Page:WALL STREET IN HISTORY.djvu/102

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94
WALL STREET IN HISTORY

the country. Among its trustees are a group of distinguished citizens and philanthropists; as, for instance, the late lamented William E. Dodge, and the late Ex-governor E. D. Morgan, Charles H. Russell, former president of the Bank of Commerce, Benjamin H. Field, vice-president of the New York Historical Society, Josiah O. Low, Royal Phelps, William H. Webb, Robert B. Minturn, Horace Gray, Edmund W. Corlies, Samuel Willetts, and its present president, John D. Jones.

The most valuable real estate in the world is said to be the corner of Wall Street and Broad, the point shown in the illustration of Wall Street on page 25. The Mills Building in Broad Street, running through to Wall Street, cost an enormous sum. The largest bank edifice is on the corner of Wall and Broadway—nicknamed by the Brokers "Fort Sherman"—and is the home of the First National Bank, George F. Baker president, and the Bank of the Republic, Henry W. Ford president. The largest depository in the country is the United States Trust Company, John A. Stewart president, which holds deposits amounting to some $37,000,000.


It is equally interesting to observe that Wall Street is identified with the early newspaper enterprises of the city. The Journal of Commerce for twenty-five years occupied the south-east corner of Wall Street and Water, and the Courier and Enquirer was in a building on the north side of Wall Street between Pearl and William. These two newspapers were in competition, as far as obtaining fresh news was concerned. David Hale and Gerard Hallock inaugurated the famous news schooners, to cruise at sea and intercept European vessels for the latest intelligence. Whereupon the Courier and Enquirer hired vessels for the same purpose, and the races of these squadrons down the bay were among the exhilarating excitements