More than 200 years ago, merchant Peter Schermerhorn commissioned a series of 14 brick warehouses to be built along Fulton Street near the East River to serve Manhattan’s growing South Street Seaport, an area so busy that it has been described as New York City’s “first world trade center.” Within a few decades, the needs of the area changed and in the middle of the 19th century, part of Schermerhorn’s buildings were converted into a hotel. Today, pieces of this 165-year-old boarding house are preserved in the South Street Seaport Museum. A pleasure to draw such a vital part of New York history. – Michele
