A Bit of Wall Street Nostalgia

I was with a bunch of people in lower Manhattan for a charity walk-a-thon and after we were finished, I asked some of the participants if they wanted to see some of the sights of the financial district. Before you know it, I was playing tour guide to a dozen people who were born and raised within thirty miles of Wall Street, but had never seen the exchanges.

We started by walking to the World Financial Center so that we could observe the progress of the World Trade Center site -- I still can’t quite get myself to call it Ground Zero. The area looks like a massive construction zone, but I was able to provide some perspective by describing some of the events of that day. I reminded the group that the Commodities Exchange, where I worked for three and a half years, was housed in 4 World Trade Center, which was destroyed on 9-11. I recalled having breakfast at Windows on the World with my brother-in-law (they validated parking!) at least once a month. The COMEX and the NY Mercantile Exchange had already moved to a new location before 9-11.

We walked over to the two nearby churches that were miraculously spared during the terrorist attacks. Trinity Church and St. Paul’s are gorgeous structures set amid the massive buildings of the financial district. St. Paul’s was turned into a makeshift memorial shrine following September 11th and served as a place of rest and refuge for recovery workers at the WTC site. I have fond memories of Trinity Church, because it served as my own refuge during busy days.

After Trinity, we walked to the American Stock Exchange, where my father worked for three decades. I grew up at the AMEX, visiting Dad often and held my first job on Wall Street as a high school senior there. The AMEX got its start in the 1800's and was known as the "Curb Exchange" or simply “The Curb” until 1921 because it met as a market at the curbstone on Broad Street near Exchange Place. Its founding date is generally considered as 1921, the year when it moved into new quarters on Trinity Place.

As we made our way to the New York Stock Exchange, I told the history of the oldest and largest stock exchange in the US, which is located on Wall Street. It traces its origins to 1792, when 24 brokers and merchants gathered under a Buttonwood tree at the tip of Manhattan and signed an agreement to trade securities. “The Buttonwood Agreement” eventually grew into the place where representatives of buyers and sellers met and shouted out prices at one another in order to strike a deal. They were trading shares of “stocks” or “equities,” which represent ownership of public companies.

The current exchange building was unveiled on April 22, 1903 and was noted for its masterful architecture. The six massive Corinthian columns across its Broad Street façade impart a feeling of substance and stability --- the very embodiment of the nation’s growth and prosperity. While it is difficult to visit the interior of the building in the aftermath of 9-11, seeing the structure still thrills me. As a young college student clerking for my godfather, I walked into the building as most might enter a house of worship. It was not that I confused the two, but I had respect for all that the building represented.

As I stood before the massive building, I found myself a bit sad. The hey-day of physical exchanges has long passed with the advent of computer-based trading. There is certainly better execution and increased efficiencies now, but nothing can match the exhilaration of walking onto a trading floor and seeing capitalism come to life. Now you know that at heart, I am an old-fashioned and nostalgic gal!