The elevated train tracks can be seen running along Church Street in 1893. from King's Handbook of New York City, 1893 (copyright expired)
William Havemeyer established one of the first sugar refineries in New York, Havemeyer & Elder. By the last decade of the 19th century, the extended family had amassed massive personal fortunes. In 1891, Theodore A. Havemeyer, who lived in a sumptuous Murray Hill mansion at 244 Madison Avenue, purchased the eastern blockfront of Church Street between Cortland and Dey Streets for $450,000 (about $15.5 million in 2025). The New York Times remarked on April 22, "The site, which is 200 feet on Church Street by 60 feet front on Dey and Cortlandt Streets, is now covered with old-fashioned five-story brick buildings."
One of the tenants Havemeyer inherited posed a problem for his plans to erect a "new million-dollar, fireproof, fifteen-story office and business block," as described by The Times. C. W. Meyer was described by the newspaper as "a young man, the son of a Brooklyn liquor dealer." In 1889, he had signed a ten-year lease on the building at the northeast corner of Cortlandt and Church Streets for his saloon, the Three Owls. He refused to give up his lease and close his recently opened tavern. Eventually, Havemeyer gave him an offer he could not refuse. Architecture and Building later reported, "he paid $40,000 to a liquor seller who had a ten years' lease on the place." C. W. Meyer walked away with an incentive equal to more than $1 million today.
The New York Times announced, "The building which the sugar king intends to erect will be constructed according to plans which have been drawn by Mr. George B. Post." The article noted that the cost would be "nearly a million dollars" and that it was expected to be completed within the year.
To support his 15 stories, Post turned to the "cage frame" system--a transitional process between masonry and skeleton construction. The structural iron was embedded within self-supporting exterior walls. Perhaps because the construction of skyscrapers was still somewhat experimental, a disaster occurred on the building site on May 5, 1892.
At 3:15, while about 20 men were at work in the basement and sub-cellar, concrete was being poured at the second floor. The Evening World reported, "Nearly twenty-five tons of freshly mixed mortar was piled on the firebrick floor, which gave way, burying the men who were at work in the subcellar below. Seven laborers were in the subcellar at the time."
Workmen scrambled to extricate the buried men. "A dozen laborers were set to work digging away the debris," said the article. The first body they discovered was that of 42-year-old Albert Zimmer. Miraculously, there was only one other fatality, that of 45-year-old Charles de Sola. Two other workers, John Hurley and Otto Pabst, were injured "by the falling debris of mortar, fire-brick and iron," said the article.
On January 28, 1893, the Record & Guide reported on the completed building, saying that among the "lofty modern office and business buildings" in New York, this was, "the most imposing and attractive of them all." The critic praised Post's "artistic power of repetition in design, of majesty and grace in the strong perpendicular lines, of beauty and symmetry in the arches, balustrades and projecting gallery."
Post clad the Renaissance Revival structure in limestone, terra cotta, brick and stone. The Record & Guide pointed out that modern elevator technology made the 15th story as desirable and "in some respects, more desirable," than the lower ones. The Havemeyer Building had seven Otis hydraulic elevators, including the first express elevators in the city. The first stop of those two elevators was the seventh floor.
The narrow proportions of the site meant that every office had windows. At a time when electricity was unreliable, the Record & Guide noted, "Gas, of course, there is, and electric lighting by an independent system, generated on the premises and in ample supply at all hours." In addition to innovations like mail chutes, the building offered 24-hour special police protection and watchmen's service.
While many new structures in the Financial District held the offices of brokers and attorneys, the Havemeyer Building attracted industrial tenants. While the building was still under construction, space was leased to tenants like the Consolidated Wire Works Company, the National Tube Works Company, the Delamater Iron Works, the Westinghouse Air Brake Company, and building contractors L. & E. Weber.
There were "arcade stores" on the ground floor and 15 stores in the basement level. The corner store on Cortlandt Street was leased to Leon, "the celebrated caterer, late of Delmonico's and of Hollywood, who will finish and furnish it in a manner calculated in all of its appointments to rival Delmonico's and all other of the famous restaurants of this city," said the Record & Guide. The upper floors held between 18 and 22 office suites each. During the warm months, the rooftop was "shaded with awnings and thrown open as a promenade."
Real Estate Record & Builders' Guide, June 25, 1898 (copyright expired)
The National Tube Works Company was founded by John H. Flagler. The private lives of millionaires were fair game for the press, and on May 22, 1894, a reporter from The Evening World appeared at Flagler's office in the Havemeyer Building to get information on the industrialist's love affair. The following day, the newspaper reported, "Millionaire John H. Flagler and Miss Alice Maudelick, the choir soprano, whose marriage engagement has been reported as broken, have both retired from public view."
The journalist had also gone to Flagler's East 67th Street mansion, as well. "At neither place was he to be seen." The clerk in the office said Flagler was not expected until later in the day "if he came at all," adding that, "Mr. Flagler was in a towering rage over the publication of what he termed his private affairs and would talk to no one about them."
By 1893, the offices of the Street Railway Journal were located in the Havemeyer Building, and before 1896 the Continental Match Company, headed by Edwin Gould, was here. A much different tenant took space in 1897, however.
In April that year, the Spanish-American War broke out. The Department of the Navy set up an office in the Havemeyer Building in October, with Lieutenant-Commander J. D. J. Kelley, "formerly of the cruiser New York," according to the New York Journal and Advertiser, in charge. Kelley's mission was to find merchant marine vessels that "may be quickly armed, manned and gotten ready for work." And he was eminently successful.
The article said, "It was found that the owners were without exception patriotic, and gladly tendered the use of their vessels to the Government and also were willing to go to considerable expense that they might be properly fitted." At the time of the article, Kelley had acquired 91 vessels that had been converted to warships.
W. Butler Duncan, Jr. worked in the Havemeyer Building. On August 27, 1898, The Sun recalled, "When the New York naval militia was called into service by the Government last April one of the first of its officers to pass the examinations and take rank in the navy was Lieut. W. Butler Duncan, Jr." Duncan had been assigned to the auxiliary cruiser Yankee as senior watch officer throughout the conflict. Now, said the article, the Yankee had been ordered to New York, "and it is expected that the naval militia will be mustered out on arriving here."
In anticipation of his return, Duncan's co-workers went into action. The Sun reported,
The employees in his offices at the Havemeyer building have elaborately decorated the place. American flags are tastefully draped on the walls and over the Lieutenant's desk, while on the south side of the rooms is a large shield bearing the words, "Victory, Yankee." "Welcome Home" appears immediately below in large gilt letters. In one corner stands an easel entirely covered with flags. On this are arranged five photographs of the Yankee, showing the cruiser from different points of view. The decorations can be plainly seen from the elevated road, which runs on a level with the office windows.
The elevated railroad mentioned in the article (which predated the Havemeyer Building) was an annoyance to the structure's management. Theodore A. Havemeyer had died in 1897 and ownership of the building passed to the Havemeyer Real Estate Company. The firm's festering vexation came to a climax two decades after the building opened.
In what might have been viewed by some as astounding hubris on the part of the Havemeyer Real Estate Company, on April 1, 1912 it filed suit against the Interborough Rapid Transit Company, demanding it discontinue operating the elevated line and petitioned "for an order for the tearing down of the station and structure in front of the building." The allegations were that the tracks "deprived tenants of light and air" and that the passing trains were an annoyance. "Also it was alleged that the vibrations had impaired and weakened the building," reported the New-York Tribune. Not unexpectedly, the suit was not successful and the elevated train survived until the late 1930s, longer than the Havemeyer building.
The Navy once again rented offices here as the country poised to enter World War I. On March 22, 1917, The Evening World posted a list of "Where to Enlist in the U. S. Navy," which included 26 Cortlandt Street. An accompanying article said, "An entire floor of the Havemeyer building at No. 26 Cordlandt Street has been rented for recruiting headquarters for the Naval Coast Defense Reserve. There millionaire owners of fast yachts and husky men from harbor tugs line up side by side to enter Uncle Sam's service." The article noted that the offices, "were crowded to-day, with sturdy men eager to enlist for services afloat."
On May 3, 1917, The Evening World reported that orders had been received at the Third Naval District of the United States Naval Reserve Force here for the "enrolling [of] at least 200 aviators at once." The article said, "These men need not necessarily be experienced airmen, but they must have a knowledge of gasolene [sic] engines and general mechanics."
The Havemeyer Building survived through 1930. It was demolished the following year to make way for the East River Savings Bank building, designed by Walker & Gillette, which survives.
image by Tdorante10
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