Wordless Wednesday: Living and Working on Wall Street

History is fascinating.  Sometimes, the revelation of a new tidbit can open your eyes.  Take, for example, the bustling business of my 5g grandpa on Wall Street.  Yes, Wall Street.

Grandpa was known for sitting in front of the tavern.

Corner of Broad and Wall St

Back around the time of the American Revolution, old grandpa owned a tavern on Wall Street.  What's really cool is finding the tavern and grandpa in more than one history book about Wall Street.  This tavern also served as the place for the first installation in 1784 of an American mayor of New York City in a newly free America.

To go back just a bit in time, Wall Street was also the place where the early Americans vacated their properties as the British were confiscating them for use. The Presbyterian Church  next to Grandpa's tavern was transformed into a hospital for the British while on the other side of the tavern, City Hall was turned into a jail.

It was reported in one history book on Wall Street that General Washington attended a banquet at the tavern as the Americans retook New York City from the British.

I also was taken aback when I stumbled across a Harper's Weekly drawing depicting Washington's return to New York with the tavern prominently displayed as well.

As expected, the building no longer stands and the family no longer holds the deed.  The tavern burned down in the mid 1800s.

Ahhh, genealogy. I suspect some would claim the pigs depicted in the drawing are still rooting around there today.........


Source:
Hill, Frederick Trevor, The Story of a Street, 1908.

©2015 ASEldredge