On May 17, 1792, twenty-four stockbrokers gathered outside 68 Wall Street under a buttonwood tree to sign an agreement that would establish the rules for buying and selling bonds and shares of companies. The Buttonwood Agreement, as it is known, is so named because the tree served as the regular meeting place for these pioneers of Wall Street. The signers of the Buttonwood Agreement drafted their first constitution on March 8th, 1817, and named their nascent organization the New York Stock & Exchange Board.

In 1863, this name was shortened to its modern form, the New York Stock Exchange, which became known as the NYSE, one of the best-known financial industry brands in the world. Membership on the NYSE has been held as a valuable property since 1868. Until the NYSE went both electronic and public in April 2006, the exchange was a membership-only organization. You could only join the NYSE by purchasing existing seats, which were limited to a total of 1,366.

Merging with the already publicly-traded Archipelago electronic stock exchange, the new company was called the NYSE Group, Inc., and the seats of the NYSE translated into shares of stock which are now traded under the ticker symbol NYSE: NYX. In 2008, NYSE Euronext welcomed the historic American Stock Exchange into the world’s largest and most liquid exchange group. Originally called the "curb market" because its brokers traded outdoors in the street, the Amex has been at the forefront of the U.S. financial markets over the course of two centuries.

As the 20th Century dawned, the NYSE was firmly established as one of America’s preeminent financial institutions.  It was also experiencing a sustained rise in trading volume. Trading in listed stocks tripled between 1896 and 1899. It would nearly double again by 1901.

More space was clearly needed.  So the Exchange invited eight of New York City’s leading architects to join in a competition to design a grand new building. Their instructions: The trading floor was to have more space, more light, and more convenience for the transaction of business. The Exchange chose the neoclassic design of architect George B. Post. The new Exchange building at 18 Broad Street opened on April 22, 1903 to fanfare and festivity. The Exchange building is considered one of Post’s masterpieces and is a national landmark.

John Quincy Adams Ward, a prolific and well-known American sculptor, designed the pediment. Entitled “Integrity Protecting the Works of Man,” the classical design depicts the 22-foot figure of Integrity in the center, with Agriculture and Mining to her left and Science, Industry and Invention on her right, representing the sources of American prosperity. The waves on either extreme of the pediment symbolize the ocean-to-ocean influence of the Exchange. (In 1936, due to the combined effects of the statuary’s 90-ton weight, along with the ravages of pollution and flaws in the marble, the Exchange replaced the marble figures with lead-coated replicas weighing only 10 tons.)