great fire of new york

7/30/2019 Great Fire of New York

1/3

April 1836 image of the Great Fire of New

York

View of the Great Fire in New York,

December 1617, 1835, as seen from

Williamsburg, Nicolino Calyo.

Great Fire of New YorkFrom Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Great New York Fire was a conflagration that destroyed

the New York Stock Exchange and most of the buildings on the

southeast tip of Manhattan around Wall Street on December

1617, 1835.

The fire began in the evening in a five-story warehouse at 25

Merchant Street (now called Beaver Street)[1]

at the

intersection with Pearl Street between Hanover Square,

Manhattan[2]

and Wall Street in the snow-covered city and was

fed by gale-force winds blowing from the northwest towards

the East River. With temperatures as low as 17 F (27 C)

and the East River frozen solid, firefighters had to cut holes in

the ice to get water. Water then froze in the hoses and pumps.

Attempts to blow up buildings in its path (a technique later

regarded as counterproductive) were thwarted by a lack of

gunpowder in Manhattan. Firefighters coming to help from Philadelphia said they could see signs of the fire

there.

About 2 a.m. Marines returned with gunpowder from the Brooklyn Navy Yard and blew up buildings in the

fire's path. By then it covered 50 acres (200,000 m2), 17 blocks of the city, destroying between 530 and 700

buildings. The area is now reported as Coenties Slip in the south to Maiden Lane in the north and from

William Street in the west to the East River.[3]

The losses were estimated at twenty million dollars, which, in

today's value would be hundreds of millions. Twenty people were killed.[citation needed]

Insurance was not forthcoming because several insurance companyheadquarters burned, bankrupting those companies. A description of

the conflagration was in the History of New York:[4]

Many of the stores were new, with iron shutters and doors and

copper roofs, and in burning presented the appearance of immense

iron furnaces in full blast. The heat at times melted the copper

roofing, and the liquid ran off in great drops. The gale blew towards

the East River. Wall after wall was heard tumbling like an avalanche.

Fiery tongues of flame leaped from roof and windows along whole

streets, and seemed to be making angry dashes at each other. Thewater of the bay looked like a vast sea of blood. The bells rang for a

while and then ceased. Both sides of Pearl Street and Hanover

Square were at the same instant in the jaws of the hungry monster.

An investigation did not assess blame and reported that the cause of the fire was a burst gas pipe that was

ignited by a coal stove.[5]

Since the fire occurred in the middle of an economic boom caused by the recent opening of the Erie Canal,

the destroyed wooden buildings were quickly replaced by larger stone and brick ones that were less prone to

widespread major fires. The fire also prompted construction of a new municipal water supply, now known as

the Old Croton Aqueduct, and a reform and expansion of the fire service. As a result, this was the last greatfire of New York. Still, the insurance companies that lost buildings in the fire decided rebuilding was not

worth the risk, and moved operations to Hartford, Connecticut. Today, Hartford is still known as the

"Insurance Capital of the World."

Coordinates: 40.707N 74.010W

at Fire of New York - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Fire_of_New_Yor

3 1/4/2013 12:33 AM


2/3

Contents

1 Reportage in The Gentleman's Magazine

2 See also

3 Notes and references

4 External links

Reportage in The Gentleman's Magazine

Two months after the fire, its extent and aftermath were reported in the February, 1836 issue ofThe

Gentleman's Magazine (an English periodical founded in London in 1713).

The report gives a colourful account of the damage:

A most awful conflagration occurred at New York on the 15th of December, by which 600buildings were destroyed, comprising the most valuable district of the city, including the entire

destruction of the Exchange, the Post Office, and an immense number of stores. The fire raged

incessantly for upwards of fifteen hours. The shipping along the line of wharfs suffered greatly;

several vessels were totally destroyed. The property consumed is estimated at 20 dollars.[6]

It also praises the resilience of the population in recovering from the catastrophe:

In this midst of this terrible visitation, however, it is consolatory to see the elastic energy of the

people. Instead of wasting their time in despondency over this frightful desolation, the whole

population seems to on the alert to repair the mischief.[6]

Recovery meant improved buildings, which would require financing. Negotiations were swiftly undertaken,

and the cooperativeness of banks was seen as crucial in preventing an economic disaster:

Plans of rebuilding on an improved scale, and modes of borrowing money for that purpose, on

sound securities, are under arrangement. The energy of the inhabitants, and the ready manner in

which the banks had offered to make advances to the different insurance companies, as well as

to private individuals, would avert, it was expected, a commercial crisis.[6]

See also

Great Fire of New York (1776)

Great Fire of London

1871 Great Chicago Fire

Great Fire of Turku

Notes and references

^ According to oldstreets.com (http://oldstreets.com/index.asp?letter=E) Merchant Street was originally called

Exchange Street but changed to the Merchant name in 1835. After the fire the street was moved further south

and became Beaver Street

1.

^ "Heroes of Ground Zero: FDNY - A History (http://www.pbs.org/wnet/heroes/history1.html)2.

^ Exhibit Details Devastation of Years Past (http://www.tribecatrib.com/newsnov02/forged.html)3.

^ New York: Its Origin, Rise, and Progress by Mrs Burton Harrison, Martha Joanna Lamb - 18964.


3 1/4/2013 12:33 AM


3/3

(http://books.google.com/books?vid=OCLC07932050&id=VFIOAAAAIAAJ&pg=RA7-PA696&lpg=RA7-

PA696&dq=New+York+Fire+1835#PRA7-PA725,M1)

^ Our Firemen, The History of the NY Fire Departments (http://www.usgennet.org/usa/ny/state/fire/11-20

/ch19pt2.html)

5.

^a

b

c

Gentleman's Magazine, (http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=26Lsr2E-i_sC&pg=PA104&

source=gbs_toc_r&cad=4#v=onepage&q&f=false) by "Sylvanus Urban," Vol. V, New Series, January-June

1836 (London: William Pickering, John Bowyer Nichols & Son, 1836), p. 196. Accessed 19 March 2012.

6.

External links

"Chapter 18: The Great Conflagration of 1835" (http://www.usgennet.org/usa/ny/state/fire/11-20

/ch18pt1.html) ,History of the Fire Department of the City of New York.

Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Great_Fire_of_New_York&oldid=519362522"

Categories: Fires in New York City Urban fires in the United States 1835 in New York 1835 fires

Navigation menu

This page was last modified on 23 October 2012 at 10:07.

Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License; additional terms may

apply. See Terms of Use for details.

Wikipedia is a registered trademark of the Wikimedia Foundation, Inc., a non-profit organization.


3 1/4/2013 12:33 AM

great fire of new york

Documents