President
of the Chamber of Commerce
of New York.
(End of extract of minutes.)
The Chamber of Commerce appropriated 20 pounds to pay Mr. Rittenhouse for his services in the above matter.
In 1790,[[30]] Fort George was razed to the ground, part of the material was used for filling in and enlarging Battery Park, the Government Building was erected on part of the old fort site, and all trace of the southwest bastion where the observations of Montresor and Rittenhouse were made was lost.
The New York Historical Society, on June 10, 1817, therefore voted to apply to the Corporation of the City to ascertain the site of the bastion an which Messrs. Rittenhouse and Montresor made their observations in 1769 and to erect a monument with suitable inscriptions to mark the same. Messrs. John Pintard, Dr. John Griscom and Dr. Samuel L. Mitchill were appointed a committee to prepare the memorial to the Common Council and present it to that body. The memorial, dated June 16, 1817, recited the facts here given and said: “It is conceived by the Historical Society that it is worthy the care of a cultivated and enlightened people to ascertain and perpetuate by a monumental stone the aforesaid site.” It also called attention to the fact that “Your magnificent City Hall has been erected considerably to the northward of the place where Fort George formerly stood,” and requested that its latitude also be accurately determined and marked by a monument with appropriate inscriptions.
On July 8, 1817, the New York Historical Society Committee reported to the Society that the Committee of Arts and Sciences of the Common Council, to whom their Memorial had been referred, had reported favorably thereupon.
The report of the Common Council Committee, after reciting the facts of the survey in 1769, proceeds as follows:
“The communication from the Historical Society having stated this fact as taken from the minutes of the Chamber of Commerce, request that the Corporation would endeavor to find the site of the Flag Bastion of Fort George and erect on the spot a stone with an inscription stating the latitude, when and by whom taken, and that a suitable person or persons be employed to take the latitude of the City Hall and erect a stone in front or near it with the latitude marked thereon which shall serve as a monument or milliarium from which all distances shall be reckoned and which will be considered the proper latitude of the place, being taken from the largest and most elegant and permanent building in the City.