page_title: Jacob Aaron Westervelt
section_title: Mayor Westervelt's influence on tourism
hierarchical_section_title: Jacob Aaron Westervelt / Political career / Mayor Westervelt's influence on tourism
caption_attribution_description: English: New York Crystal Palace, Frontispiece to New York Crystal Palace: illustrated description of the building by Geo. Carstensen &amp; Chs. Gildemeister, architects of the building&#160;; with an oil-color exterior view, and six large plates containing plans, elevations, sections, and details, from the working drawings of the architects (New York: Riker, Thorne &amp; co., 1854) Die Abbildung ist ein Druck mit auf Ölfarbe basierende Tinte von George Baxter (1804 - 1867), London, datiert 1 September 1853. Authentisch durch den Mann, der eine Baxter Reklame-Tafel trägt.
context_page_description: Jacob Aaron Westervelt was a renowned and prolific shipbuilder who constructed 247 vessels of all descriptions during his career of over 50 years. From 1853 until 1855 he was Mayor of New York City.
  Together with his partners he designed some of the fastest and most successful sailing packets, clippers and steamships ever built, among these the screw sloop USS Brooklyn and the clipper Sweepstakes, as well as many vessels for foreign governments and Royal Houses. Westervelt was awarded the Order of Isabella the Catholic by the Queen of Spain for the preparation of models and plans for three Spanish frigates. For many years he was the President of the Society of Mechanics and Tradesmen, a member of the Chamber of Commerce, the Marine Society, the Port Society and the St. Nicholas Society. He was also President of the Board of Dock Commissioners for several years. After Westervelt's death, the flags at City Hall were lowered to half-mast.
context_section_description: By the early 1850s New York had grown to sufficient size and prominence that the city decided to host a major exhibition of the type that London had pioneered in 1851. Such early exhibitions were forerunners of the later world's fairs. The Exhibition of the Industry of All Nations opened during the term of Mayor Westervelt on July 14, 1853, in a sparsely developed part of the city. Fortieth and Forty-second streets bounded the fair's four-acre site to the immediate west of the Croton Distributing Reservoir—today's Bryant Park. Within New York's Crystal Palace, designed by Karl Gildemeister, four thousand exhibitors displayed the industrial wares, consumer goods, and artworks of the nation. Westervelt was President of the Exhibition, which set off one of the first major tourism booms in New York; many hotels were built to handle the influx of visitors. Over one million people visited the Crystal Palace Exhibition, which closed on November 1, 1854 (in spite of its popularity, the exhibition's sponsors lost $300,000 on the venture). The structure remained standing after the fair, and was leased for a variety of purposes before being destroyed by fire on October 5, 1858.
caption: New York Crystal Palace: an 'oil-color' plate by George Baxter (September 1, 1853)
exif: {}