The Lost Bush Terminal Building - 100 Broad Street

A number of children play in the street around the recently completed building.  Note the gargoyles that line up along the first and third floor cornices.  from the collection of the New-York Historical Society

Irving T. Bush came up with an unexpected solution to shipping, storage and distribution costs in 1895.  Under the name of The Bush Co., he organized six warehouses and a steamship pier on the South Brooklyn waterfront as a freight-handling terminal.   The operation was successful despite of-- and, in fact, because of--its location outside of Manhattan.  Directly accessible to railways and ships, the terminal was able to offer storage, receiving and shipping services to wholesalers, manufacturers and retailers.

The name of the firm name became the Bush Terminal Company in 1902.  As the business grew, so did the complex.  Bush built a railroad, added factory lofts and warehouses to what was becoming a massive operation.

On May 2, 1903 the Real Estate Record & Builders' Guide reported that Grace C. Snelling had sold the seven old buildings "at the junction of Broad, Bridge and Pearl sts."  The historic location, directly across from Fraunces Tavern, had once been the site of Manhattan's first church, erected in 1633.

The unwieldy pie-shaped property would now become the new headquarters of the Bush Terminal Co., which commissioned the firm of Kirby, Petit & Green to design the structure.  Completed in 1905, the completed edifice was like nothing in the Financial District.  The architects had produced a striking brick-and-stone Jacobean style building that would have been more comfortable in 16th century England than 20th century Manhattan.   Diapered brickwork, Gothic-arched openings, and diamond-paned windows, some with stained glass, added to the picturesque appearance.  The narrow Broad Street elevation featured a two-story angled bay which supported a stone balcony.

Not all architectural critics approved.  While The Architectural Record found no fault in the design itself, a June 1906 article derided the choice of styles for the location.  It complained in part, "there can be no doubt at all as to the impropriety of turning an office building in a busy thoroughfare into a Jacobean manor-house.  A house of this character, no matter how good it may be in itself, must necessarily look affected and out of place in the midst of a lot of office buildings; and when the offices of the Bush Terminal Company are surrounded, as they eventually will be, by skyscrapers, the impropriety will become still more conspicuous."

The Architectural Record, June 1906 (copyright expired)

J. Parker B. Fiske was kinder, focusing on the handsome brickwork.  Writing in the the same periodical on January 4, 1908 he said in part that "The new office building of the Bush Terminal Company, at 100 Broad street, constructed of the dark rich red 'Devonshire' stretchers with 'Gun Metal' headers" exemplified "the beautiful soft effects which may be produced by brick with an extremely rough texture."

The New York Times, April 19, 1911 (copyright expired)

The Bush Terminal Company leased extra space in the building.  The largest tenant was most likely the Jolly Mariner's Club.   Like other downtown clubs, its membership was composed of businessmen and it offered a respectable venue for quiet luncheons.  In the evenings the clubhouse restaurant was routinely used for meetings and dinners.  On November 23, 1908, for instance, the American Institute of Architects held its "folly dinner" here; and five days earlier it had been the scene of a dinner and meeting of the Merchants' Association during which Senator Nelson W. Aldrich spoke for more than an hour on European banking.

The fact that the Merchants' Association exclusively held its dinners and meetings in the Jolly Mariners' Club was, no doubt, not a coincidence.  Irving T. Bush was the chairman of the Association's Committee on Currency.

By 1911 a subsidiary company, the Bush Terminal Buildings Company, had been formed to handle the firm's vast real estate holdings.  On June 16, 1911 The New York Times reported that the Bush Terminal Buildings Company intended to remodel the three old buildings behind No. 100 Broad Street into "a highly improved office building;" creating an annex of sorts.

"At the present time the various floors are being used for miscellaneous purposes, but it is the company's intention to equip them for the most pretentious office needs, and in doing so the Tudor-Gothic style of architecture, employed both in the exterior and interior construction of the Bush Terminal Building proper, will be carried out."

The article explained that the 19th century facades were being stripped off, "to be replaced by ornamental terra cotta, embellished with leaded glass windows and other accessories in keeping with the general style."  The tallest building, No. 30 Bridge Street, would receive an "ornamental cupola" to match the Terminal Building.  The cost of the renovations were projected at upwards of $100,000--more than $2.6 million today.

from the collection of the New York Public Library

In September that same year No. 100 Broad Street got a new tenant with a ponderous name: the newly-organized New York State Branch of the National Citizens' League for the Promotion of a Sound Banking System.  The Branch boasted high-powered officers, including John Claflin, William Sloane, Isidor Straus, and George A. Plimpton.  Perhaps not unexpectedly, Irving T. Bush was also an officer, serving as chairman of the Executive Committee.

The group had been formed partly in reaction to the devastating Financial Panic of 1907.  Clafin told reporters on October 8, 1911, "The panic of 1907 was an unnecessary panic.  It has disclosed certain weaknesses in our banking system which can and must all be corrected."

By 1928 skyscrapers were rising along the downtown skyline.  from the collection of the New York Public Library

Another financial panic, the Stock Market crash of 1929 would hit closer to home for the Bush Terminal Company.  On September 29, 1936 The New York Times reported that the directors of the firm had adopted a resolution "for a reorganization of the company" under the National Bankruptcy Act.

Happily for the company and for its thousands of customers, the plan worked and the Bush Terminal Company survived.  And true to The Architectural Record's 1906 prediction, by the second half of the 20th century the Bush Terminal Building was hemmed in by towering skyscrapers.

In June 1961, three years before the demolition of Pennsylvania Station sparked New York City's historic preservation movement, the Bush Terminal Buildings Company sold No. 100 Broad Street.  Raymond F. Ryan, the real estate broker who brokered the deal, told reporters "the Bush Building with its gargoyles and leaded windows will be replaced by a two-story-and-penthouse structure."

The Bush Terminal Company announced it would move its headquarters to Brooklyn.  The New York Times headline on June 24 read simply "Bush Sells A Landmark."

The unique structure was demolished, to be replaced by the New York Clearing House Association's new building, designed by Rogers & Butler.

The newly completed New York Clearing House building in 1962. photograph via El Imperio Moderno 

The building as it appears today.  Real Estate Weekly, March 20, 2013

The Surprising Survivor at 25 Bridge Street

In the decade before the Civil War the three-story house at No. 25 Bridge Street, like most surviving residences in the now-commercial neighborhood, was being operated as a rooming house.  In 1852 James Martindale lived on the top floor.  He came home in June 1852 to find his rooms rifled and $104 missing.  The thief, John David, was arrested on June 16 and charged with burglary and larceny.

The incident may have prompted Mardindale to begin carrying his money with him.  That, too, proved a mistake.  He worked as a janitor in the Mechanic's Bank building at Nos. 8 and 10 Wall Street.  While working in October 1859, he somehow dropped his purse.  His advertisement in The New York Herald explained "Lost--While working in front of the Mechanic's Bank, Wall street, $160 in gold--five $20 pieces and twenty four $2.50 pieces.  The finder will be liberally rewarded."  The $160 would translate to about $4,700 today; and Martindale's hope that the finder would return the gold for a lesser reward was optimistic at best.

Although certainly no longer on a quiet residential street, the 24-foot wide house still attracted respectable boarders.  In 1860, for instance, broker Thomas E. Doremus lived here.  He would later become president of the Safeguard Fire Insurance Company.  But the end of the line for the old house was on the horizon.

By 1869 it had been replaced with a five-story warehouse and store building.  Owned by Elizabeth Whitlock, the Italianate style structure was faced in brick and boasted minimal decoration--like the eliptical arched cast iron lintels and, no doubt, a cast metal cornice.  When Elizabeth purchased the building directly across the street at No. 26 that year, she sold No. 25 to Amelia Whitlock, possibly her sister.  Amelia paid $15,000 for the property, in the neighborhood of $270,000 today.

The building became headquarter of Loewenthal Bros., commission merchants.  Dealers in a broad and curious array of goods, the firm advertised as far away as Texas.  An advertisement in The Galveston News on August 15, 1883 urged customers to "realize highest market prices for all kinds of bones, horns, rags, hides, old rubber shoes, waste cotton, wool, etc. etc."

At the time there were just two other tenants in the structure.  The top two floors were occupied by John Collins, "dealer in cotton pickings;" and John H. Haskell dealt in bags.  The tightly-packed stores of cotton in the Collins operation caused considerable problems to responders when fire broke out on the fourth floor around 8:00 on the evening of January 4, 1884.

The New York Times reported "The stock was not a very valuable one, but the fire smoldered through the mass and kept the firemen busy for two hours.  They fought it with hooks and brooms, as well as water, and the copings of the windows and doors of the adjoining buildings seemed to be covered with snow, where the cotton thrown from the windows of the burning building had lodged."

Collins suffered $600 in losses, Haskell and Loewenthall Brothers lost about $200 each, and damage to the building was estimated at about $200 (about $5,000 today).

John Collins was gone from the building by 1891, replaced by Percy Kent's "fancy bag factory."  Directly behind the building--just feet away at the closest parts--was Engine Company No. 10's fire house.  Considering the Collins fire, it seemed like a comforting neighbor.

Then, at around 9:30 on the night of October 4, 1891, fire broke out on the fourth floor again.  As soon as it was discovered, a boy was sent running around the block to notify the firemen.  But when the engine was brought around to Bridge Street, the firefighters could not find the fire.  They turned around and went home.

"By this time," reported The New York Times, "the flames had broken out in the rear and the smoke was pouring down into the engine house."  In the meantime, another alarm had been sent from a nearby box on Broad Street, resulting in Engine Co. No. 4 on Liberty Street to respond.

That unit "came dashing down Broad Street" and "put out the flames before No. 10 had waked up to the fact that there really was a fire," said The Times.  The newspaper was scathing in its report.  "The company's stupidity can only be explained by the fact that, being down at the lower end of the city, and having comparatively few fires to go to, the men have become rusty."

The Percy Kent company had been founded six year earlier, manufacturing jute burlap bags.  They were an innovation, replacing bulky wooden barrels used for storing and transporting flour, feed, sugar and similar commodities.

By the mid 1890s other manufacturers were turning out jute and burlap bags.  That may have contributed to Percy Kent's broadening its product line to include items like cement bags by 1900.

In 1904 the City purchased by No. 25 Bridge Street for $35,000.  The seemingly high price would be equal to more than $950,000 today.    Exactly what the City used the property for is unclear; but in 1922 City Controller Craig announced the sale of 202 parcels including No. 25 Bridge Street.  The Real Estate Record & Builders' Guide pointed out "The lot includes property abandoned by the police, fire, water supply and educational departments."  The advertised "upset price" for the Bridge Street building was $65,000.

An auction sale was held on August 9, 1922.  There were no bids on No. 25 Bridge Street.  It was  put on the block again on August 28, and again there was no interest.  Finally in 1930 the City sold the building to George W. Butler.  By now the Victorian warehouses along Bridge Street were being replaced with modern structures; only to be supplanted be sleek steel and glass skyscrapers.  But No. 25 remained unnoticed.

In 1962 the ground floor was converted to a restaurant.  The cast iron store front was covered over with a facade more expected in a midwestern Cracker Barrel restaurant, right down to the porch and shingled roof.  At some point the Italianate cornice was lost.

Disguised with a corny, Disney-like storefront and clumsy fake shutters, the vintage building is nonetheless a remarkable relic.

As early as 1994 the restaurant space was home to the White House Tavern, a favorite watering hole for Financial District workers.  The brick facade was been painted brick red, perhaps to make it look more like brick; and decorative shutters which do not fit the openings have been nailed on.   Despite the unsympathetic treatment, the little loft building is the sole surviving 19th century structure in the immediate neighborhood--most likely due to the City's ownership in the critical years of 20th century development.

photographs by the author