39 Broadway Office Building
The 39 Broadway Building is a 37-story office skyscraper located in the Financial District of Manhattan, south of Wall Street. It was completed in 1928, originally known as the Harriman Building. William Averell Harriman (1891-1986) was a politician, businessman, and diplomat, son of railroad baron Edward Henry Harriman (1848-1909).
The Harriman was designed by Cross & Cross, a New York City-based architectural firm founded by brothers John Walter Cross and Eliot Cross. The general contractor was the George A. Fuller Company, the same for the Flatiron Building, completed in 1902. Construction began in 1926 and it opened in May 1928.
The 39 Broadway Building rises to a total height of 462 feet. The building has a frontage of 89.7 feet on Broadway and extends through to Trinity Place, with a frontage there of 92 feet and 190 feet in depth. It had 13 elevators. The W.A. Harriman banking firm, established in 1922, was the owner and occupied seven floors in the building.
The Harriman was built on a historical site at 35-39 Broadway, where the Dutch explorer Adrian Block lived temporarily in the 17th century while he built his new ship and where George Washington lived for a few months in 1790, as the first President of The United States of America.
In 1899, the Hamburg-American Steamship Company had its headquarters in New York at 37 Broadway. In 1905, the company bought the Aldrich Court Building (45 Broadway). In 1928, it leased a considerable space in the 39 Broadway. Its sign was put in the façade of the ground floor in the same year (see a photo). This was one of the world's largest shipping company, established in Hamburg in 1847.
After the Revolution the property was owned by Alexander Macomb, a merchant who constructed a large residence, and it was occupied by George Washington as the presidential mansion in 1790.
In the late 19th century and early 20th century, two five-story buildings occupied the site (image below). By 1918, a five-story neoclassical building was erected on site, at 35 to 39 Broadway, by the Gaston, Williams & Wigmore, Inc., exporters and operators of steamship lines, for their own occupancy a few years before.
In 1920 Harriman Interests acquired the property. The neoclassical building was demolished by 1926 to make way for the Harriman's skyscraper.
In October 1929, Fred F. French Operators bought the Harriman Building. At the time, among the tenants, besides the Harriman firm and the Hamburg-American Steamship Company, there were the Union Pacific Railroad, the Eastern Exchange Bank, John Muir & Co. and the Georgian Manganese Company.
In 1939, Content, Zuckerman & Co. took a large unit in 39 Broadway. In 1940, the Thirty-nine Broadway, Inc., was the owner of the 39 Broadway building. In January 1952, the Broadway-Trinity Place Corporation, owner of the building, sold it to Parkwood Estates. In 1956, the American Export Lines, one of the major United States -flag lines, occupied several floors of the building, including the ground floor. In 1964 the building was owned by Broadwall Holding Corporation and the Sterlinng, Grace & Co., stock brokerage concern, signed a 10-year ease for the entire 31st floor for its new offices.
Below, 39 Broadway in the Canyon of Heroes, looking north from Bowling Green, in 1929. Source: Museum of the City of New York.
Tormer office buildings on the site.
39 Broadway, looking south on Broadway. Photo by Wurts Bros, dated May 1, 1952. Source: Museum of the City of New York.
On the right, the elevator hall with 13 elevators, 1929. Photo by Wurt Bros. Source: Museum of the City of New York.
|
Copyright © Geographic Guide - NYC Old Buildings and Architecture. |
39 Broadway Office Building
