Merchants Room, Exchange

The Merchants Room or public room (Rotunda) in the original Merchants' Exchange building. Drawn by Archibald L. Dick (ca.1805-ca.1855) and engraved by James Archer. Published in November 1831 by Peabody & Co. London and Obadiah Rich. Source: Views in New-York and its Environs, New York Public Library.

Below, a similar illustration by the same authors, but with the statue of Alexander Hamilton by Robert Ball Hughes, which was unveiled near the center of the rotunda, about April 1835. Published in The Ladies Companion, New-York, December, 1835. The representation of the statue is inverted, as if seen through a mirror.

The Merchants' Exchange building was designed by Martin Euclid Thompson (1786–1877) and Josiah R. Brady (ca. 1760–1832). It was open for business on May 1, 1827 and the building was completed in July. It was one of the largest edifices in New York City at the time, destroyed by fire in December 1835.