Field Trip: New York's Bowling Green and Evidence of Eighteenth and Nineteenth-Century Merchant Pathways and Lifestyle

Very early Dutch map of Lower Manhattan. Notice the curved lanes and streets. Bowling Green is located at the beginning of Broadway. Wall Street is to the right. Stone, Pearl, Mill, and Oyster streets are in there too.

Finally got to New York this past week. It was great! Saw my daughter, did some shopping, and as always......took random pictures of things that no one else is taking pictures of.......like fences!

First stop for me on Monday was Bowling Green. For a long time it was the place to live. George Washington lived here as well as one of America's first business titans: Stephen Whitney (1776-1860). He lived here his whole adult life even when the wealthy set was moving uptown.

One of his many sons, Henry Whitney (1812-1856), married for a second time Miss Maria Fitch Whitney Baldwin in 1850--she is a very interesting side note in my Huntington research. He died six years later leaving Maria with two girls some step kids and a fancy house in New Haven.

Henry Whitney (1812-1856, one of Stephen Whitney's many sons. He and some of his brothers died young. Interestingly, he tried farming in New Haven.

I will hopefully discuss Maria's rags to riches life in a future post. She is a bit of an irresistable rabbit hole amongst the Huntington drama of the nineteenth century.

Original 1771 fence that encircles the Bowling Green near Battery Park.

Bowling Green looking north up Broadway. The Wall Street Bull is in the distance.

Early nineteenth-century image of Bowling Green. Stephen Whitney and his large family lived on the circle. Later, he would be the father-in-law to Maria Fitch Whitney Baldwin, Isabelle Eunice Fitch Huntington's older sister.

Another angle of the Bowling Green neighborhood as it began on "Broad Way." Not a lot of trees in 1790!

When Stephen Whitney died in 1860--the neighborhood was already well into decline.

Seven Bowling Green, home for many decades to Stephen Whitney (1776-1860) who although rich, had many family tragedies including wayward sons. At least one of his daughters lived in one of the row houses in the distance which is close to Battery Park. Stephen's federal mansion faced Bowling Green.

After hanging around Bowling Green I kept getting lost in the labryninth that is Lower Manhattan but it was quiet and nice.

Stone Street today. Notice the Dutch-inspired rooflines on the nineteenth-century buildings.

I think it is hard to imagine how much barrels, like this, would have been in one's eyesight every single day. It certainly is an important symbol of American capitalism.

Mill Street, another curved alleyway that survives from the seventeenth century even if the buildings do not. These are nineteenth-century "skyscrapers" amid twentieth century ones.

Very important historical marker of the location of the first organized synagogue in North America.

Yes, I kept winding my way around these short cobblestoned streets always looking for Pearl Street because that is where Huntington and Campbell (Charles' sons) was located in the 1830s. Only 1-2 early buildings survive on Pearl Street including Fraunces Tavern which unforunatley was closed for tours when I was there.

Fraunces Tavern--77 Pearl Street (and Broad). Among other functions, it was Washington's headquarters for part of 1776. Pearl Street was always the heart of business enterprise in early nineteenth century New York. Unfortunately, none of the early buildings survive except for this one.

Still holds up! Wonderful account of the difficulties of making a living in NYC as a merchant.

In order for me to understand what was going on in Norwich during the nineteenth century, it is critical to understand how New York operated. The Huntington sons could not advance anymore from the comfort of Norwichtown, they had to take steamships to NYC whenever possible and do their business. Or, move there. Usually they worked on Pearl Street and went home to Brooklyn.