The Museum’s collection of architectural elements and building components includes bricks, doors and windows, samples of wallpaper, cast iron and terra cotta ornaments, structural ironworks, and more. The objects are examples of the changing physical fabric of New York City, and particularly of the South Street Seaport Historic District.
Most of the artifacts belong to different adaptations and style iterations of Schermerhorn Row, a Federal-style counting house built between 1810-1812, and home of the Seaport Museum since the 1970s. The remaining artifacts belong to other significant buildings that are no longer extant, such as the 1882 Fulton Market building and the Edward Laing Stores.