance

Coat of Arms Band

Coat of Arms Detail

New York City Coat of Arms
And now you know where my avatar came from.

For information on my walking tour, visit me at Donnie Walks NYC

Related Blog Posts

Cunard Building at 25 Broadway

Downtown Walking Tour Site #4 - 5-11 Broadway - The Bowling Green Offices

 The Bowling Green Offices opened in 1898 as a speculative office building. That means that it did not have an anchor tenant to insure some level of rent at opening. Because of this, developers used grand entrances to entice tenants. This building has an eclectic blend of Greek and Egyptian motifs. In the photograph to the right, you will see that land has been cleared for the future Cunard Building.

Main Entrance

Column Detail

Above Entrance

Detail Shot

For information on my walking tour, visit me at Donnie Walks NYC

Downtown Walking Tour Site #3 - 25 Broadway - The Cunard Building

Postcard from 1920's

The Cunard Line had its' beginnings in Nova Scotia where Samuel Cunard was building a steam shipping company. He won a contract from Great Britain to carry the Royal Mail from Great Britian to Halifax, Nova Scotia and Boston in 1839. In 1840, the Cunard Line completed it's first Trans-Atlantic crossing with passangers, establishing a regular passenger service.

During the Gilded Age, luxury liners were built to accomodate the very wealthy. Immigrants also used these liners to come to America. They were housed in steerage, the lowest decks of the ship.

RMS Mauretania

The Cunard Line included the RMS Mauretania and RMS Lusitania in 1907. Lusitania was sunk by the Germans in 1915 helping push the United States into World War I. During the late 1930's they added the Queen Mary and Queen Elizabeth. With the advent of jet airliners in the 1950's, the need for regular transatlantic sea travel collapsed. The company turned to tourism as a way to survive. Having been bought by Carnival Cruises, the Cunard brand is maintained as a luxury line with a return to the traditions of the early 1900s.


The building itself opened in 1921 and served as its' HQ for its' North American operations. The main floor contained a ticket booking hall. The hall itself is a work of art with domed ceilings filled with frescos. After the Cunard Line moved it's HQ to midtown, the booking hall was turned into a post office with the ceiling left intact. I was fortunate enough to have visited the hall while the Post Office was there. Sadly, they have shut it down and the booking hall is now closed.

The following photographs are details of the front of the building. 

Ceiling

Main Hall looking towards front entrance

Main Entrance

Nautical detail of ship

Neptune

Detail shot

More Nautical Detail

Top Floors

For information on my walking tour, visit me at Donnie Walks NYC

What I learned today - The Great Depression

I was doing some background research about the NYSE to fill in some holes about its' history, when I stumbled on a mention of the Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act.

Most of us remember the Great Depression in terms of the Stock Market crash during October 1929, with Black Tuesday being the worst; and The Dust Bowl that destroyed the Great Plains.

But another factor was the tariff act. After it passed, a trade war ensued and reduced US trade by 50%. It was quickly repealed after FDR became President and they created the current system where trade agreements are passed as regular legislation instead of treaties, which require a 2/3rds majority.

So yeah, that it what I learned today.