The Wall Of Wall Street - Fort Greene-Clinton Hill, NY Patch

Though on the surface, there's little connection between Wall Street and Fort Greene—save a short subway line connecting the geographical locations—there's something seemingly in the ether linking everyone to the street in lower Manhattan.

Still not many people know a whole lot about the history of the ‘Wall.’

“The whole thing mystifies me actually from financial markets to even the area itself,” said Diane Garr of Fort Greene on Saturday when asked about the preceding week’s roller coaster market ride and what she knew about the history of Wall Street.

So in light of last week’s Wall Street shuffle, and faced with the fact that so few know very much about the ‘Wall,’ Patch felt the climate for shedding a little clarity about this icon of Americana was just right for a brief look into its humble beginnings.

And we turned to a local self-proclaimed expert of all things Wall Street to get some answers.

“There was a Wall there obviously at one time, which vanished a long time ago,” said Eric Feinholt, of Brooklyn Heights, who worked on the Exchange for 14 years.

A defense wall the Dutch built to defend against British attacks, according to Feinholt the Wall of Wall Street would actually be one of the colonies first public works project.

“[Peter] Stuyvesant built it for the Dutch West Indian Company, using slave labor and colonists in collaboration with the city government to construct a 12 foot wall that started at Pearl Street and ended at the opposite shoreline on the Hudson,” Feinholt said.

Almost immediately the street which tracked alongside the wall became a bustling commercial thoroughfare lined with warehouses, shops, city hall and a church.

“By the late 18th century traders, investors and speculators would gather under a buttonwood tree along Wall Street to trade and this was the very early beginnings of the New York Stock Exchange,” Feinholt said.

But Feinholt was quick to point out that in the early days of that exchange, transactions were much simpler.

“They auctioned real goods and deals were made by actual people, something in stark contrast to the market today,” he said.

Then in 1792, a group of 24 merchants met in secret at the Corre's Hotel and drafted the Buttonwood Agreement, which called for the signers to trade securities only among themselves.

“It was like an exclusive club and still is,” Feinholt said.

Today, the eight block long street running from Broadway to South Street is the epicenter of the world's markets and synonymous with accumulating wealth.

Still for one local resident, the global influence exhibited by the Exchange remains puzzling.

“I just don’t understand how such a small group can have such an impact over the world economy and everyone’s everyday life,” Garr said.