Merchants Coffee House, Wall Street

Merchants' Coffee House, Wall Street

The old Merchants' Coffee House on Wall Street, southeast corner of Water Street. Illustration shows the president-elect George Washington welcomed at the Merchants' Coffee House on April 23, 1789, one week before his inauguration. From a painting by Charles P. Gruppe (1860-1940), composition of two images from different sources.

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Gruppe depicted the Merchants' Coffee House as a four-story building as it would have existed about the early 19th century. By 1829, the building was expanded to a five-story structure and it was named Phoenix Building. The painting by Francis Guy, dated 1797 (after the event above happened), below, shows a three-story very different building on the site.

◄ Old Wall Street

Merchants' Coffee House, Wall Street