The Lost Astor Building - 10-12 Wall Street

 

from King's Photographic Views of New York, 1895 (copyright expired)

On January 15, 1881, the Real Estate Record & Builders' Guide commented that John Jacob Astor's recent purchase of 10 and 12 Wall Street showed "what heavy blocks of money are going in that direction [i.e., downtown]."  Astor had paid half a million dollars for the old buildings (about $15.4 million in 2024).  In a separate article, the Record & Guide noted, "The buildings will be torn down in May, when present leases expire and a grand office structure, 44x120, having probably eight or nine stories, will replace the present buildings."

But Astor temporarily put his plans on hold.  Perhaps reacting to his new tenants' entreaties, just over a week later the Record & Guide reported that he told them, "if they will remain on a four years' lease, he will not pull down the structures on the 1st of May."  The deal came with a price.  "Two tenants who now pay $4,500 each per annum have been raised to $10,000 each," said the article.

There would be no more reprieves.  In 1885, Astor demolished the vintage structures and hired Henry Jayneway Hardenbergh to design a replacement office building.  (Hardenbergh would work with Astor's son, William Waldorf Astor, in designing the Waldorf Hotel in 1893, and with William's cousin, John Jacob Astor IV, in 1897 in designing the Astoria Hotel next door.)

Hardenbergh blended Romanesque Revival and German Renaissance Revival styles.  The ground floor was faced in undressed "Scotch stone" with two polished gray granite pillars flanking the entrance.  The upper floors were clad in red brick and trimmed in terra cotta.  The midsection of Hardenbergh's tripartite design included four-story arches that embraced metal bays.  The top section took the form of a steep mansard fronted by a terra cotta encrusted gable flanked by dormers.

Although publications like Ernest Ingersoll's A Week in New York (a sort of guidebook), called the Astor Building "splendid," some architectural critics were less enthusiastic.  On February 5, 1887, the Record & Guide applauded Hardenbergh's merging of the first and second floors.  "The device is clever and effective, uniting the basement [i.e., ground floor] and marking it off from the superstructure, as could not have been done if it had consisted of two entirely separate stories."  But the critic felt that placing the central piers upon "dwarf columns" was "clearly a mistake."  He brutally opined, "The carving of the basement is feeble and ineffectual, and the bead and reel moulding at the intrados of the arches in the second story is really childish."  Overall, however, the article said the defects "are very pardonable, for they are defects in a generally successful and satisfactory piece of work."

Among the initial tenants was the banking and brokerage house of John H. Davis & Co., which moved into the Astor Building in November 1886.  The firm was founded in 1866 and for 17 years had operated from 17 Wall Street.  Bankers' Magazine noted, "This house has a wide reputation for honorable dealing...and both old friends and new will be pleased with the improved facilities now offered."  The firm would remain here for decades.

The Financial Review, 1888 (copyright expired)

Millionaire Calvin S. Brice ran his empire of railroads from his office here.  He owned ten railroads by the time he moved into the Astor Building.  He was, as well, involved in the National Telegraph Company and the Chase National Bank of New York.

Brice's office was the meeting place of the sub-Committee of the World's Fair Committee on Finance on October 17, 1889.  The other members were William Steinway, S. D. Babcock and Morris K. Jesup.  After the meeting, Brice told reporters the members would reconvene at his Fifth Avenue mansion that evening to finalize a complete report.  New York was competing with Chicago, St. Louis and Washington D.C. as the site of the proposed 1893 World's Fair.  No doubt very disappointing to Brice and his committee members, Chicago was awarded the honor.

Hardenbergh's rendering of the Astor Building.  Real Estate Record & Guide Office Building Supplement, June 25, 1898 (copyright expired)

William H. Roberts and Neil McCullum organized the Finance Trading Company in 1892 "and opened carpeted quarters in the Astor Building," as reported by The Sun.  At the time, "confidential clerks" were highly valued employees, today's equivalent of executive assistants.  The role was almost exclusively held by men.  The Finance Trading Company, however, "were extremely fortunate in selecting a confidential clerk.  They secured for that place a willowy woman, fair and young," said The Sun on August 26, 1892.

The newspaper reported that the previous day, the young woman "sat at the President's fine new roll-top desk, in the President's fine new swinging chair, and complacently told the stream of callers who asked for Mr. Roberts that the gentleman would not be in until to-morrow."  The reason that neither William Roberts nor Neil McCullum were in the office was because they had been arrested.  The previous day, The Evening World reported they were accused of running a "bogus bank" and having swindled their clients.

Along with the many bankers and brokers in the building, there were law firms.  Among them was Woodward & Mayer.  Partner J. M. Mayer graduated from Columbia Law School in 1886.  The Scroll commented on Mayer's dashing good looks in its December 1892 issue.  "He is the same man whose face every lady looking at the Atlanta and Burlington convention picks out and asks, 'Who's this?'"

J. M. Mayer was considered a heart-throb.  The Scroll, December 1892 (copyright expired)

Attorneys Thomas F. Gilroy, Jr. and Robert L. Wensley operated from the Astor Building in 1894 when Gilroy's engagement to socialite Natalie Hale was announced on November 22.  The engagement was notable not only because of Natalie's social position (The Evening World said she "comes from a family that has been prominent in society for two hundred years"), but because Gilroy's father was the Mayor of New York City.  The Evening World remarked, "The Mayor seemed pleased at his son's engagement."

Thomas F. Gilroy, Jr. The Evening World, November 23, 1894 (copyright expired)

Having the mayor as his father proved lucrative and eventually humiliating for Gilroy.  He was appointed City Chamberlain with an annual salary of $5,000 (about $165,000 today) and his firm received plum city commissions.

But on May 7, 1895, The Evening World reported that a meeting of the aldermen the previous day had resulted in "an attack upon Thomas F. Gilroy, Jr."  It was revealed that in January 1888 Gilroy and Wensley were commissioned by the Mayor's Office to compile city ordinances.  The firm received $5,100 and Gilroy was paid an additional $5,000 as counsel.  After seven years "during which the firm named was evidently hard at work," according to The Evening World, the report was submitted on May 6, 1895.

The Law Committee "finds that the compilation is practically worthless," reported the article, and stressed that the work could have been handled "by a subordinate in the offices of the counsel or under clerk of this Board."

John Jacob Astor III died in 1890.  The Astor Building was inherited by William Waldorf Astor.  After a vicious feud with his aunt Caroline Schermerhorn Astor, William relocated his family to England.  He continued, nevertheless, to manage his vast Manhattan properties.

On July 2, 1915, The New York Times reported that he had given his son, John Jacob Astor V, $7 million in Manhattan real estate, including the Astor Building.  The newspaper described the Astor Building as, "an old one...but it has always been kept in modern condition and is a popular office structure."

In February 1919, John Jacob Astor V hired architect Charles E. Birge to design a replacement structure.  He filed plans in February 1919 "for the erection of a thirty-two story structure on the site of the old building," according to the Record & Guide.  The cost was projected at $1.5 million (about $26.4 million today).

Instead, however, Astor sold the property to The Bankers' Trust Co.  "On the site of the newly acquired property the trust company will erect a thirty-two story addition to its present structure," said the Record & Guide.  Designed by Trowbridge & Livingston, the Bankers Trust Company Building survives.

photograph by ChrisRuvolo