Ludlow & Peabody's 1929 10 East 40th Street

photograph by Rishabh Tatiraju

 
The New York Evening Post titled an article on July 16, 1927, "Huge Midtown Building Project," and reported that Texas banker Jesse H. Jones had purchased the 12-story Hotel Touraine at 9-11 East 39th Street and the buildings at 10 through 14 East 40th Street as the site of a 35-story skyscraper.  "The operation will involve about $5,000,000," said the article.  (The massive outlay would translate to about $90.3 million in 2025.)

Importantly, the properties sat directly behind the Arnold, Constable & Co. Department Store building on the corner of Fifth Avenue and East 40th Street.  At the time of the article, Arnold, Constable & Co. had already leased the lower six floors of the projected structure.  "Arnold, Constable Company are to double the amount of their space," said the article.

Jesse Jones quickly enlarged his plans.  On January 1, 1928, The New York Times reported that the structure would be 45 stories tall.  "The building, when completed, will be one of the highest in the midtown Manhattan [district]."  Indeed, when completed in 1929, it was the fourth tallest building in the world, according to the Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat in 2010.

Designed by Ludlow & Peabody, the soaring edifice was designed in the Renaissance Revival style--at a time when jazzy skyscrapers like the Chrysler Building and Empire State Building were giving Midtown a decidedly Art Deco personality.  Ludlow & Peabody decorated the shaft with carved Renaissance ornaments.  It rose to a romantic hip roof pierced with oculi.

Image dated October 12, 1929, by Samuel H. Gottscho, from the collection of the Museum of the City of New York.

In January 1929, as construction neared completion, Jesse H. Jones sat with a journalist from The New York Times.  He defended the current trend of erecting skyscrapers, saying, "New York is rebuilding itself now."  One advantage to tenants, he said, was the remoteness of higher floors from the distractions of street noise.  "An executive or a clerk can...do much more work in a quiet, well lighted, well ventilated office, and that justifies the tall building even though the operating cost is higher."

The offices above the Arnold, Constable & Co. floors filled with a variety of tenants.  Perhaps not surprisingly, Jesse H. Jones's Houston Properties Corporation was among the first, taking most of the 16th Floor. Other initial tenants were Goeblin Fabrics Corp., which leased the eighth floor; Liberty Mutual Insurance Company of Boston, which took one-and-a-half floors; and the Arthur Hirshon Company, an advertising firm.  The National Carbon Company, Inc, makers of Eveready products, took the 12th floor; the National Chain Stores Association leased much of the 27th floor; and Abraham G. Meyer, a former city court judge and assistant district attorney took a "large part" of the 34th floor.

The lobby, with its magnificent ceiling and chandeliers, held a cigar stand--a ubiquitous element of offices buildings at the time.   photo by Samuel H. Gottscho, from the collection of the Museum of the City of New York.

When the building opened on May 1, 1929, it was 80 percent rented.  By the end of the year, Airport Lighting, makers of airport signal and lighting equipment; and the Aeronautical Chamber of Commerce had moved in.  (Incorporated in 1919, the Aeronautical Chamber of Commerce was formed for "the support and advancement of aeronautics.")

Whether the ramifications of the Wall Street Crash in October 1929 pushed some tenants into illicit activities can not be certain, but several were soon in legal trouble.  The first was Hazel Christmas, the head of the Securities Service Company and the Securserv, Inc.  On February 25, 1930, Justice Harry E. Lewis signed an order restraining Hazel Christmas "from further dealings in the stock of the Universal Oil and Gas Company."  Among her clients were former Police Commissioner Richard E. Enright and Dr. Henry Knight Miller, publisher of Psychology magazine.  They were told that the Texas operation had "been successful...in the production of oil and gas."  The complaint said the information was "misleading."

The offices of Carl Byoir, publisher of the Havana Post and the Havana Telegram, were here at the time.  On August 16, 1930, he was appointed secretary and treasurer of the Cuba Good Will Committee.  Described by the Jewish Telegraphic Agency as an "American publicity man of some international fame," he had helped "swell the Florida real estate bubble," during World War I, according to the publication.  In addition to his position with the Cuban newspapers, he was closely allied with Cuban President Machado and promoted pro-Cuban propaganda, "glossing over reports of seething revolution in the island," according to the Jewish Telegraphic Agency.

Carl Byoir soon became affiliated with another foreign regime--the German Nazi Party.  When he was put in charge of arranging the January 30, 1934 nation-wide celebration of President Franklin D. Roosevelt's birthday, Congressman Samuel Dickstein, "regretted" his appointment, saying "that such prominence might later be utilized in the dissemination of Nazi propaganda."

On June 3, the Jewish Telegraphic Agency reported that Byoir "receives approximately $65,000 yearly from Germany, presumably from the Department of Railroads, for commercial propaganda performed in the United States."  

The publication was also concerned about another tenant in 10 East 40th Street.  Directly adjoining Byoir's offices were that of George Sylvester Viereck.  The article said that Viereck, "has long been recognized as one of the most ardent defenders of Hitler's Germany."

photograph by Wurts Bros.,  from the collection of the Museum of the City of New York.

In the meantime, like Hazel Christmas, several tenants were having legal problems.  On April 7, 1931, Albert H. Carlisle, president of the Bondshares Fiscal Corporation, was indicted as a racketeer; and four months later attorney George L. Loft was taken from his office in handcuffs.

Born on July 1, 1895, George Leon Loft was the son of former U.S. Representative and candy manufacturer George W. Loft.  A former stockbroker, the younger Loft sold his seat in the Stock Exchange in 1923 and became vice president of George W. Loft Markets, Inc. and president of the Skourpak Steel Wool Corporation.

On the afternoon of August 10, 1931, Ruth Hiff entered Loft's 33rd-floor office to apply for a job.  A man who was present at the time left the office.  According to Hiff, "She gave her name and Loft poured out drinks from a bottle he took from a refrigerator."  (This, of course, happening despite the ongoing Prohibition.)  Hiff's interview turned to an attempted rape.  The New York Times reported, "Loft seized her, and in a struggle, dragged her about the floor."  Ruth Hiff managed to grasp the bottle and struck Loft over the head.  She fled the office and repeated her story to Police Officer Edward E. Alfonsin.  He accompanied her to Loft's office and arrested him.

The end of Prohibition brought a new tenant to 10 East 40th Street.  On March 6, 1933, The New York Times reported that The New Amsterdam Brewing Company had leased "executive offices" in the building.  The article noted that the firm "recently announced plans for the erection of a brewery...at Little Village in Queens."

The Renaissance motif carried on to the elevator doors and framework.   photo by Samuel H. Gottscho, from the collection of the Museum of the City of New York.

Other tenants at the time were the Municipal Housing Authority; the National Federation of Textiles, Inc.; the Counsel to the Joint Legislative Committee Investigating Public Utilities; Editorial Publications, Inc.; and New Republic Books.

As early as 1942, The Newspaper Guild Club was located in the building.  The club hosted entertainments for its members, as well as holding meetings and lectures.  On March 7, 1943, The Daily World reported, "State Senator Elmer J. Holland of Pennsylvania and Mark Duffield, news editor of the Herald Tribune, will participate in a forum on the press in wartime at the Newspaper Guild Club."  

The Daily Worker, November 6, 1943

A discussion forum group, the American Common, had space here at the time.  On July 1, The Daily Worker announced, "Dr. William W. Krauss, noted race biologist, will speak on 'The Contribution of the Indian and Mestizo to the Culture of the Americans in Colonial and Modern Times' at a tea at the American Common."  The group would remain at least through 1946.

In January 1944, the newly formed YMCA Vocational Service Center opened here, and by March 1946 the American Civil Liberties Union headquarters was in the building.  

Helen K. Jones was hired by the American Standard Association as a secretary in 1926.  For 37 years she commuted from her home in Westchester County.  Then, on the morning of November 26, 1963, she headed to Manhattan for her last day of work before her retirement.  Waiting for her on the platform of the Pleasantville station was William R. Main, assistant vice president of the New York Central Railroad.  He presented her with a scroll for her 550,000 miles of commuting "without complaining," as reported by The New York Times.

Hard to imagine today, in 1969 many companies still paid their employees in cash.  For decades the practice had put the workers who carried the payroll from the bank each week in danger of attack.  Phillip Coore worked in the accounting firm of David W. Katz & Co. on the 12th floor here.  At 11:45 on the morning of April 6 the 40-year-old withdrew the week's $7,000 payroll (about $60,000 today) and headed back to the office.  Two men entered the elevator with him.  When the doors closed, they shot him and took the cash.  Coore was taken to St. Clare's Hospital in serious condition.

At the time, the offices of the law firm of Carro, Spanbock & Londin was in the building.  Among its staff were attorneys Roswell Gilpatric and Theodore E. Donson.  Gilpatric was the former U.S. Deputy Secretary of Defense and a close friend to the Kennedy family.  In May 1970, Donson was convicted of attempting to sell a group of letters written by Jacqueline Kennedy to Gilpatric.  Donson insisted he "had received the letters in the mail from a man who could not be located," as reported by The New York Times.  Gilpatric said the letters had been stolen from a locked drawer in his office.  Donson pled guilty to a misdemeanor and was fined $100.

Two years later, Donson was in trouble again.  During the interim, dozens of prints were systematically stolen from the Museum of Modern Art and the New York Public Library.  The F.B.I. and Interpol began monitoring citizens who made repeated trips to European art centers.  Among those who caught their interest was Theodore E. Donson.

In 1972, the Metropolitan Museum of Art now, too, began missing prints.  An investigation of the appointment books for entrance to the closed prints room revealed that Donson had visited several times.  When he returned on September 6, undercover agents were on site.  Donson carried two portfolios "that were ingeniously rigged so that he could break their seals and slip prints belonging to the museum into them," explained The Times.  He was stopped by agents as he attempted to leave.  The three prints inside were valued at $74,000 in today's money.  This time the 34-year-old attorney got more than a misdemeanor charge.  He was charged with grand larceny in the Metropolitan Museum of Art thefts while investigation into his involvement in the earlier heists continued.

The lower floors of 10 East 40th Street were converted to an annex of the Mid-Manhattan Library (which occupied the former Arnold, Constable & Co. building).  A number of travel agencies and real estate offices began moving into the building at the time.  By then, Ludlow & Peabody's lobby had been "modernized" with a dropped ceiling.  It was renovated in the fall of 2002, once again revealing the intricate coffered ceiling.

image via tower40nyc.com

Currently, the skyscraper, now known at Tower 40, is being renovated.  A brochure touts "partial and full floor" suites ranging from 2,700 to 16,700 square feet.

many thanks to reader Andrew Porter for suggesting this post