Once lined with aristocratic mansions, by the first years of the 20th century, Park Avenue was bustling with commerce and traffic. In 1911, the estate of Willard Parker sold the 90 x 100 foot property at the southwest corner of Fourth Avenue (renamed Park Avenue South in 1959) and West 30th Street. The newly-formed No. 440 Fourth Avenue Company hired the architectural firm of Cross & Cross to design a 16-story commercial structure on the site.
The building went up with lightning speed. The architects filed plans on February 16, 1912, and the construction was completed on December 1. Costing $500,000 to erect (about $16.7 million in 2026), Cross & Cross designed the structure in the Academic Classicism (sometimes called Academic Classical) style.
The stately four-story base was distinguished by monumental, three-story fluted Corinthian pilasters. Renaissance-inspired terra cotta panels of torches and shields separated the openings of the fourth floors. The brick-faced midsection, or shaft, was unadorned; while a triple-height Corinthian colonnade at the top section echoed ancient Greek prototypes.
Before the first shovel broke ground for the building, the owners had signed a lease for its major tenant. On March 23, 1912, in reporting that construction contracts had been signed, the Real Estate Record & Builders' Guide noted, "It will be known as the Passavant Building."
Passavant & Co. would occupy the basement and first through sixth floors. In its December 1912 issue, The American Silk Journal commented, "The new building is a fitting monument to the great success which Passavant & Co. have obtained in the various mercantile fields which they are engaged in through their importing and commission business." The article noted, "the builders have produced a magnificent structure which stands for the very latest word in modern office and loft building."
Founded on June 1, 1853 by Gebrüder Passavant on Broad Street, the commission firm dealt in "silks, ribbons, velvets, dress goods and other branches of foreign and domestic dry goods," according to The American Silk Journal. The article mentioned, "The ten upper floors of the building are being rented to firms in the silk trade for lofts, offices and showrooms."
Among the other initial tenants were James H. Moffett & Co., importers of knit goods; the importing and commission house of Boessneck, Broesel & Co.; linen merchant Henry W. A. Page; and importer Remy, Schmidt & Pleissner. The latter firm leased additional space in the building in March 1913, just a year after moving in.
Henry W. A. Page was described by The Evening World as a "wealthy, eccentric linen merchant." When he relocated his business into the Passavant Building in January 1913, he was already in trouble with the Government. His problems started in 1907 when his wife sued him for divorce. When she was successful, Page railed that the courts were corrupt and pushed the United States Congress to investigate the New York judiciary. When his appeals were ignored, he "made a bitter attack by letter on Chairman [Henry De Lamar] Clayton and other members of the Judiciary Committee," according to The New York Times. He called Clayton and the House Committee "crooks."
Page was indicted and extradited to Washington to stand trial for criminal libel. He was convicted and sentenced to five years imprisonment and a $1,000 fine. But, reported The New York Times, "he was permitted to leave town on parole after promising to refrain from making attacks on public officers."
That promise turned out to be too difficult for Page to keep. In May 1913, he sent a 113-page letter "by express" to President Woodrow Wilson, "asking for Executive assistance to right wrongs" which he had suffered by the New York State court and Government officials. The Department of Justice responded by issuing a warrant for his arrest.
The wealthy businessman went on the lam. On May 23, 1913, The Evening World reported that Secret Service men had gone to his office in the Passavant Building the previous night, saying, "employees of the building told them that Page had not been around for more than a week." At the New York Athletic Club, where Page lived, they were told that he had left "early this week without giving any hint of his destination." The Secret Service traced his baggage to Grand Central. The Evening World said that the agents discovered that Page had gone either to Boston or Canada, "with the intention of sailing for England." The New York Times noted, "the doors of his office were found locked, though it was said that employes [sic] had been carrying on the business in his absence."
It appeared that Page had successfully escaped capture. But the firebrand could not contain his ire. On March 1, 1914, The New York Times reported that members of the Diplomatic Corps had received letters "attacking President Wilson." Sent from Seattle, they said in part that Wilson had "hired assassins to arrest him--presumably detectives obeying the order of the court."
In the meantime, a tenant definitely not part of the silk or textile industries at the time was the General Film Company. The firm supplied silent movies to theaters. In the spring of 1913, reels of film began disappearing and within 10 months, according to The New York Times, it "has lost films worth $150,000."
A break in the mysterious case came early in January 1914 when a messenger boy told Harry Buxbaum, manager of General Film Company, that one of the company's movies was being shown in a theater on Second Avenue. The Improved Film Company supplied that theater with films. Detectives trailed a messenger boy from that firm to the Passavant Building. They stopped George Brown as he left the building "with four films under his arms," reported The New York Times. The well-planned scheme devised by Samuel Marcusson, the head of Improved Film Company, quickly unraveled.
Marcusson paid Brown and Martin Hilbert, an 18-year-old stock room boy, $2 and $3 each to purloin films. Marcusson then presented himself as an agent of General Film Company to the various theaters' management. At Marcusson's business, detectives discovered 47 General Film Company reels. They were a fraction of the estimated 250 reels that had been stolen in the past year. Marcusson pleaded guilty in court on March 16 and was sentenced to six months in prison.
Perhaps the first publishing firm to lease space in the building was Vogue magazine, which took the entire 10th floor in August 1915. It was the scene of a bizarre accident a year later. On October 31, 1916, the New-York Tribune reported that about six girls had worked overtime the previous evening. "It was noticeably warm in the office. One after another, and then in pairs, the girls tugged at the big window." Unable to open it, they telephoned the building's office and Frank Mather, a porter, came up.
Mather tugged and tugged and finally the sash gave way. But in doing so, the porter plunged out of the window. A few seconds later, the automatic sprinklers in the Johnson, Cowdin & Co., ribbon manufacturers, triggered. That initiated a response by the fire department.
When firefighters arrived, they could find no blaze, although Johnson, Cowdin & Co. was being flooded. The New-York Tribune wrote, "Some of the 'Vogue' girls, who had run screaming to the street, helped to solve the mystery." They told the responders that Frank had fallen from the window. "It must have killed him," they said.
The firefighters climbed to the roof of the single-story extension behind the building and discovered Mather unconscious, but not dead. He had landed on the wire grating that protected the automatic sprinkler plug, "turning on water, fire alarm and burglar alarm," said the article. Miraculously, the 47-year-old Mather survived the fall, although his condition was deemed serious.
Joining Vogue in the building were the publishing firms The Horseless Age and Hubbell-Leavens Company. With America's entry into World War I, Hubbell-Leavens published Conspiracies In America in 1917. Among the 17 chapter titles were "Germany Intermeddling with Mexican Affairs," "Germany's Spy System and Vandalism," and "America's Duty to Civilization."
Ironically, at the same time, Hans Jacobson was employed by the Audiger & Meyer Silk Company in the building. The New-York Tribune explained on August 2, 1918, he had worked for the firm "since he came to this country from Germany, seven years ago." The article said that Jacobson and a cohort had been arrested for conducting espionage for the Germany Government. Both men confessed and revealed the complex details of their activities.
The building continued to house, mainly, publishing and silk firms. Occupying space in the 1920s, for instance, were the Falcon Silk Company, the Roosevelt Silk Mills Corp., and silk merchants Ressell & Co. Passavant & Co. remained here at least through 1929.
The 1930s saw more publishing companies in the Passavant Building: John Wiley & Sons, Inc.; Howe Publishing; and C. S. Hammond & Co., publishers of maps. William Ogden Wiley was president of John Wiley & Sons, Inc., founded by his great-grandfather, Charles Wiley, in 1807. William had been with the firm since 1890 and would become president in 1941. William Ogden Wiley retired in 1956, but remained the honorary chairman of the firm until his death at 95 on January 15, 1958.
Appleton-Century-Crofts Publishing moved into the building around 1970. Specializing in educational books, among its releases that year were Victorian Poets and Prose Writers, The American Novel Through Henry James, and Romantic Poets and Prose Writers. The firm was acquired by Prentice-Hall in 1973, but retained its name and was still in the building as late as 2013.
Another long-lasting tenant was Dramatist Play Service, Inc., which moved in around 1995. Established in 1936, it handles acting editions and performance rights of plays and remains in the building.
Cross & Cross's Passavant Building has been hailed by architectural critics throughout the decades. Happily, renovations to the entrance and storefronts have not greatly altered the structure's appearance, and the heroic fluted pilasters still stand untouched.
photographs by the author
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