Finlay Stores and two men in a dinghy, Atlantic Basin ca. 1870
photo by George Bradford Brainerd
Finlay's Stores were described in 1889 as consisting "of thirty-two lots of land and sixteen large double storehouses, eight of which lie on either side of the entrance to the basin... Four of the storehouses are five stories in height and the other twelve are four stories high. The buildings are of granite throughout, and are provided with fireproof doors, grain and freight elevators. Wharves twenty feet or more in width extend along each side of the stores."
In that year of 1889 the company that owned Finlay's Stores, the Commercial Warehouse Company, had defaulted on its dept to The Equitable Life Insurance company, and was forced to be sold off at auction. They were bought by The Equitable Life Insurance company for $161,000, which was less than the insurance company's judgement against them. There was also a mortgage of $400,000 on the property, which had been running since 1875.
