The Lost Stephen Whitney House - 7 Bowling Green

 

Seen here around 1860, the Whitney mansion had a commodious rear garden.  To the right is the cast iron fencing of the Battery.  from the collection of the New York Public Library.

Stephen Whitney's first American ancestor arrived in Connecticut around 1650.  Although he was born into modest circumstances in Derby, Connecticut on September 4, 1776, he would eventually amass a fortune considered second only to that of John Jacob Astor I.  Whitney relocated to New York City while in his early 20s, first working for Lawrence & Whitney, co-founded by his brother Henry.  Around 1800 he partnered with John Currie in a wine and spirits importing and wholesale grocery business.

It was the War of 1812 that changed Whitney from a successful businessman to a mogul.  An embargo on exporting cotton made the commodity nearly worthless, but a far-sighted Whitney allowed his agents to accept cotton as payment for Southern debts owed him.  At the war's end he had warehouses full of cotton and with the lifting of the embargo, the prices skyrocketed.  At the age of 42 in 1818, he was wealthy enough to retire.

In the meantime, Whitney had married Harriet Suydam in 1803 and moved to 4 Stone Street where they had nine children (one of whom, John Currie, died shortly after his birth in 1808).  

In 1817, according to historian Joseph Alfred Scoville, Stephen Whitney erected a fine brick-faced mansion on the corner of Bowling Green and State Street.  Three-and-a-half stories tall above a high English basement, it provided views of two elegant parks--the Battery and the Bowling Green.  The Whitney house not only had a large, walled garden in the rear, but an ample front garden.  A broad stoop (most likely marble) rose to the arched entrance with Corinthian columns, and leaded sidelights and fanlight.

The Whitney mansion faced Bowling Green park.  The "Bowling Green Row" can be seen on the opposite site.  from the collection of The New York Public Library

Retirement for Whitney did not mean inactivity.  He now focused on investing his fortune in real estate, and in 1827 worked with William B. Astor and other businessmen in erecting the Merchants' Exchange Building, which became the first permanent home of the New York Stock and Exchange.   

Whitney once again saw opportunity in adversity when the country suffered the Financial Panic of 1837.  He bought up what was essentially worthless commercial paper, holding it until the economy revived.  His fortune was greatly increased by the move.

The parlors of 7 Bowling Green were the scene of two almost back-to-back weddings.  On June 25, 1828, Emeline Whitney, who was 22, married John Dore.  The couple made their home with Emily's parents.  A year later, on October 28, 1829, Mary Whitney was married to Jones Phillips Phoenix in the house.  The newlyweds moved to 18 State Street, just around the corner.  (The New England Historical and Genealogical Register mentioned that the Phoenix residence sat within the "aristocratic and fashionable quarter of Bowling Green and the Battery.")

Mary and J. Phillips Phoenix moved to 18 State Street, the middle house to the right, steps from her parents' home and garden (left).  from the collection of the New York Public Library

While the Whitney daughters were refined and well-married, the Whitney boys were a problem.  In his 1864 The Old Merchants of New York City, Joseph Alfred Scoville wrote, "He [i.e. Stephen Whitney] had a great deal of trouble with his sons. They were all more or less dissipated when young."   

Around 1824, Stephen Whitney set up his eldest son Samuel Suydam Whitney in business.  According to Scoville, 

He told Sam, when he set him up, "Now, my son, I have given you ample capital. If you are steady, and take care of it and yourself, you will do well and make a large fortune.  I only wish I had had such a beginning as you have.  Keep out of bad company; avoid gambling. I will indorse all your business notes for your tea and other purchases. If you do not do as I wish you will incur my serious displeasure." 

In 1832 Samuel took George B. Storm into the business, renaming it Whitney & Storm.  Interestingly, Storm appeared in the 1836 city directory as living at 7 Bowling Green.

Like her sisters, the Whitney's youngest child, Caroline, was married in the family house on November 3, 1841.  The groom, Ferdinand Suydam Jr., was her cousin.  Caroline was 18 years old.

Despite his father's admonitions, Samuel Suydam Whitney did not "keep out of bad company" and "avoid gambling."  Never married, he remained in the Bowling Green mansion with his parents.  While his business thrived, his drinking and gambling got out of hand.  He successfully hid his habits until one morning a "blackleg" (a British term for a swindler or gambler) knocked on the door of 7 Bowling Green and asked for Mr. Whitney.  Stephen Whitney came downstairs and the man showed him a check for $1,000 which had bounced.  Joseph Alfred Scoville explained, "The son had lost that sum at the faro table the night before."  Whitney replaced the check with one of his own, then headed to the offices of Whitney & Storm.

There, Whitney told his son, "You shall no longer bring disgrace upon me.  I will put a stopper on such goings on."  Scoville wrote, "The son left business, never to engage again in it."  Surprisingly, he was allowed to remain in the Bowling Green mansion, "but was never regarded as of any account by his father, or anyone else."

Equally (or worse) "dissipated" was Stephen Jr.  Born in 1814, like Samuel, he never married.  Described as "very wild and extravagant," Scoville wrote that he "formed one of those injurious connections with a young lady that are not deemed as respectable as marriage.  By her he had two children."  The Whitney family, of course, knew nothing of this.  For now.

Stephen Jr. died of consumption at 7 Bowling Green on November 21, 1858 at the age of 44.  Like all the Whitneys, he was buried in the family chapel in Greenwood Cemetery.   During the funeral at Trinity Church, Stephen Sr. noticed a woman, apparently in deep grief, whom he did not recognize.  He asked another mourner who she was.  According to Scoville, he answered, "She was the mistress of your son, and has by him two lovely children."

The following day Whitney investigated the matter and learned the woman's name.  He had $20,000 of stock in the New Jersey Transportation Company placed in her name and sent it to her.

Exactly one month after Stephen's death, Samuel Suydam Whitney died in the house on December 21, 1858.  He was 54.  His funeral, too, was held at Trinity Church.

On February 17, 1860, The New York Times reported, "At noon, yesterday, Mr. Stephen Whitney, one of the oldest and wealthiest of our citizens, died at his residence in Bowling-green."  The article said his "strictly upright" dealings had brought him his fortune, "estimated at the enormous amount of $8,000,000."  (The figure would translate to about $290 million in 2024.)

The article noted, "Perhaps no fact exhibits [the] conservative element of his character more forcibly than his persistent refusal to follow his old acquaintances and neighbors who, years ago, resigned their downtown mansions for more quiet and fashionable homes in the upper part of the City.  For the last fifty years Mr. Whitney has resided on Bowling-green."

By the end of the century, the streetcar tracks that ran up Bowling Green and State Street testified to the change in the area.  from the collection of the New York Public Library.

Whitney's will left divided his estate among the family, leaving nothing to charity.  Harriet received "all stocks and moneys which stand credited to her on his books; the dwelling house at the corner of State street and Bowling Green, together with its furniture, and the sum of $100,000."  The will noted, "The dwelling-house, which falls to the relict [i.e., widow] of Mr. Whitney, is not to be sold without her consent given in writing."

That clause was soon irrelevant.  Three months later, on May 12, Harriet died at the age of 77.  Unlike those of her sons and husband, her funeral was held in the parlors of 7 Bowling Green.

The Whitney heirs wasted no time in emptying the mansion of its fine furnishings and artwork.  On October 3, 1860 an announcement appeared in The Evening Post of the sale of Stephen Whitney's "choice old wines" to be held in the house the following day.

Like the other once-refined residences along Bowling Green and State Street, the Whitney house was converted for business.  It became headquarters of the Hergues & Co. Steamship Co. and in 1861, with Civil War raging, the Government leased space as headquarters of the Coast Division of the Union Navy.

After the war, the Government continued renting space at 7 Bowling Green.  In 1868, the War Department was leasing three rooms for the Chief Court Marshal, and four rooms as the offices "for engineer agency, Forts Columbus, Wood, and Gibson, Castle William, and South Battery."

The house as it appeared in 1880.  from the collection of the New York Public Library

In 1869 the Anchor Steamship Line took over the house.  The firm suffered a string of horrendous events.  A year earlier the Hibernia sank in mid-ocean; in 1870 the United Kingdom vanished in the Atlantic with no trace; and in October that same year, the Cambria sank.  In all 340 people died in the three horrible incidents.

The Anchor Line remained in the former mansion until 1899, when it and its neighbors were demolished for the magnificent U.S. Custom House, designed by Cass Gilbert.  

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The US Customs House -- 1 Bowling Green

photo NYPL Collection

At the near-tip of Manhattan on the site where the Dutch West India Company built Fort Amsterdam to defend themselves against Native Americans sits one of the most monumental of New York structures.

The greatest source of revenue for the United States Government before the creation of income tax in 1916 was the collection of customs duties.  As the 19th century came to a close there was a need for a substantial new U. S. Customs house in New York City.

In 1899 once-elegant row houses, since converted to office space, lined the site of the old Fort Amsterdam.  The Federal Government took ownership and the Department of the Treasury sponsored a competition for the design of the new Customs House -- and sparked a controversy that would last for years.  The Customs House was the first major competition under the 1893 Tarnsey Act that allowed architects to compete for the design of civic structures.  The competition ended in a tie between Cass Gilbert, from Minnesota, and the New York City firm of Carrere & Hastings.

While the jury requested the finalists to submit further developments to their designs, Carrere & Hastings suggested to Gilbert that they join forces in the project and that they request the jury be enlarged.  Gilbert, who wanted this plum commission for himself, refused on both counts.  After resubmitted designs, much deliberation and Gilbert's paying his lawyer $5000 in legal fees, Cass Gilbert won the commission.

Coming amid the City Beautiful movement which stressed monumental, decorative buildings, Gilbert's design was exactly that.  Seven stories of Beaux Arts-style gray Maine granite covered three city blocks and contained 450,000 square feet of space.  Drawing his inspiration from the Paris Opera, his building would be as lavish as it would be massive.

Critical to the architecture was the sculpture.  Four colossal seated figures representing Africa, Asia, America and Europe would decorate the front facade.  So important were these allegories that each had a separate contract, the commissions all being awarded to Daniel Chester French.  Above the 12 three -story high columns are statues representing the sea powers of the world.  In dramatic contrast to the gray granite facade, the sculptures were executed in brilliant white Tennessee marble.

Masterpieces of symbolism, French's groupings deserve careful study: 

America rests her foot on Quetzelcoatl, the feathered South American serpent god.  A Native American watches over her shoulder.  Corn, wheat, cacti, a buffalo skull and a broken Native American pot symbolize the United States.  Next to her Labor rolls the wheel of progress.  Along the sides of America's throne are Mayan glyphs. 

The statue of Asia reflects the political views of the period.  Her feet rest on a stool supported by human skulls, symbolic of the many lives lost in Asian slavery.  In one hand she holds a poppy while a statue of Buddha sits in her lap.  Behind her a cross is emerging, denoting the rise of Christianity and missionary work at the time.  Three miserable figures, one curled on the ground with his face in the dirt and one with his hands tied behind his back represent, in French's words, "the hordes of India, and the hopelessness of the life of so many of the inhabitants."  A large tiger wraps behind the throne.

Europe sits on a throne decorated with fragments of the frieze of the Parthenon, her left hand grips the bow of a ship with a lion's head, representing Europe's many conquests during the Age of Discovery.  Her right hand, in a fist, rests on a globe -- a symbol of her many colonial take-overs.  Behind her a shrouded figured depicting ancient history contemplates a human skull.

Finally Africa, referred to at the end of the 19th century as "the sleeping continent" slumbers in her throne accompanied by a sleeping lion.  To her left is the head of a sphinx, while behind an eerie shrouded figured represents the mystery of Africa.

No single artist was commissioned for the remaining sculptures of the facade; rather, some of the most noted sculptors of the day were employed:  Augustus St. Gaudens, Albert Jaegers and Vincenzo Alfano, for instance.

The construction began in 1902 and would continue for another five years.  On January 11 of 1902, Harper's Weekly wrote "Preliminary work on the new Custom-House, at the foot of Broadway, is well advanced, and portions of the steel frame-work are in place.  The edifice is to be of marble, and to cost approximately $3,000,000.  Directly in front is the Bowling Green, of historic memory, and great buildings tower to the sky in the immediate neighborhood."  E. J. Meeker's illustration of the proposed building may have been the first glimpse most New Yorkers would get of the grand design.

 The cost to erect the monumental structure would equal more than $90 million today)  illustration from Harper's Bazaar, January 11, 1902 (copyright expired)

The interior of the Custom House was as lavish as the exterior.  The rotunda remains one of the largest public spaces in New York.  Over the ornate room a 140-ton skylight was engineered with no visible means of support.

In 1936, during the Great Depression, the Works Projects Administration commissioned Reginald Marsh, as part of their Treasury Relief Art Project, to create murals for the rotunda area.  Eight large panels exhibit scenes of the Port of New York City.  One especially interesting panel includes motion picture actress Greta Garbo leaving a passenger ship and greeting the press. The smaller eight panels depict famous explorers -- painted in shades of brown and gray to simulate statuary.

The 1970's in New York was a dark period for landmark preservation.  The city's critical financial problems caused structures in Central Park and elsewhere to fall victim to neglect and vandalism.  So it was for the Custom House.  In 1973 the Customs Service abandoned the building which sat empty and ignored for nearly a decade until plans were finally initiated for its demolition.

In a last minute rescue, Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan sponsored a bill appropriating nearly $30 million for the restoration of the old Customs House.  Because of the variety and quality of the artwork, preservation efforts involved a series of subcontracts.  Painstaking research was done on every piece after which individual curators recommended methods, tested those methods, and then conserved the art under the watchful eye of experts.  The Marsh murals, for instance, were unable to be cleaned; the sand-rich plaster on which they were painted being far too delicate.

Today the United State Customs House is the home of the George Gustav Heye Center -- National Museum of the American Indian, a branch of the Smithsonian Institution.