This deed recites the Act of Congress referred to elsewhere, and states “the President in pursuance thereof caused to be purchased from said Wailer, etc., etc.”
Wailer made a nice profit. He bought it for 515 pounds and sold it for 4,266⅔ dollars, subject to the ground rent as before.
This deed was acknowledged by Wailer and wife before James Biddle, president of the Court of Common Pleas, of the County of Philadelphia, July 21, 1792.
During the entire time the government owned the property it paid an annual ground rent, which seems rather strange now.
On July 1, 1792, Washington appointed David Rittenhouse director of the mint, and on July 19th, the day following the purchase, eight carpenters, besides other laborers, commenced to tear down the distillery, and on August 25th the frame work for the new building was raised.
Work on the bellows furnaces was commenced September 7th, and on September 11th six pounds of old copper for coinage was purchased at the price of one shilling three pence per pound.
Three coining presses, imported from Europe, arrived September 21st, and in October they were in operation.
On December 30, 1792, Jefferson, then Secretary of State, wrote Pinckney, our minister to England, about the difficulty of procuring copper, and suggested Sweden as a source of supply and enclosed draft on the treasury of the United States for $10,000.
The United States of America on January 12, 1836, by deed reciting Act of Congress under date of May 1, 1830, transferred the mint grounds and buildings to Michael Kates, bell hanger, for $8,100, he having been the highest bidder at public sale. In this deed the 14-foot alley was called Sugar Alley and the ground rent again noted.