On This Day in 1913: the Death of JP Morgan, Philanthropist

JP Morgan, Philanthropist: How did he pay it forward?

April 17, 1837 - March 31, 1913

John Pierpont Morgan may have died 101 years ago, but his New York City philanthropic legacy lives on through a progressive New York City housing movement experiment and a settlement house. 

Morgan, one of the country’s most famous and important financiers in American history, is forever known for his contributions and influence in the development of corporate icons such as General Electric, International Harvester, U.S. Steel, and the railroad corporations among others.

He calmed the storm in the Panic of 1907 by essentially acting as the “central bank”…today, he would be comparable to Warren Buffet.

Lesser known are his contributions as a philanthropist…even over a century after his death we ask the question: How did he pay it forward?

Two of the greatest philanthropic projects Morgan helped blossom into major successful social experiments of his time, are still in existence and flourishing today.  They include:

East Side House Settlement - Morgan was a major donor to this project, founded in 1891 as a settlement house on New York's Upper East Side neighborhood called Yorkville, and home to a massive immigration population explosion in the late 1890’s.

The urban settlement house movement was a reformist social movement, beginning in the 1880s and peaking around the 1920s, with a goal of providing services to the working poor and new immigrants.  These social services included an introduction to American culture, homemaking, daycare, education, and healthcare to improve the lives of the poor in these areas. In the US, by 1913 there were over 400 settlements in 32 states.

The settlement house was the hub of the community.  Immigrant parents took classes to introduce them to New York City, childrearing, and the city’s schools system.  Children had classes in art, painting, athletics and academic pursuits.  Young adults came to the dances at the East Side House…some even meeting their future spouses there!  Mothers had training in homemaking and some even found employment there washing laundry.

East Side House Settlement also worked on getting children out of the city for fresh air in the country at summer camps.  This was of such great interest to Morgan, that one weekend he opened his own estate to the youngsters. 

Settlement houses influenced urban design, architecture and model tenement experiments of the housing reform movement in the late 1800s and early 1900s.

Today the East Side House Settlement, now located in the Bronx, is flourishing and still carries on its mission from over a century ago.

City & Suburban Homes Model Tenements – Morgan’s interest in limited dividend companies, dedicated to providing profit to their investors, as well as creating affordable housing for the working poor, led to his and his descendants becoming donors and their continued involvement on the board of directors of City & Suburban Homes company.  The model tenements were not only an urban design experiment created by some of the members of the East Side House Settlements major donors, but also launched philanthropic interest in the new concept of  “benign capitalism” which is a not wholly philanthropic venture, but a business venture where the stockholders agree to receiving a limited dividend [usually 4% - 7%] and the leftover funds go into continuing building new housing.

Other early supporters, included some of the New York’s socially prominent and important philanthropic families, such as Morgan’s descendants, the Carnegie’s, Vanderbilt’s, Rockefeller’s, Astor’s, Auchincloss, and Gould’s.

One of the most significant projects in the history of the reform housing movement, it was designed in response to the horrific living conditions of working poor areas such as the Lower East Side, at that time, one of the most densely populated neighborhood in the world.  Photographer, Jacob Riis, who published photographs of the horrors of tenement life, and Lillian Wald, one of the most respected social reformers and advocates for the poor, among others, drew public attention to the plight of these families, thus making it a popular cause for well-to-do New Yorkers…either for their own charitable reasons, or because they feared the spread of disease, crime caused by the lamentable unsanitary and overcrowding in these early types of tenements which had a sudden increase of the city’s population caused by massive immigration.  The publicity led to the creation successful reform housing movement.

The City & Suburban Homes York Avenue Estate is one of the most significant projects in the history of the reform housing movements in New York City. Built between 1901 and 1913, the 14 model tenements are a New York City Landmark and were placed on the New York State and the National Registers of Historic Places.

The largest low cost housing development in the world at the time of its construction became the model for all large scale public housing post WWII and remains an excellent example of reform housing.

In a gesture usually reserved for heads of state, when John Pierpont Morgan died on March 31, 1913, in Italy, at the age of 75, the New York Stock Exchange was closed for several hours that day to honor a multifaceted man, whose many ways to “pay it forward” are still being discovered today.

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For more information about Wall Street and New York's Financial District, join a Wall Street Walks guided walking tour!

Visit the 911 Memorial Museum, Opening May 21, 2014

Visit the 911 Memorial Museum

From a press release today:

The National September 11 Memorial Museum will open to the public on Wednesday, May 21, marking a milestone in the rebuilding of the World Trade Center.

Starting today, you can reserve your tickets to the Museum at www.911memorial.org/visit. Various discounts are offered, including free admission hours every Tuesday from 5 p.m. to 8 p.m. Thanks to the global media company Condé Nast, admission will be free for all visitors on the historic opening day of the Museum on May 21. Admission to the Museum will always be free for 9/11 family members. Rescue and recovery workers who participated in the response on and after 9/11 and are registered with the Memorial are also free. 

As always, Wall Street Walks will be offering guided tours of the 911 Memorial to our private groups. If you'd like to book a tour of Wall Street and/or the 911 Memorial for your group, please click here.

To join one of our daily public tours of Wall Street (all of which end at the 911 Memorial for your convenience), please click here.

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For more information about Wall Street and New York's Financial District, join a Wall Street Walks guided walking tour!

New York Ghost Stories: Aaron Burr

New York Ghost Stories: Aaron Burr

Aaron Burr is most well known as the man who shot Alexander Hamilton. Burr was charged with treason 1808.  However, in court he was found not guilty.  After that he went on to live in France in exile.  Eventually, after begging by his daughter Theodosa, President James Madison pardoned him and he returned to New York in 1812.

He was supposed to meet his daughter Theodosa in New York.  It turned out quite differently and today Aaron Burr and his daughter Theodosia make an interesting pair of ghosts in Battery Park.

On December 31, 1812, the beautiful and vivacious Theodosia Burr, wife of wealthy governor Joseph Alston of South Carolina, left her husband’s plantation. She sailed north on the Patriot to visit her beloved father in New York City. In January 1813, British ships intercepted the vessel off Cape Hatteras of North Carolina. Though the two countries were at war, the ship was permitted to continue on its voyage. The Patriot was never seen again. That very night, a storm swept North Carolina and swamped the boat. All the bodies except that of Theodosia washed ashore. 

Aaron Burr is forever doomed to be at Battery Park to await the arrival of his daughter Theodosia. Sometimes Aaron Burr joins the American Merchant Marine Memorial in Battery Park as he keeps watch for his daughter. Liberty Island is in the background.  

Aaron Burr married again late in life in 1833 but his wife separated from him within four months. In 1834, Burr suffered a stroke which left him unable to move. He died in 1836 in a boardinghouse.

Aaron Burr's Death Mask

Now and then, reports emerge that a ghostly Aaron Burr still awaits his daughter at Battery Park.

Another version of the story has Theodosia taken aboard a pirate ship and forced to walk the plank. According to this account, Theodosia’s ghost eventually arrived at her father’s residence, at 3 Wall Street, where she and her dad remain in spooky tandem.

Still another version has her as an amnesiac who lived in a North Carolina town. She had treasure that had somehow survived the sinking. There are numerous tales about Theodosia's fate, detailed here.

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For more New York Ghost Stories, join a Wall Street Walks downtown New York Ghost Tour!

New York Ghost Stories: Captain Kidd

New York Ghost Stories: Captain Kidd

The ghost of Captain William Kidd has been seen at three places downtown – Trinity Church, at the corner of Broad and Wall (in front of Federal Hall and across from the New York Stock Exchange) and at Battery Park.

He was born in Scotland but settled in New York in 1691 on Hanover Square – close to the Harbor and River. Kidd was a privateer, which was another way of saying that he was licensed by the English Crown to attack enemy ships during wartime and share any loot with the Crown and the crew. While living in NY he contributed his services to the building of the original Trinity Churchyard by providing a winch to lift the stones to build the church steeple.

Captain Kidd is one angry ghost, betrayed by his crew and friends in the English and colonial governments. They made him a scapegoat for piracy when he was hanged in 1701 in London. The government charged that he was supposed to be a catcher of pirates. However, Kidd was not permitted to defend himself.

Rumors, legends, myths and tales swept both sides of the Atlantic Ocean that Captain Kidd buried a fabulous horde of treasure on an island before facing trial. Such treasure as Kidd did have— 24 chests full of it— was all brought ashore on Gardiner’s Island, off eastern Long Island, carefully inventoried and, with the permission of John Gardiner, feudal lord of the island, buried in a swamp there. Gardiner’s itemized receipt to Kidd, dated July 17, 1699, listed precisely 1,371.625 ounces (85.73 pounds) of gold, silver and precious stones that was reclaimed by the Massachusetts colonial government.

In 1825, two U.S. Army soldiers, Sergeant Gibbs and Private Woods, thought life had dealt them a winning hand. They were assigned to Fort Wood on Bedloe’s Island (later renamed Liberty Island in honor of the Statue of Liberty). They spent their spare time at night hunting for buried treasure. When they opened a heavy metal box, Captain Kidd’s spirit emerged. They fainted. When they regained consciousness, all they had was an empty box.

Now and then Captain Kidd, walks off his anger on the grounds of Trinity Church, the one place that did not the one place that did not betray him and where he wished that he had been buried.

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For more New York Ghost Stories, join a Wall Street Walks downtown ghost tour!

Play with the Smithsonian's fun interactive map of 1836 New York City

From Neatorama:
Smithsonian has an interactive map in which a satellite image of New York is overlaid with a map drawn by cartographer Joseph Colton in 1836. Moving the earlier map around, you can see that the streets are mostly in the same place, but the shorelines have expanded, the islands are bigger, and there is no Central Park -in fact, a lot of the city was countryside and hills back then. Read more about it at the interactive site.

CLICK HERE TO ACCESS THE MAP

What is Federal Hall?

Federal Hall

What is Federal Hall?
Federal Hall history is fascinating and goes back to the very inception of America. Sticking out like a sore thumb amongst the modern skyscrapers around it, the Federal Hall architecture is the first indication that this is one of the oldest and most important buildings in downtown New York City. To learn more Federal Hall facts, watch our video below:

Summer on Stone Street Takes You Back in Time

Summer time is a great time to sit outdoors and enjoy a beer or another beverage on Stone Street.

Stone Street was originally known as "Brouwer Straet" (Brewers Street). In 1632 the West India Company, under leadership of Governor Van Twiller, built a brewery there. During most of the 1700s, the street was called Duke Street. It was later renamed Stone Street because of its cobblestone paving.

The buildings on Stone Street were once stores and lofts built for dry-goods merchants and importers. Construction took place shortly after the Great Fire of 1835. At the time of construction there was neither electricity nor the skyscraper technology. What you see on Stone Street is the scale of the city during the early part of the 1800s- walking down Stone Street gives you a good feel for what New York felt like 200 years ago.

- by Annaline Dinkelmann 

Farmer's Markets in Lower Manhattan

The farmer's market at Bowling Green

Check the farmers markets. There are several in Lower Manhattan.

Fresh produce is arriving. Going to the market really connects you with the changing seasons and the freshest produce. Going to the market is wonderful as you can talk to the farmer and learn more about their produce. When I learned about a hail storm during April, I bought the fruit with the small marks. I understood where they came from- the marks were a result of the hailstones.

Green markets were founded in 1976 providing small family farms the opportunity to sell their locally grown products directly to consumers and to promote regional agriculture. Since then,  many green markets have sprung up around the city. The largest and most well known is probably in Union Square. 

Lower Manhattan has several green markets – at the Staten Island Ferry, at Bowling Green, at the Andaz hotel (on Saturdays), in Zuccotti Park, at the World Financial Centre. Check out their schedules here.

- by Annaline Dinkelmann 

The New York Chamber of Commerce

New York’s Chamber of Commerce was the first mercantile association in America. It was founded 1768 by twenty merchants in the Fraunces Tavern. It promoted commerce, mediated trade disputes, and lobbied for laws that would facilitate trade and industry. The Chamber of Commerce was one of the main sponsors of the construction of the Eerie Canal. During the 1980s it merged with the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation. Their former building is a spectacular Beaux Arts building located at 65 Liberty Street, almost right next to the Federal Reserve Bank.

- by Annaline Dinkelmann 

It's Officially Summer in New York City

After Memorial Day it’s “officially summer” in New York. Many offices start to allow their employees to dress down. You are no longer required to wear a tie or suit. Now it's smart casual – polo shirt and dress pants. Some offices do dress down all week and others do it on Fridays only.

Many people start going to their beach houses for the weekend.

Summer programs start – be on the lookout for the free concerts in the parks in NYC. In Lower Manhattan we have the River to River Festival.

There are many free concerts and events. Take the ferry to Governors Island and spend the afternoon gazing at the Lower Manhattan skyline.

- by Annaline Dinkelmann 

“LITTLE SYRIA” - NYC's Forgotten Neighborhood

Friday, May 3, 2013 - Monday, May 27, 2013
3LD Art & Technology Center
80 Greenwich Street, New York, NY 10006

“LITTLE SYRIA" NEW YORK CITY

by Wall Street Walks Tour Guide Marie Beirne

In the 1980’s, when I worked at NASDAQ on the 98^th Floor of Two World Trade Center, every evening I waited for the x90 express bus to Yorkville, in front of St. Nicholas Greek Orthodox Church which once stood across Liberty Street from the South Tower.

I have very fond memories of that divine and beloved little church, surrounded on three sides by the parking lot…looking a little lonely and frail, all by itself, especially at nightfall.

Tonight, at a lecture,  I found out that after 9/11, when workers got to the foundation of the destroyed St. Nicholas’,  buried in the rubble, they found artifacts of an old church, the cornerstone of St. Joseph's from “Little Syria”, New York City. The cornerstone now resides in Our Lady of Lebanon Maronite Cathedral in Brooklyn Heights.

It is rare for New Yorkers to be surprised with news of an old neighborhood you never heard of before…what a delight the discovery of “Little Syria” was for the audience.

On April 30 at the 9/11 Tribute Center, Linda Jacobs, author, archaeologist, and an expert on the Syrian immigrant community in New York City, and Todd Fine, co-founder of the “Save Washington Street,” preservation campaign presented “Little Syria’: Lower Manhattan Before the World Trade Center,” a discussion on the history of the neighborhood in the southwestern corner of Lower Manhattan.

Beginning in the late 1800’s, the neighborhood developed a flavor of the Arab world from which many of the immigrants originated.  Their entrepreneurial spirit transformed the neighborhood, which came to be known as “Little Syria”, into a thriving community lined with shops and coffeehouses. Many of these immigrants owned small restaurants and grocery stores and had easy access to the docks where produce was brought in on boats from New Jersey.  Each furnished with signs written in their native Arabic.  Here bilingual Arab-Americans raised their families, educated their children, formed religious and community organizations and gradually became part of the life of the city of New York.

Eventually the Brooklyn-Battery Tunnel and the World Trade Center displaced the folks in this neighborhood who moved to Atlantic Avenue and other neighborhoods of Brooklyn. 

Most New Yorkers, and even many Lebanese-Americans and Arab-Americans, are unaware that Lower Manhattan — along Washington Street from Battery Park through the 9/11 Memorial to Chambers Street — was once the center of Arab-American life in the United States, from the 1870s to the 1940s called “Little Syria” or the “Mother Colony.”

Today, only three buildings from that era remain and are physically connected: 103 Washington Street, an Arab church that served as a Irish bar for many years.   The New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission designated the building a New York City landmark on July 14, 2009. 

Two other remaining buildings: 105-107 Washington Street, a community house inaugurated by the governor of New York Al Smith to serve the “Little Syria” neighborhood; and 109 Washington Street, a tenement building still containing apartments are now part of an active campaign by Save Washington Street [http://savewashingtonstreet.org/history/] a national coalition of organizations and individuals advocating for the preservation of the last two sites.

While the coalition’s first objective is to achieve the landmark designation of the community center at 105-107 Washington Street, already advocated by Community Board 1 of New York City, the long-term goal of the coalition is to improve education about this diverse neighborhood, and about Arab-American history .

Be sure to discover “Little Syria” for yourself, starting on May 3, and continuing through May 27, the Arab American National Museum (based in Dearborn, Michigan) will present at the 3LD Art & Technology Center (80 Greenwich Street) an exhibition documenting the neighborhood's history.

Join Wall Street Walks on one of our guided walking tours to uncover more of the many, many secrets of NYC. We offer an exciting peek at the New York no one else knows! 

History of the Rockefeller Center

Originally, Rockefeller Center in midtown Manhattan was destined to be the new performance space for the Metropolitan Opera. However, delays from the Metropolitan Opera and the 1929 stock market crash spurred John D. Rockefeller, Jr. to take matters into his own hands. Which is something he was pretty good at.

“It was clear that there were only two courses open to me. One was to abandon the entire development. The other to go forward with it in the definite knowledge that I myself would have to build it and finance it alone.”

Rockefeller chose the second option and thus took on the largest private building project ever, at an estimate of $250 million dollars – and that’s in 1930’s money. The construction created over 70,000 jobs and Rockefeller was an integral employer during the depression. In fact, the famous photo “Lunch Atop a Skyscraper” of construction workers eating on a steel girder high above the city is from that jobsite.

The entire Rockefeller Center originally consisted of 14 buildings and currently houses some of New York City’s most notable tenants including the Today Show, Saturday Night Live, Prometheus overlooking the ice skating rink and of course, the world famous Rockettes at Radio City Music Hall. Rockefeller Center was named a national landmark on September 26, 1987.

The Panic of 1873

A year ago this week, Occupy Wall Street began as a relatively small protest in a park in New York City’s Wall St. Area. It is now an international movement that stands against financial greed and the “corrosive power” of major banks they feel led to our recent economic collapse.

A place not unaccustomed to financial panic and discord, Wall Street was also one of the earliest areas hit in the beginning of the original Great Depression in 1873. That year, the New York Stock Exchange was forced to close its doors for the very first time on September 20 during what was known as the Panic of 1873.

Much like our most recent economic disaster, the Panic of 1873 was sparked by the collapse of a large financial institution: Jay Cooke & Company, a brokerage firm and a major investor in railroad construction. Their failure led to a chain reaction and the country suffered economic despair for years, resulting in history’s worst financial crisis until the second Great Depression came along in the 1930’s.

Another Big Week For Car Companies

Before it was phased out in 2004, Oldsmobile produced over 35 million cars in its 107-year history. A staple of the Detroit Motor City industrial scene, over 14 million Oldsmobiles were built in their Lansing, Michigan factory. Opened on August 21, 1897, General Motors closed the division on April 29, 2004, presaging a decline into a 2009 bankruptcy for the iconic car company. Not to worry, though! GM bounced back and last year they were the world’s number one car manufacturer.

Another General Motors division, Cadillac Motor Company, was founded 5 years and 1 day after Oldsmobile on August 22, 1902. Named after the founder of the city of Detroit, Cadillac laid the foundation for mass automobile production by creating interchangeable parts for its cars. Just ten years later, they launched the first production automobile with an electric self-starter – a “car with no crank.” Faring much better than its older sister, Oldsmobile, Cadillac is still breaking new ground in the automotive industry and continues to be the “Standard of the World.”

Except of course, in New York, where every savvy urbanite knows that your feet are really your best vehicle for getting around town. The city is packed with so much energy and there is always something new to discover, even if you’ve lived in Manhattan your entire life. There’s so much to encounter, experience and learn from just from wandering these magical streets of ours.

The next time you’re downtown, check out one of our Wall Street Walks tours and let us show you what we’ve discovered then share with us some discoveries of your own! 

A Great Week in Car History

What a great week in car history! Let’s start with July 30, 1863, when Henry Ford famously said, “If I’d listened to what my customers wanted, I’d have given them a faster horse.” Also this week, on August 1, 1941, Jeep rolled out its first ever model and on August 3, Firestone Tire and Rubber Company will celebrate its 112^th Anniversary.

Thanks to the brilliance that was Henry Ford’s mind and the ingenuity of inventors and engineers who continued his legacy, America saw the birth of a car industry that would revolutionize the way we did everything! From, getting ourselves around town, to increasing travel beyond our city limits, to expanding our knowledge and access to the world around us, cars have become a way of life, a method for bandying social status, and for many people, a tangible portrayal of their own personalities.

Here in Manhattan, however, you’ll notice we use our cars mostly to sit in traffic. That’s why Wall Street Walks hits the town on our feet to get the most out of what this amazing city has to offer! Be sure to check out one of our incredible tours while you’re in town this summer. Happy August!

The Curb Market

Way before the New York Stock Exchange moved into it’s current home at 11 Wall Street, trading was done in an outdoor space at 30 Broad Street known as The Curb Market and the traders were known as the New York Curb Market.

For almost ten years traders bought and sold shares outside until they moved indoors on July 27, 1921, to a building in Lower Manhattan. Led by, Edward McCormick, the Curb Market’s chairman, brokers ceremoniously marched up Wall Street to their newly completed building on Trinity Place behind Trinity Church.

In 1929, the New York Curb Market changed its name to the New York Curb Exchange and soon became the top international stock market. Years later in 1953, they renamed themselves once again and became the American Stock Exchange. 

The Duel that Led to Alexander Hamilton's Death

You might remember the great “Got Milk” commercial from the 90’s that featured a historical museum’s curator eating a peanut butter sandwich. His local radio station calls and offers him $10,000 if he can tell them who shot Alexander Hamilton in the July 11, 1804, duel that led to his death.

The answer, which the curator couldn’t get out because he didn’t have milk, was Aaron Burr, the sitting Vice President of the United States at the time of the shooting. In the duel, Burr shot and fatally wounded Alexander Hamilton. Once he was injured, Hamilton was transferred from Weehawken, New Jersey, where the duel had taken place, to Manhattan, where he died at a house on Jane Street in Greenwich Village the next day.

Hamilton’s funeral was held two days later on July 14 at Trinity Church in the Wall Street area. He was buried in the adjacent Trinity Churchyard where his son Philip, also the victim of a duel, had been buried three years prior. Because dueling had recently been outlawed in New York and New Jersey before the Burr-Hamilton duel, the incident created a huge political uproar and Burr was indicted for murder, though he was never convicted.

A Big Week in New York History

This week is a big one in New York history. Back in 1916, Wall Street lost its Witch, Hetty Green, on July 3. Green was the first female tycoon in the US and was known around town as the “Witch of Wall Street.” An heiress to a multi-million dollar fortune, she was infamous for her stinginess and was rumored to go so far as to never use hot water and to ask her laundress to only wash the dirtiest parts of her dresses to save on soap.

On Wednesday, we celebrate the Fourth of July in honor of the adoption of the Declaration of Independence and our official separation from Great Britain on July 4, 1776. If you’re in the city, pay tribute to our country on a 90-minute tour of historic Wall Street and Ground Zero, or a 2-hour tour of Wall Street and the 9/11 Memorial. Afterwards, make your way to the West Side to stake out your claim to watch the stupendous fireworks display along the Hudson from 16^th Street all the way up to midtown. 

July 7, New York celebrates the 249^th birthday of its first multi-millionaire, one-time opium smuggler, John Jacob Astor. Born in Waldorf, Germany, Astor migrated to the US after the Revolutionary War. Arriving at age 21, with no money to speak of, he soon made a fortune in the fur trade. By the time of his death in 1848, John Jacob Astor was the richest man in the country.

Two noteworthy New York events happened on July 8^th. The first is another birthday – John D. Rockefeller was born in 1839. He is the senior of the Rockefeller dynasty and is one of New York’s most acclaimed philanthropists. With only $2000, Rockefeller formed his first partnership in 1859, and just four years later they were running their own oil refinery. In 1870, when Rockefeller organized The Standard Oil Company at the age of 31, the business had a capital of $1 million.

Also on July 8, we commemorate the first edition of the Wall Street Journal. Volume 1, Number 1 was published in 1889 and the price was two cents. Today it is #1 most-read newspapers, with a daily circulation of over 2,000,000 copies worldwide. Though it’s named after the street in New York’s financial district, the WSJ headquarters are now located on Sixth Avenue near Rockefeller Center.

Jesse Lauriston Livermore, the Great Bear of Wall Street

June 26th marks the 135th birthday of Jesse Lauriston Livermore, the “Great Bear of Wall Street.” Known as one of the greatest traders of all time, Livermore’s life and career were a dedication to the study and mastery of stock and commodity movement and prices.

For Jesse, life began in rural Massachusetts where he was the child of a poor farmer, seemingly doomed to repeat the same fate as his father. At 14, with his mother’s blessing and her $5, he ran away from home to escape the hardship of life on a farm.

His stock market success started that same year in “bucket shops,” gambling halls where Livermore made over $1000 (over $20,000 by 2012 standards) placing bets on stock prices before he ever actually bought or sold a single share. Once he began trading in legitimate markets, Livermore both earned and lost millions upon millions of dollars.

Jesse Livermore is quoted as saying that his losses were the result of not listening to his own advice. At the height of his fortune, his worth was in the billions by today’s standards. Although his death was over 70 years ago, Livermore’s book, “How to Trade in Stocks,” is still listed among the top books ever written on finance and Wall Street.

Happy Birthday Donald Trump!

You know the man, you know the empire, you know the hair …  but did you know that it was his birthday? This week on June 14, Donald J. Trump will turn 66 years old and he certainly has a lot of reasons to celebrate.

Born in 1946, in Queens, “The Donald” became a public figure as the result of his hugely successful career as a real estate developer in New York City during the late 70’s and 80’s. His building projects include the Grand Hyatt hotel on 42nd Street at Grand Central Terminal and the apartment-retail complex he built on New York’s Fifth Avenue, the iconic Trump Tower. 

Trump enjoyed unfathomable, well-publicized success for many years until a financial blow at his casino, the Taj Mahal, and a plummet in the real estate market in 1990, caused his net worth to drop drastically.

Not one to be beaten easily, Trump worked his way back and by the late 90’s got his net worth up into the multiple-billions. These days he enjoys a thriving career not only in real estate and development, but also in entertainment ventures such as producing beauty pageants, managing Central Park’s ice skating rinks and acting as a reality star on his own television show, The Celebrity Apprentice.