The Revitalist

211-215 Pearl Street. (211 being prepared for demo.) From Alan Solomon's blog Pearl Street Revival.

Sean mentioned recently that he had been enthralled by a piece in the New Yorker about one of the city's preservation sagas (sorry, only the abstract is online). The story of 211 Pearl Street has all the making of a good thriller: a mysterious pattern in brickwork long hidden from sight, a shadowy corporate entity who wants to tear it down, a lost connection with the country's economic history, and a man obsessed with knowing the building's secrets and saving it. If this were a Disney movie, there would also be a beautiful, but skeptical, preservationess; the shadowy corporation would employ gun-toting thugs; the building's rediscovery would restore a worthy but disinherited heir's fortune; and the hero and heroine would be chased through the jungle and make a breathtaking jump off a waterfall (in Manhattan?). But this is real life, so the demo permits eventually went through and the would-be savior of the building had to content himself with saving what pieces he can.

A New York Times article from 2003 lays out the story. 

Alan Solomon has continued to track down the history of the building and the mysterious symbol in the brickwork. Read about it on his blog Pearl Street Revival.