When the Cooper Union's Foundation Building first opened its doors, it was to welcome businesses. Leases for space on the first and second floors were drawn up a full year before classes began. In 1858, Thomas Gallaudet rented space for meetings of the Society of Deaf Mutes, and the Phrenocosmian Society paid for a place to host debates; Edward Bassford sold furniture out of his space, while the American Swedenborgian Printing and Publishing Society made books in theirs.
The goal was to use rent to help fund education. And for many years, it worked. Through the 1860s and into the 1870s, the Foundation Building bustled with sellers of coal, newspapers, groceries, and cigars. Insurance salesmen and lawyers dashed up the stone steps along with students and professors, and patients came to visit the many types of doctors who practiced medicine in the building, such as the dentist Gardner Q. Colton, whose lease included special dispensation to manufacture his own laughing gas on the premises.
But eventually the school outgrew its limited space, and the second and first floor businesses were ceded to the needs of a growing college. The last commercial enterprise to operate out of the Foundation Building was the Cooper Union Store, which sold school supplies into the 1970s.
Interested in learning more? View a guide to our collection of leases on the Archives website. If you'd like to view a particular lease, please reach out to us at archives@cooper.edu.
Interested in supporting the preservation of Cooper history? You can become a Friend of the Cooper Union Library for as little as $25 (or as much as you want!) View our webpage on giving to the library for more information.
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