9 South William Street
Financial District | built 1896
Open on the map4 entries
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.
- 1660
Asser Levy, a Jewish butcher who fought to stand guard, has a house built here around 1660
Around 1660 the landowner Wessel Evertsen built a house on the southern half of this site for Asser Levy, a Jewish butcher and moneylender. Levy had won the right to stand guard with other burghers, despite reluctance among the townspeople to serve alongside Jews. He kept the property for ten years, then passed it to Jan Herberding, who afterward leased a parcel along the west side of present-day South William Street as the site of the synagogue of Congregation Shearith Israel. This was an earlier building on the site.
“…landowner Wessel Evertsen built a house (c. 1660) for Asser Levy, a Jewish butcher and moneylender…”
- 1754
A lane is widened over the Haey house, and rabbi Gershom Seixas is later tied to No. 59
In 1754 residents petitioned to widen the narrow lane beside this lot, then called the Jews' Alley, and the house and garden of the trader Jacob Haey's family were sacrificed for it. Two structures soon stood here again. The southern one, No. 59 Stone Street, had ties to Gershom Mendes Seixas, rabbi of Shearith Israel, a Columbia trustee and a patriot in the Revolution. These were earlier buildings on the site.
“The Haey/Jochems house and its garden were then sacrificed for the widening of the lane; documents indicate that the site of 59-61 Stone Street soon again contained two structures…”
- 1924
William H. McGee's insurance firm hires William Neil Smith to rebuild the corner as a neo-Gothic office
McGee, who ran a marine insurance firm founded in 1883, used his Eleven South William Street Company to remodel the old stores at 59 and 61 Stone Street. In 1924-25 architect William Neil Smith raised the southern half from five to seven stories. In 1928-29 he replaced the northern half with a limestone building under a slate mansard roof, giving the unified block room for 345 employees.
“…employed architect William Neil Smith to remodel the site for McGee's marine insurance firm, founded in 1883.”
- 1961
Lehman Brothers expands into the building as an annex across Mill Lane
By mid-century Lehman Brothers occupied this building, which was called 9 South William at the time, as an annex to its bigger building across Mill Lane. The investment bank had occupied No. 1 William Street since 1928, and it took over space at 9-11 South William Street in 1961. A marble plaque reading Lehman Brothers still marks the South William Street entrance.
Nearby
- 13 South William Street4 entries
- 15 South William Street2 entries
- 17 South William Street2 entries
- 1 William Street3 entries
- 19 South William Street3 entries
- 58 Stone Street2 entries