On July 30, 1904, the contractors who were excavating for the Rapid Transit tunnel in Battery Park, New York City, dug up at a point twenty feet west of the center line of State street and eighty-seven feet north of the center line of Bridge street, a small monumental stone of great historical significance. This stone, which was two feet nine inches below the surface of the ground, marked the site of the southwest bastion of Old Fort George.
The great historical value of this monument was immediately appreciated by the American Scenic and Historical Preservation Society and the New York Historical Society, for it supplied the datum for the exact location of the boundaries of the old fort, which, under various names, had occupied the site of the birthplace of the Metropolis.
The Secretary of the American Scenic and Historical Preservation Society on August 1, wrote to Mayor McClellan, and President Orr of the Rapid Transit Commission, requesting that the bearings of the exact site of the monument be carefully taken, and that the stone be replaced above ground on the same spot as soon as Battery Park was restored to its normal condition. On August 12th, the Scenic Society’s letter was formally approved by the Rapid Transit Board, and the acting chief engineer was authorized to construct a proper pedestal for the monument and restore it as soon as practicable.
The New York Historical Society, through whose instrumentality the stone was originally erected in 1818, also manifested the liveliest interest in the matter, and when the stone is replaced will probably hold formal ceremonies.
The circumstances of the original erection of the monument are extremely interesting:
Under date of June 10, 1817, Mr. John Pintard, Secretary of the New York Chamber of Commerce, wrote to the New York Historical Society as follows:
New York, 10th June, 1817.
The subscriber, as Secretary of the Corporation of the New York Chamber of Commerce (instituted 5th April, 1768), in reviewing the minutes of that respectable Association, found the following astronomical observations for determining the Latitude of the City of New York made in October, 1769, by Mr. David Rittenhouse of Philadelphia, and Captain John Montresor of the British Corps of Engineers, at that period stationed in this City.
These observations, it is presumed, have never been published, and may be considered of sufficient importance to be preserved in the archives of the New York Historical Society.
John Pintard.