Merchants Room, Merchants' Exchange Building - 1831

Original title: "Public Room, Merchant's Exchange, New York". Illustration drawn by Charles Burton, engraved by H. Fofsette and published by George Melksham Bourne in the Views of New York, in 1831. Source: New York Public Library.

Inside the first Merchants' Exchange building on Wall Street, designed by Martin Euclid Thompson with contribution of Josiah R. Brady. The Merchants’ Exchange Company was incorporated in 1823 and its building was completed in 1827. It was one of the largest edifices in New York City at the time.

In April 1835, the statue of Alexander Hamilton, one of the Founding Fathers of the United States, was unveiled in the Merchants Room (public room, rotunda), shown above. The monument and the entire building were lost lost eight months later in the fire of December 1835.

Copyright © Geographic Guide - NYC 19th Century,  Images and History.

◄ Wall Street in 19th Century

Merchants Room, Merchants' Exchange Building - 1831