Sub-Treasury Building, New York City

The U.S. Sub-Treasury building on Wall Street, northeast corner of Nassau Street. Engraving published in the New York Illustrated, D. Appleton and Company, 1890.

This historic neoclassical building was constructed, between 1833 and 1842, for the Custom House on the site of the old Federal Hall, demolished in 1812. In 1862, it housed the U.S. Sub-Treasury. In 1939, the present building was designated the Federal Hall Memorial National Historic Site. The old Assay Office Building, next to it, on the right, was built in 1824.

Below, some text from the magazine that accompanies the engraving above: «Wall Street is not half a mile in length, and runs from Broadway east to the East River. It derives its name from the fact that in the old Dutch times the city wall ran where the street does now, the land to the north being common pasturage. The street is lined with imposing buildings, the most prominent of which are the United States Sub-Treasury and the Custom-House. The former stands on the corner of Nassau and Wall Streets, directly opposite Broad Street. It occupies the site of Federal Hall, where the first Congress of the United States assembled, and where George Washington was inaugurated first President. The fine structure which now lifts its front of marble on the site in two hundred and eighty feet long, eighty feet wide, and eighty feet high. The main entrance is in Wall Street, and is made by an imposing flight of eighteen broad marble steps. On these stands a bronze statue of Washington, commemorating his inauguration. The figure is in civic costume, and of colossal size. On the pedestal is placed the stone on which Washington stood when he took the oath of office. The statue was unveiled November 25, 1883 ; J. Q. A. Ward was the sculptor.»