India House
1 Hanover Square | also 2 Hanover Square, 62 Stone Street | Financial District | built 1900
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Written with AI from the source each entry cites, then fact-checked.
- 1686
Nicholas Bayard builds a large house on the Hanover Square lot
In 1686, according to the Times, Nicholas Bayard built a large house on the property now numbered 1 Hanover Square. That earlier building stood on this lot until 1835, when a fire that also burned at least 600 other buildings nearby destroyed it, and the Bayard name later returned to the site as a restaurant.
Source: The New York Times
- 1854
An Italian Renaissance Revival building rises for Hanover Bank
Hanover Bank, newly incorporated, bought the Hanover Square lots from Richard F. Carman, who may have helped design the three-story brownstone completed here by 1854. Its Italian Renaissance style featured pedimented windows and a bracketed cornice, common among Lower Manhattan's commercial buildings at the time. Today it survives as the only such Italianate structure left in the area.
Source: Wikipedia
- 1872
The New York Cotton Exchange opens the nation's first cotton futures market here
Founded in 1870, the New York Cotton Exchange bought the building in 1871 and opened its new quarters here on May 4, 1872, launching the first cotton futures exchange in the United States. Architect Ebenezer L. Roberts reconfigured the interior for the exchange, added a new main doorway with a clock face, and installed a dome atop the roof. The exchange traded here until relocating to a new building in 1885.
Source: Wikipedia
- 1885
W. R. Grace & Co. moves in under founder and former mayor William Russell Grace
Irish immigrant William Russell Grace, who had served as New York's mayor from 1881 to 1882, moved his firm W. R. Grace & Co. into the building around 1885, after the Cotton Exchange moved out. The company remained until shortly before India House organized here in 1914.
Source: Daytonian in Manhattan
- 1914
James A. Farrell and Willard Straight found the India House club
Farrell and Straight organized India House in July 1914 as a club for men in the foreign trade, and the group moved into the building that November. Its membership later included Franklin D. Roosevelt, George C. Marshall, and Cyrus Vance, and the club held a noted collection of maritime art until closing in 2020.
Source: Wikipedia
- 1918
Willard Straight buys the India House property and dies the same year
Willard Straight, a founder of India House, bought the property in 1918 so that the club would not lose control of it, and gave the club a ten-year lease with an option to buy. He died on December 1 of that year. In February 1921 the Times reported that the club would buy the building from his estate for $650,000.
Source: Daytonian in Manhattan
- 1965
The city designates 1 Hanover Square a landmark
New York City's Landmarks Preservation Commission designated the building a landmark on December 21, 1965, one of the first landmarks named in Manhattan. It was later added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1972 and named a National Historic Landmark in 1977.
Source: Wikipedia
- 1998
Bayard's opens in India House as a luncheon club by day and a public restaurant at night
In December 1998 the Times noted that the brownstone at 1 Hanover Square had just become the home of Bayard's, owned by Peter Poulakakos, with his father Harry, of Harry's at Hanover Square, as consultant. By day it served as a luncheon club, and at night it opened to the public. Chef Luc Dendievel, formerly of Waterloo Brasserie in Greenwich Village, cooked American food with a pronounced French accent.
Source: The New York Times
- 2001
The building stands in as Leopold's family home in the film Kate & Leopold
The 2001 film Kate & Leopold used 1 Hanover Square as Leopold's family home. By then the brownstone, a city landmark since 1965 and a National Historic Landmark since 1977, had been the home of the India House club since 1914.
“The building was used in the 2001 film Kate & Leopold as Leopold's family home.”
Source: Wikipedia
- 2002
India House readies a restoration to uncover its brownstone under brown stucco
In mid-2002, as India House began repairing its old brown walls, it prepared a September exhibit called Forged by Fire, presenting Hanover Square as the first World Trade Center. Architect Walter Sedovic planned to remove the stucco and restore the original brownstone, though a 1910s drawing suggested a whitewashed look, so tests might offer two versions. Curator Margaret Stocker also suspected parts of the building dated from the fire of 1835 rather than 1854.
Source: The New York Times
- 2003
Harry's at Hanover Square, the Wall Street bar in the basement, closes abruptly
On the night of October 31, 2003, Harry's at Hanover Square shut its doors with no plans to reopen soon. Harry Poulakakos, who opened it in 1972 with his wife, Adrienne, said he no longer had the heart for it after she died of cancer that August. At its 1980s peak Harry's served 800 lunches, and the recent smoking ban, he said, cost the bar 60 percent of its evening trade overnight.
Source: The New York Times
- 2011
A bronze Chinese deity from India House sells at Christie's for $2.21 million
In 2011 a bronze Chinese deity belonging to India House fetched $2.21 million at Christie's in New York. By 2014 the club had dispersed about 90 percent of its art and artifacts, and the India House Foundation, founded in 1999, had tried in vain to save the collection. In August 2013, Northeast Auctions sold three dozen ship and shipwreck paintings from the club, topped by a $60,000 William Bradford.
Source: The New York Times
Further reading
- 1 Hanover SquareWikipedia
- The 1854 India House -- No. 1 Hanover SquareDaytonian in Manhattan
Nearby
- 58 Stone Street2 entries
- 1 William Street3 entries
- Armitage Building87 Pearl Street | 3 entries
- 9 South William Street4 entries
- 13 South William Street4 entries
- 52 Stone Street1 entry