Schermerhorn Row
16 Fulton Street | also 197 Front Street, 14 Fulton Street, 89 South Street | Financial District | built 1980
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The city photographed every building for its tax records around 1940 and again in the 1980s. NYC Municipal Archives.
Written with AI from the source each entry cites, then fact-checked.
- 1811
Captain Peter Schermerhorn starts building counting-houses on filled land at the foot of Fulton Street
Peter Schermerhorn (1749-1826), a ship owner and merchant known as Captain Schermerhorn, bought these water lots in 1793; they were partly filled by 1797 and completely by 1807. When he began his row of warehouses with counting rooms in 1811, the markets were still at Peck Slip and Maiden Lane, so the site's advantages were not yet clear. The buildings were leased to other merchants, and soon after they went up, Robert Fulton's Brooklyn ferry started landing passengers at Schermerhorn's wharf.
- 1812
Nos. 14 to 18 Fulton Street finish the western end of the row, with high pitched roofs
The western three buildings of Schermerhorn Row, Nos. 14, 16 and 18 Fulton Street, date from 1812, a little later than the six to the east. Nos. 14 and 16 still have their tall pitched roofs, while the corner building, No. 18, ends the row with a hipped roof. In the middle of the 19th century cast-iron storefronts with paneled square columns replaced the Greek Revival granite shopfronts of the 1840s, and the report notes that the South Street Seaport Museum had restored some of them.
- 1966
Jakob Isbrandtsen offers $5,000 for space at 16 Fulton Street as the Seaport Museum is founded
In 1966 the state legislature authorized a museum in Schermerhorn Row but provided no money for it. That November Peter Stanford founded the South Street Seaport Museum, and Jakob Isbrandtsen, a businessman, pledged $5,000 for space at 16 Fulton Street. Isbrandtsen later became the museum's chairman and supplied $16.5 million toward buying land. The museum planned to restore the row.
Source: Wikipedia
- 1968
The city landmarks Schermerhorn Row while developers try to replace the block with an office tower
Museum members asked the Landmarks Preservation Commission to protect the row, and it designated the buildings on October 29, 1968; the Board of Estimate upheld the designation that December. Meanwhile the developers Atlas-McGrath had bought about half the block's buildings to put up an office tower, and in March 1969 they sued to overturn the designation. They eventually handed the buildings to the museum in return for the air rights over the sites and withdrew the suit.
Source: Wikipedia
Nearby
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- 193 Front Street Building193 Front Street | 4 entries
- South Street Seaport Museum12 Fulton Street | 4 entries
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- 189 Front Street Building189 Front Street | 6 entries