Jacob Aaron Westervelt

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New York City Mayor. He served as Mayor of New York City from 1853 to 1855. He was a shipbuilder whose shipyard produced a number of prominent civilian sailing ships, as well as warships for the the United States Navy (the most famous being the "USS Brooklyn").

Bio by: RPD2
from: https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/28185202/jacob-aaron-westervelt

After the Civil War the shipbuilding industry went into a sharp and protracted decline,
and Webb, who had amassed a considerable fortune both from his shipyard and from real
estate, chose to retire and devote himself to philanthropy. In 1894, five years before his
death, he founded the school that continues to this day as the prestigious Webb Institute
of Naval Architecture (originally located in the Bronx and since 1947 located in Glen
Cove, Long Island). A longtime resident of the Dry Dock District, by the time of his
death he resided at 415 Fifth Avenue, between Thirty-Seventh and Thirty-Eighth Streets.
Just north of Webb's shipyard, at Seventh Street, was Westervelt & Co. This was 'the
shipyard of Jacob Aaron Westervelt (1800-79), like Webb one of the legendary ship
designers and builders of the golden age of shipbuilding in New York. Among the ships
he constructed at East Seventh Street was the Brooklyn, a steam frigate built for U.S.
Navy Admiral David Farragut's fleet, which played an important role in the Civil War at
the Battles of New Orleans and Mobile Bay. Here he also built a number of clippers for
the China and California trades: Eureka, Hornet, Golden Gate, Contest, Golden State,
Cathay. Westervelt was not the risk-taker and innovator in the quest for speed that some
of his rivals were. His success was based on the dependability and seaworthiness of his
vessels. During the time his shipyard was located at East Seventh Street, Westervelt, who
had become involved with the reform faction of the city's Democratic Party, was elected
mayor of New York. He served from 1852 to 1854. He was mayor at the time of the 1853
World’s Fair — the Exhibition of the Industry of All Nations, featuring the specially
constructed “Crystal Palace” — and when the land was acquired for Central Park. After
his retirement from shipbuilding, in 1869, he served as president of the New York Dock
Commission, but unlike Webb, apparently never lived in the district. (from https://media.villagepreservation.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/15... )