Tontine Building, Wall & Water Streets

The Tontine Building on Wall Street, northwest corner of Water Street, constructed in 1855 on the site of the old Tontine Coffee House, demolished in May of the same year. Illustration published in the History and Reminiscences of Lower Wall Street and Vicinity by Abram Wakeman, 1914, reprint from Frank Leslie's Illustrated Newspaper, December 29, 1855.

The old Tontine Coffee House, completed about 1793, was renamed Tontine Building after the revised statutes of 1834. The "new" Tontine Building was erected on the same site, in 1855. It had a remarkable architecture, faced with French granite, of a soft hue. It had a frontage on Wall street of 68 feet, the ground floor was designed for banking corporations and the upper floors were designed for offices. This Tontine Building was demolished to make was for a 12-story Beaux-Arts Tontine Building, now Wall Street Hotel.