Id to have been the first real office building in New York City. Today
the site is occupied by a large modern office building, which still
retains the name of Tontine. It was owned by John B. and Charles A.
O'Donohue, well known New York coffee merchants, until 1920, when it was
sold for $1,000,000 to the Federal Sugar Refining Company. The Tontine
coffee house did not figure so prominently in the historic events of the
nation and city as did its neighbor, the Merchants coffee house.
However, it became the Mecca for visitors from all parts of the country,
who did not consider their sojourn in the city complete until they had
at least inspected what was then one of the most pretentious buildings
in New York. Chroniclers of the Tontine coffee house always say that
most of the leaders of the nation, together with distinguished visitors
from abroad, had foregathered in the large room of the old coffee house
at some time during their careers. It was on the walls of the Tontine
coffee house that bulletins were posted on Hamilton's struggle for life
after the fatal duel f
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