Tontine Coffee House

The Tontine Coffee House once stood on the northwest corner of Wall and Water Streets as the most influential financial hub in early American history. It opened in seventeen ninety-three, funded by a peculiar investment scheme known as a tontine. In this arrangement, two hundred and three investors bought shares to build the site, and they received dividends that increased as other shareholders died. The last survivors eventually inherited the remaining assets, turning the coffee house into a literal death pool that financed the birth of a major economic center.