58 Pearl Street

Financial District | built 1831

Open on the map4 entries

The lot about 1940
About 1940. Via 1940s.nyc
The lot about 1985
About 1985. Via 80s.nyc

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.

  1. 1831

    David Jaques and John Hitchcock lease James Thomson's lot and build a five-story brick hardware building

    In 1831 James Thomson, who owned the property, leased it to David Jaques and John Hitchcock, who built a five-story building of red Flemish bond brick with stone trim for their hardware business, David Jaques & Company. The partners soon split: by 1836 Hitchcock had formed the produce firm John Hitchcock & Son with his son James, while Jaques went into dry goods and moved to Greenwich Street. A house owned by the Philipse family had stood on the site as early as 1695.

    Source: Daytonian in Manhattan

  2. 1865

    February 17

    Grant backs a court-martialed West Point classmate who wrote to him from 58 Pearl Street

    In 1849 Spencer D. C. Van Bokkelen opened a commission business at No. 58. William K. Van Bokkelen, a West Point classmate of Ulysses S. Grant, was found guilty at a court-martial in 1861 of improprieties while a quartermaster at Fort Union, New Mexico, and after his discharge that April he joined Spencer's firm. In 1865 he wrote to Grant from the Pearl Street address asking for help clearing his name; Grant wrote to the Secretary of War on February 17, but even that could not restore his reputation.

    Source: Daytonian in Manhattan

  3. 1904

    February 7

    City officials balk at a $2 million park around Fraunces Tavern that would have swept in 58 Pearl Street

    The Daughters of the Revolution petitioned the city in 1897 to buy the Fraunces Tavern block and turn it into a park, and in 1903 the American Scenic and Historic Preservation Society's Woman's Auxiliary seemed to persuade officials to buy the tavern and half the block, which included No. 58. A year later the Board of Estimate balked at the roughly $2 million cost, and the New York Times reported on February 7, 1904 that it considered buying only the tavern or a narrow strip around it. The park idea was dropped, and the tavern's restoration was completed in 1907.

    Source: Daytonian in Manhattan

  4. 1945

    October 27

    The Sons of the Revolution buy 58 Pearl Street to wrap an L around Fraunces Tavern

    On October 27, 1945 the New York Times reported that the Sons of the Revolution, who owned and ran Fraunces Tavern, had bought 58 Pearl Street, the neighboring five-story loft building, giving them an L around the tavern. They planned alterations to make it harmonize with their other buildings. Renovations finished in 1957 produced a restaurant of two stories, leaving the upper floors permanently vacant, and the third and fourth floors became museum space in 1977.

    Source: Daytonian in Manhattan

Further reading

Nearby

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