In 1900 the Broadway Chambers Building towered above Broadway. |
Before Cass Gilbert would design early 20th
century Manhattan structures like the Gothic-inspired Woolworth Building or the
monumental U. S. Customs House, he would turn heads with a colorful early
skyscraper—the Broadway Chambers Building.
Construction of new office buildings was booming along lower
Broadway in the last years of the 19th century.
The land at the corner of Broadway and Chambers Street was owned by the
Andrews family of Boston when, in 1896, Edward R. Andrews expressed interest in
improving the corner with an office building.
Ohio-born architect Gilbert was living in Minnesota at the
time and had already made a name for himself in the Midwest. But that particular year one of his designs,
the Second Brazer Building, was just being completed on State Street in Boston. One of the building’s financial backers,
attorney Alexander S. Porter, was impressed by it and introduced the architect to
Edward Andrews.
After three years of talking, the pair signed a contract in
March 1899 for what would be known as the Broadway Chambers Building.
Gilbert knew what he wanted for the soaring new office
building—a richly-ornamented structure in the Beaux Arts style made madly popular
by the 1893 Columbian Exposition in Chicago.
The Exposition was responsible for an sudden profusion of monumental
marble or limestone buildings dripping with wreaths, fruited garlands and
classical figures that would last for over a decade. Such was the building Gilbert presented to Andrews.
But, perhaps to the architect’s surprise, Andrews had his
own ideas about what he wanted in an office building: color.
Andrews stressed the use of terra cotta and brick, along
with stone; Gilbert had envisioned the more expected monochromatic façade for
his Beaux Arts design. Their
correspondences politely dueled about the issue, Andrews pointedly writing at
one point “…personally I am strongly in favor of color.”
Andrews won.
Before the first spade of dirt had been tossed, The New York
Times said that visiting foreigners were already talking about the 18-story
building. In announcing the signing of
the contracts for the $700,000 building, the newspaper said the “character” of
it “has so impressed Li Hung Chang and other foreigners upon their first visits
to new York.”
Construction by the George A. Fuller Company began in May 1899,
only to be plagued by a frustrating series of setbacks. But despite difficulties with laying the
foundation, deliveries of the copper for the roof and even a fire at the mill
that supplied the interior woodwork, the building was finished within four
months. The astonishing speed with which
Fuller constructed the building boggled Cass Gilbert who called it a “triumph
of organization.”
Gilbert defined the three sections of the building through color -- photo by Alice Lum |
photo by Alice Lum |
Carved rams' heads hold .ribboned wreaths at the corners -- photo by Alice Lum |
Using terra cotta elements created by the Perth Amboy Terra Cotta Company of New Jersey, Gilbert encircled the 15th floor with a foliate band. The upper floors were lavished with colorful garlands of flowers, and below the cornice were enormous heads of Mercury, lion heads at the corners, and hanging fruit.
Lions' heads guard the corners, sharing space below the cornice with heads of Mercury -- photo by Alice Lum |
Before the first tenant walked into the door, the building had won five awards at the Exposition including a Grand Prize for the George A. Fuller Company. (Two years later The Numismatis would report “At the Paris Exposition of 1900, Mr. Cass Gilbert…exhibited a model of this structure. The Architectural Review a short time ago stated that a medal addressed to ‘Monsieur Broadway Chambers’ was seeking an owner, and the next day a letter carrier handed to Mr. Gilbert a brown pasteboard box containing the diploma. The address on the wrapper read: Monsieur Broadway Chambers, Etats-Unis. ..how the Postoffice authorities in New York City discovered [the identify] of the addressee is a marvel.”)
Tenants began arriving in April 1900, lured by up-to-date
amenities not found elsewhere. Every
floor had a mail-chute, almost every office had a sink with running water for
washing hands and cleaning up, and there was an independent electrical lighting plant when the reliability of electrical service was unreliable at beset.
Several insurance companies were among the first tenants,
including The Peoples Security Company in 1901, and Frank F. Eagles, an agent
for the Aetna Life Insurance Company who occupied room 1106 in 1907.
On August 1, 1904 a freak summer lightning storm ravaged
lower Manhattan and Brooklyn. Scores of
buildings were struck by lightning, rain fell in torrents flooding the streets,
and ferocious winds ripped away awnings and signs. Boats in the harbor sought shelter and fires,
sparked by lightning strikes, erupted throughout the area. The Times reported that “On the roof of the…Broadway-Chambers
Building…was a flagpole about ninety feet in height and weighing almost a
ton. When one of the flashes hit that
pole it turned a good part of the wood into fragments like toothpicks and left
the rest in a dangerous condition.”
Lush groups of pineapples, melons and other fruits hang against the colorful panels -- photo by Alice Lum |
The lovely copper cheneau was gone after 1925. The building to the left is the Shoe and Leather Bank Building. -- photo NYPL Collection |
The Broadway Chambers Building was designated a New York City landmark in 1992.
It's my dream to see the place myself. Such a wonderful place on earth.
ReplyDeletethese are beautiful i would love to go visit there
DeleteGreat architecture ..would love to visit this place once.
ReplyDeleteAmazing perspectives.
ReplyDelete