City Hall Building, New York City

The historic City Hall building, looking northeast from the Broadway side. Hand-colored aquatint on paper by William Guy Wall, 1826, after John Hill (1770-1850). Source: Smithsonian American Art Museum.

This City Hall building was designed by John McComb Jr. and Joseph Mangin and opened in 1812. The building on the extreme left of City Hall is the Bridewell (city prison), built in 1775-1776 and removed in 1838. The building between it and the City Hall is the old Alms House. By 1816 it was converted to the use as the American Museum, it housed the New-York Historical Society, from 1816 to 1823, and later the Chambers Street Bank. In 1831, the Alms House building was designated to function as part of City Hall, used for courts and public offices until it was destroyed by fire in 1854. The building to the right of City Hall is probably the old Gaol, shown shortly before it was remodeled between 1830 and 1832 for the housing public records.

William Guy Wall was a watercolorist, landscape painter, and print publisher. Born and trained in art in Ireland, he emigrated to New York City in 1818. John Hill (1770-1849) began his career as an aquatint engraver of landscapes in his native London. He immigrated to the United States in 1816.