The mystery of a missing 19th century monument that marked New York’s devastating fire of 1835
It started on the frigid, ferociously windy night of December 16, 1835. At 9 p.m., a watchman on patrol in Lower Manhattan’s commercial warehouse district—where imported goods arriving by ship were stored before ending up on the shelves of fancy shops—smelled smoke.
“As he came to the intersection of Exchange and Pearl Streets, he discovered the source of the smoke: a large warehouse, located dangerously close to some of New York City’s most prominent commercial buildings, was engulfed in flames,” stated CUNY Graduate Center’s Virtual New York website.
The fire raged across cramped and crooked streets through the next morning, consuming block after block roughly south of Wall Street and east of Broad Street.
Witnessing the destruction were merchants trying to save their goods, looters eager to make off with them, and volunteer firefighters hamstrung by water that froze in their hoses, among other problems.
City officials finally came up with a plan to stop the fire by dynamiting buildings in its path. What became known as the Great Fire of 1835 was ultimately contained when rubble from the dynamited buildings formed a firewall that prevented flames from spreading.
Only two people died in the blaze. But the damage was staggering, with 674 buildings destroyed and insurance companies put out of business. The source of the catastrophe? A burst gas pipe ignited by a coal stove, according to the Hudson River Maritime Museum.
After New Yorkers got over the shock of the destruction, the city set about rebuilding. New, supposedly fireproof buildings went up, streets were widened, and the need for an aqueduct that would bring water to hydrants was realized with the opening of the Croton Aqueduct in 1842.
After downtown was rebuilt, a monument (above) was placed on a new building at 90 Pearl Street—formerly the site of the Pearl Street House and Ohio Hotel, which burned in the fire—to commemorate the tragedy.
The monument presents a solemn image: a Classical female figure with an arm extended sits on top of a marble slab summing up the fire’s wrath. “Destroyed 1835/in the conflagration 16-17 December/650 buildings containing merchandise were consumed in one night.”
The monument states that 90 Pearl Street was rebuilt in 1836 “on foundations of large stone for John R. Peters.” Further down, it notes the building went up in flames on August 23, 1853 but was “rebuilt by William Chauncey.”
New York is filled with monuments—with statues, obelisks, and plaques honoring government officials, fallen soldiers, leaders in the arts and culture, and important events that rocked the city. And while a monument to the Great Fire of 1835 would have been deeply meaningful to those who lived through it, its relevance appears to have faded as the 19th century winded down.
This was acknowledged by a writer in The World in 1897, which included an illustration of the monument (above). “Probably very few of the present generation know of the sculptured figure which is to be seen at Nos. 88 and 90 Pearl Street,” the writer stated on June 10 of that year, adding that the monument sits “over the doorway of George F. Kohler’s United States bonded warehouse.”
The neglect of the fire monument was set in motion when the Third Avenue Elevated made its debut in the 1870s. The southern end of the line obscured 90 Pearl Street, stated James Scully, historian and creator of the audio series Burning Gotham, which chronicles New York in 1835.
It’s also worth mentioning that by this time, Pearl Street was far from the fashionable sections of the city. Relatively few residents would be strolling by the monument and taking the time to appreciate its meaning—as opposed to newer monuments on Fifth Avenue and in Central Park.
In the first half of the 20th century, 90 Pearl Street remained part of the cityscape. By the early 1950s, the building met the wrecking ball. In the demolition, the fire monument was damaged, according to Kenneth Holcomb Dunshee in his 1952 book, As You Pass By.
“It is now in the hands of the H.V. Smith Museum, where it is being restored,” wrote Dunshee.
The what museum? Research reveals that the H.V. Smith Museum, named for the president of the Home Insurance Company, once existed on Maiden Lane. Apparently it housed an extensive collection of fire-related relics.
But the museum is no more, and it’s unclear where the fire monument is today. Was it ever restored? Has it been forgotten in a municipal archive somewhere in Manhattan? The disappearance remains a mystery.
If this Classical figure and marble slab are ever found, I’d love to see them back on display in public—a somber reminder of a terrible tragedy that forced New York to prove its resilience.
[Top image: by Nicolino Calyo via araderlive.com; second image: Nicolino Calyo via The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston; third image: from As You Go By, by Kenneth Holcomb Dunshee; fourth image: The World; fifth image: geographicguide.com]
