image via archinect.com
Born in Oswego, New York on July 15, 1833, Thomas Collier Platt was described by The New York Times as, "for nearly a quarter of a century the undisputed 'Easy Boss' of the Republican organization in this State." Known popularly as Tom Platt, he served two terms in the U.S. House of Presentatives and three terms in the U.S. Senate. He was highly involved in the consolidation of five counties into the City of Greater New York. The Times noted that he knew "every President, personally, since Lincoln."
In 1879, Platt became secretary and a director in the United States Express Company and was elected its president the following year. He still held that position nearly 30 years later when, on July 7, 1905, the architectural firm of Clinton & Russell filed plans for the firm's new headquarters on the northern side of Rector Street between Greenwich Street and Trinity Place. The plans called for a 23-story "brick and stone office building" projected to cost $1.6 million to erect (about $57.2 million by 2024 conversion).
As the caissons for the foundation were being sunk into the bedrock three months later, Carpentry & Building explained, "The first five stories of the façade will be of granite, while the remaining stories will be of brick trimmed with terra cotta. The style of architecture will harmonize with the Empire and Trinity buildings." That style would be, for the most part, a commercial take on Renaissance Revival, with nods to Gothic Revival and touches of Beaux Arts. As the building rose, Henry Alexander Horwood, writing in The Metropolitan Magazine, said, "Trinity churchyard is in front of it and from Broadway it will loom up like a giant in the background."
The decoration of the original, terra cotta-clad top section included elaborate piers, and spandrels containing classical figures. photograph by Wurts Bros from the collection of the Museum of the City of New York.
The United States Express Building was completed in the fall of 1906. An interesting innovation was a second floor arcade that connected the stations of the Sixth Avenue and the Ninth Avenue elevated trains. The United States Express Company occupied the lower floors and rented the upper portions to a variety of tenants. On December 1, 1906, for instance, the Record & Guide reported that the 17th floor had been leased to the Safety Car Heating and Lighting Co. for ten years, and the Lackawanna Steel Co. had signed a lease on "almost all of the eighteen floor for a long term."
A significant tenant was the Carnegie Safe Deposit Company, which on January 24, 1908 installed what the Topeka State Journal described as, "the largest steel vault in the world." The article said, "The huge plates used are of the same quality of steel as is used by the leading nations in the protection of their battleships, and are proof against even any modern high power gun cable of being brought to an attack on the vault." Each of the steel plates, made by the Bethlehem Steel Company, weighed 756 tons. The doors to the vault weighed 20 tons each, yet the article said, "These are hung with such delicate precision that a child can swing them."
This photo was captioned "One of the Plates in the World's Largest Deposit Vault" in The Topeka State Journal on January 24, 1908 (copyright expired)
Interest switched from the massive vault to a scandal involving Thomas C. Platt five months later. A front page article in The Evening World on May 18, 1908 was headlined, "Platt's Letter to Mae Wood Signed 'Lovingly, Tom" and the article detailed Mae Catharine Wood's divorce suit against the former senator. The interesting thing about the case was that Platt already had a wife, and he insisted he and Wood had never been married.
The article said, "Mae Catharine Wood-Platt asserts that she was married secretly to the Senator in the Fifth Avenue Hotel on the night of Nov. 9, 1901. Two years later, she says, he married Lillian Janeway." Although Platt did not attend the court session on May 17, 1908, Mae Catharine Wood was undeterred in exposing embarrassing details and reading torrid love letters during her testimony.
The scurrilous proceedings lasted until May 27 when the judge declared, "I cannot credit the plaintiff's evidence as to the alleged marriage and the testimony as it impresses the court is that this is a most wicked design to support a false and fictious clam by forgery and perjury." Mae Catharine Wood was sent to the city prison on charges of perjury "unless she furnishes a bail in $5,000," reported the Daily News of Kearney, Nebraska.
The lobby boasted carved stone, a deeply coffered ceiling, and mosaic floors. photograph by Wurts Bros from the collection of the Museum of the City of New York.
An advertisement for an office in the building on April 7, 1917 touted its up-to-the-minute amenities. "Fire proof building, light, heat and service included, circulating ice water, excellent toilet facilities." The "circulating ice water" was a somewhat common means of cooling large buildings in the decades before air conditioning. A refrigeration plant in the basement sent frigid salt water through copper tubing within the walls, noticeably lowering the temperatures during the hot months.
Among the several attorneys with offices in the United States Express Building in 1920 was Frank I. Finkler, who acted as his own lawyer in a startling case against his son-in-law, John F. McNulty, in July that year. Finkler accused him of bigamy, of trying to poison the entire Finkler family, and of setting fire to his house to conceal a theft of $5,600 worth of Liberty Bonds.
Finkler's daughter, Martha Ruth, had served in the Women's Motor Corps of America during World War I. One morning she was assigned to drive Lieutenant McNulty to the New York Navy Yard. A romance blossomed and "despite her father's objections," according to The Evening World, they were married in the Cathedral of St. John the Divine on April 2, 1919. The newspaper said, "Later it was found that McNulty had previously married Mary Wasal Oct. 28, 1908, and Ruth Ennis, by whom he had three children, on Nov. 8, 1911.
One morning, Finkler's wife saw McNulty drop mercury tablets into the coffee pot that was boiling on the stove. She poured the contents into the sink. Later, McNulty witnessed Finkler place Liberty Bonds in his desk drawer in the library. After a fire later gutted the room, Finkler applied to Washington for redemption of the bonds, only to be told they had been sold.
On July 18, 1920, Finkler's daughter took the stand. "But she had scarcely started to give her testimony," reported The Sun, "when, overcome by sight of the prisoner, the father of her child, she toppled from the witness chair in a faint, which lasted nearly an hour." She was unable to return to the courtroom. Nonetheless, McNulty pleaded guilty to bigamy, while denying he had tried to kill the Finkler family or to having stolen the bonds and set fire to the house. He was sentenced to two to five years in Sing Sing Prison. Finkler told the reporters, "It has cost me $24,000, including the Liberty Bonds, to rid my daughter of this man."
The Brickbuilder, July 1907 (copyright expired)
On January 12, 1925, The New York Times reported that the Electric Bond and Share Company, "purchased for its future home the twenty-three-story office building at 2 Rector Street." The article noted, "The building was erected by Thomas P. [sic] Platt as President of the United States Express Company and was considered the finest building of its kind." The new owners enlarged the skyscraper by adding three floors, the architecture of which honored the Clinton & Russell design.
Joseph A. Eggers worked in the mail room of the Electronic Bond and Share Company. On the evening of February 25, 1933, the 40-year-old was seen sorting mail, and then he disappeared. Suddenly, Joseph Hawthorne, the manager of the Western Union branch office in the rear extension of the building, was startled by a loud thud. Investigating, he found Eggers's body "wedged in a ventilator," according to The New York Times. He had thrown himself from a window on the 21st floor.
John J. McMullen, the owner of the Houston Astros, purchased 2 Rector Street in March 1981 "for a price reported in trade circles as $23 million," reported The New York Times. (The figure would translate to more than $77 million today.)
Cesar Martinez, who worked for the building's management firm as a security guard, helped his sister, Eridania Rodriquez, obtain a job here as a cleaner in 2008. Almost a year later, on July 7, 2009, Eridania failed to meet her co-workers for their evening meal at 9:00. When they looked for her, they found only a hair clip and a mop. In the room where the employees changed into their uniforms, they found her clothing and purse. Her cart was abandoned on the eight floor.
The building was carefully searched, but no trace of the woman was found. Two days later, The New York Times reported that police suspected foul play. Then, on July 11, the newspaper reported, "After days of fearing the worst, the police said they believed they found the body of Eridania Rodriguez, a 46-year-old woman missing since Tuesday night." At 8:50 on Saturday morning, an officer found a body inside an air-conditioning duct near the 12th floor.
Joseph Pabon, who worked as an elevator operator in the building, was arrested and convicted in April 2012 for murder and kidnapping. He was sentenced to 25 year to life in prison.
image via polycor.com
A renovation by architects Montroy Andersen DeMarco completed in 2018 resulted in "a significant repositioning," as worded by the firm's website. The vintage building was modernized to accommodate 21st century tenants, including "the financial and hospitality sectors." With the updates came a new address, 101 Greenwich Street.
many thanks to reader Laurie Gwen Shapiro for requesting this post
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