The Lost Bank of New York Building -- 48 Wall Street at William

from the collection of the Library of Congress

In 1783 the war with Britain was over, but financial conditions for the fledgling United States were nearly chaotic.  Continental currency, which had become worthless, ceased to circulate.  While the Government authorized paper currency, states issued bills of their own.  

The need for standards and organization was crucial.  An editorial appeared in the New-York Packet on February 12, 1784 proposing the establishment of the Bank of the State of New York, and laying out the advantages of such an institution.  With a slightly different name, the Bank of New York would be headed by a governor and six directors, who served without compensation until the bank was stable enough to pay its first dividend.

The constitution of the Bank of New York was written in March 1784 by Alexander Hamilton.  The institution's first home was in the magnificent William Walton mansion on St. George's Square (later Franklin Square).  The directors rented the house until 1787, when the bank moved to 11 Hanover Square.  By 1796 it required a larger facility, and in November the directors purchased the house of William Constable at the corner of Wall and William Streets.

The 1797 building sat within an elegant residential neighborhood.  To the rear, on William Street, can be seen a portion of the Phillips mansion, and to the right is General John Lamb's residence.  from the collection of the New York Public Library.

The cornerstone of the new building was laid on June 22, 1796 and the bank opened in its new home the following year, in April.  For six decades the palatial structure served the bank.  But, according to bank historian Henry Williams Domett in 1884, "The need of better accommodation for the business of the bank had long been felt, and in 1856 a committee had been appointed to procure plans for a new building."

The architectural firm of Vaux and Withers was commissioned to replace the old structure with a modern building.  The bank temporarily moved to rented space at William Street and Exchange Place, and the old building demolished.  The cornerstone was laid on September 10, 1856 and construction was completed in March 1858 at a cost of $173,400--more than $5.6 million in today's money.

Henry Williams Domett wrote:

The structure was described at the time as 'built in the Italian style, of Little Falls brown stone and Philadelphia brick.  The banking-room is fifty-eight feet long, thirty-five feet wide, and twenty-six feet high, occupying two stories in the central and rear part of the building.  The ceiling and walls, and the whole fitting-up of the interior compare favorably with the elegance of the exterior, and the room is lighted on the east side, where it adjoins the present American Exchange Bank, by glazed panels in the ceiling.

The original Vaux & Withers structure was four stories tall.  image from Martha J. Lamb's Wall Street in History, 1883 (copyright expired)

The New York Times gave the building a mixed review.  An article on March 26, 1858 said, "The style shows great invention latent in the architect, and though it is most elaborately ugly in its details, the general effect is by no means unpleasant."  As unhappy as the critic was of the exterior, he was impressed with the interior.  He called the banking room "a beautiful apartment...lined with Caen stone, and finished with dark oak," and said, "The best taste has been exhibited throughout in the fittings up and in the smaller offices."  The article noted that the marble cornerstone from the 1798 building was inserted into one wall.

The Bank of New York was in its new home only three years before civil war broke out in the South.  On April 28, 1861, just two weeks after the first shot was fired upon Fort Sumter, the bank's president, A. P. Halsey approved a loan of $50,000 to the United States Government "for equipping volunteers."  The amount would top $1.5 million today.

In the summer of 1863 an Irish cleaning woman, Honora Barry, visited the offices of three separate brokers on Chatham Street.  She had $300 in bank notes--more than $6,300 today--and she most likely thought that by dividing it into smaller amounts  she would draw less attention.  She was wrong.  On August 5, The New York Times reported that she had been arrested "on a charge of stealing a package of bank bills" from the Bank of New York.  The article said, "The woman was employed in taking care of the premises at No. 48 Wall-street, and states that she found the money in the cellar."

The Bank of New York continued to grow, and in 1879 the firm of Vaux & Radford was called in to enlarge it.  The renovations, which cost the equivalent of $1.5 million today, resulted in two extra floors, one in the form of a fashionable mansard crowned with lacy iron cresting.  A safe deposit vault was installed in the basement, the outer door of which weighed three tons.

from A History of the Bank of New York, 1784-1884, by Henry Williams Domett, 1884 (copyright expired)

Extra space in the upper floors was leased as office space.  Among the residents in 1885 were attorney George B. Newell, and architect Thomas Stent.

It appeared in the summer of 1908 that the vintage building was doomed.  On August 1 the Real Estate Record & Guide reported that Clinton & Russell had been commissioned to design "a high office building to be at least twenty stories" on the site.  But the idea stalled and, instead, in July 1913 architects Marc Eidlitz & Son made "general alterations."

from Old Buildings of New York City, 1907 (copyright expired)

Nine years later, on June 20, 1922, The New York Times reported on the merger of the Bank of New York and the New York Life Insurance & Trust Company, "two of the oldest financial institutions of the United States."  The article noted that "for the immediate future," the business of the two institutions would be conducted from their present locations.

The "immediate future" was short lived, at least for the venerable Bank of New York building.  In November 1922 the architectural firm of Clinton & Russell was hired to design a replacement skyscraper for the Bank of New York and Trust Company on the site.   But, as had been the case in 1908, the firm would be disappointed.  The commission was given, instead, to architect Benjamin Wistar Morris.  The new 32-story bank building was completed in 1929.

Benjamin Wistar Morris's office released this rendering in 1928.

LaptrinhX.com has no authorization to reuse the content of this blog

The Lost Church of the Holy Trinity - East 42nd and Madison Avenue

 

from the collection of the New-York Historical Society

On September 8, 1864 The New York Times reported, "The corner-stone of the Church of the Holy Trinity, Madison-avenue, corner of East Forty-second-street, will be laid at 4 o'clock this afternoon.  This is a new enterprise, started by Rev. Stephen H. Tyng, Jr., in the Rutger's Institute Chapel, early last Spring."  The congregation had commissioned architect Jacob Wrey Mould to design the structure.  This church promised to carry on his well-known affinity for colorful and somewhat exotic designs.  "The building is to be of blue and Ohio yellow stone, and brick laid in black mortar."

As the building rose, on May 6, 1865 The New York Times described the design.  "Mr. Mould has not assumed to embody any features of the so-called Gothic, Byzantine, Italian or renaissance styles, but simply such a combination of architectural elements as are best adapted to product a temporary, economical and yet commodious church building."  The writer praised Mould's "charming novelty of effect, and a cheerfulness of interior aspect that effectually combines the church with the home."

Jacob Wrey Mould's quaint, country-like church.  original source unknown

The church building was consecrated in 1865.  According to The New York Times, construction had cost $59,000--just under $1 million today.  Its northern location prompted Andrew C. Zabriskie, in an address to The American Numismatic and Archaeological Society, to say, "...the small brick Church of the Holy Trinity stood as a sentry on the edge of civilization."  But civilization was close on its heels.

As the Murray Hill neighborhood developed, the church was no longer able to accommodate its growing congregation.  On March 2, 1873 Rev. Stephen H. Tyng, Jr. delivered his last sermon in the building.  The New York Herald commented that "The elegant and well-known Church of the Holy Trinity...was filled to overflowing yesterday morning by parishioners and strangers to take part in the farewell services of this house of worship, as around the present structure there is already being laid the foundation of a more commodious and grander building."

Rev. Stephen H. Tyng, Jr. The American Portrait Gallery, 1877 (copyright expired)

The replacement structure had been designed by Leopold Eidlitz.  Construction was completed within the year, the first service being held on Easter Sunday, April 19, 1874.  Its $200,000 cost would equal a staggering $4.7 million in today's money.   The New York Times described it saying, "both externally and internally [it] is one of the finest in the City, and, from a purely architectural standpoint, is an ornament to the flourishing locality in which it is situated."

The Daily Graphic, April 28, 1874 (copyright expired)

Eidlitz's Ruskinian Gothic design featured polychrome brick and stonework, colorful decorative brick diapering, and multi-hued patterns in the slate roof and steeples.  The main tower contained two belfries and rose 190 feet.  The interior was a departure from expected church architecture, its seating arranged in amphitheater style.  The New York Times wrote, "The ground plan of the building might, in the first instance, suggest the idea of a theatre, in respect to the arrangement of the pews, but the general features of church architecture are so adhered to as to dispel this illusion."  

The New York Herald wrote:

The interior of this church is both handsome and comfortable.  The Gothic roof and the gilding and decorations in renaissance have an excellent effect.  There is a happy combination in the amount of color introduced.  As for the upholstering, it appears to have been designed to make the congregation feel a delightful sense of repose.

The large building accommodated the church's several outreach programs.  Holy Trinity operated a dispensary for "the suffering and afflicted poor" and "presided over by able and benevolent physicians," according to The New York Times.  Upstairs were the Sunday school, and a large sewing school.  The church supported the House of the Evangelists upstate, an orphanage, a "Reformatory Farm" near Sing Sing, and five mission chapels.

In the basement of the church indigent locals were fed--what today would be called a church soup kitchen.  from the collection of the New York Public Library

In 1887 Rev. Edward Walpole Warren took over the pulpit from Rev. Stephen Tyng.  But for a while it appeared the congregation would have to find another replacement.   Warren was "imported from London by the vestrymen of the Church of the Holy Trinity in the Fall of 1887," as worded by The Evening World.  He arrived in New York about the same time that John S. Kennedy "engaged a skilled gardener in Scotland to come to America and take charge of his country estate," according to that newspaper.

from the collection of the New-York Historical Society

Authorities, citing the Contract Labor Law which banned imported labor, refused the Scottish gardener entry into the country.  In response, Kennedy, "to show the folly of the law," demanded that Rev. Warren be deported as well.  The case ended up in the courts, which held that Warren was, indeed, "an imported laborer under contract," however deemed him a "teacher," an excepted class under the law.

Rev. Warren brought the ire of New Yorkers in general upon himself five years later.  When asked by a reporter why he had not yet sought citizenship, he replied:

I have refrained from taking out papers as a citizen of New York because the city is so wicked and corrupt that I would not wish to be identified with it, even as a voter.  Until it has rid itself of an administration that is vile from top to bottom I will remain an alien.  The entire municipal machine, I believe, from Mayor Grant down, is absolutely corrupt.

On April 10, 1892 a reporter from The Evening World went to services at the "ultra-fashionable" church, in order to speak to Warren who had been elusive since his remarks.  He proved no easier to pin down in person.  

"Positively, no! I cannot be interviewed!  You must excuse me; I am too busy," he told the reporter.  He then "dropped into a pew and into a chat with one of his female parishioners, who had remained after the service."  The writer noted, "Dr. Warren, who has drawn a handsome salary and lived quite elegantly in this modern Sodom for nearly five years, only waved his small fat hand in a 'do go away' gesture, and the reporter withdrew."

The uncomfortable meeting had taken place in a newly renovated sanctuary.  Eidlitz's amphitheater configuration was completely remodeled.   The New York Times, on February 15, 1892, explained, "The old interior reminded one of a big concert hall.  It was elliptical in shape, and the acoustic properties were abominable."  The new motif was Gothic, according to the article, "and the result is a dignified and ecclesiastical house of worship."  The newspaper noted, "The cost has been very heavy."

Among the most notable additions was a memorial reredos donated by Mrs. Clara Bacon.  The New York Times said, "It is the largest mosaic and one of the most artistic ever placed in the United States."  The central panel, Our Blessed Lord Enthroned, was 14-feet high.  The vast work was executed by Charles R. Lamb, of J. & R. Lamb.

The remodeled, Gothic-style interior.  Clara Bacon's short-lived reredos is clearly visible.  original source unknown

The "very heavy" cost of the remodeling added to the already deep debt the congregation suffered.  It was the financial straw that broke the back of Holy Trinity.   Only two years later the Journal of the One Hundred and Eleventh Convention of the Diocese of New York explained, "The heavy debt upon the church had for nine years crippled all possibilities of doing a satisfactory work for so important a church (a debt which had rested on the church ever since its incorporation), and had made families afraid of joining membership with a church so financially embarrassed; and the noisy corner of Forty-second Street and Madison Avenue...had long been a cause of annoyance to the congregation."

Holy Trinity merged with St. James's Protestant Episcopal Church on 71st Street and Madison Avenue.  On November 1, 1895 The Sun reported that the combined parishes had sold former Holy Trinity structure for $900,000 (about $28.6 million today), "and with the proceeds pay off the indebtedness of both churches and erect a new church and parish house."

In its September 1895 issue, Metaphysical Magazine lamented, "...this extinction of churches reaches its climax in the sale of the Church of the Holy Trinity in Forty-second Street...And now this magnificent structure has been sold to a railway corporation."  The following year, in July 1896, The Church reported, "at this writing the very walls of the old...Church of the Holy Trinity, at East Forty-second Street and Madison Avenue, are in process of demolition...A business structure of mammoth proportions will be erected on the site where the conspicuously decorated edifice of Holy Trinity has long stood."

Today the site is occupied by the 93-story One Vanderbilt skyscraper.

photo by Sean Shang

no permission to reuse the content of this blog has been granted to LaptrinhX.com

The Jefferson Market Courthouse

photograph by the author

In 1877 construction of the Jefferson Market Courthouse--so named because it shared trapezoidal parcel bounded by Sixth and Greenwich Avenues, and Christopher and West 10th Streets with the Jefferson Market complex--was completed.  Designed by the firm of Vaux & Withers, composed of Frederick Withers and Calvert Vaux (of Central Park fame), the courthouse was the product of one of Boss Tweed's graft schemes.  The New York Times, a consistent adversary of Tweed, grumbled that an equally suitable building could have been built for half the price -variously reported from $360,000 to $550,000.  Referring to the seedy area in which it was located, The New York Times called it "a jewel in a swine's snout."

from the collection of the New York Public Library

The completed project was actually a combination of buildings:  the courthouse to the north, a jail complex to the south and the Jefferson Market buildings to the west.  The site had been, since 1833, a group of sheds serving the market and a tall wooden fire lookout and bell.  The lookout was incorporated into the clock tower and the resulting assemblage was pronounced one of the ten most beautiful buildings in America by a poll of architects in 1885.

A riot of Victorian Gothic design, the courthouse is a medley of materials and shapes.  Red brick, ochre colored Ohio stone, cast iron, colored stone, and stained glass work together in creating the arches, pinnacles and gables.  The clock tower begins out as an octagon, morphs to a cylinder, and then a square.  It is a feast for the eyes.

The facade is abundantly decorated with sculpture, from the huge stone New York Seal within the central, Sixth Avenue gable, to small, unexpected owl heads.  Gruesome gargoyles loom from the clock tower.  One medallion is of a resting man, reflecting on nature and looking very much like John Ruskin.  Another depicts a stork eating a frog.

In 1896, author Stephen Crane testified here in defense of a prostitute--Crane said he had seen the girl in the Tenderloin District while he was there "studying human nature."  It was here in 1906 that Harry Thaw was tried for the murder of Stanford White, who was having an affair with Thaw's wife, showgirl Evelyn Nesbit.

By 1927, the jail and courthouse were used only for trials of women, becoming locally known as "the lady's courthouse."  It was here, on February 9, 1927 that Mae West and her entire cast of the Broadway play Sex were tried and jailed on obscenity charges.

The Women's House of Detention occupied the site of today's Jefferson Market Garden in 1938.  photo from the collection of the New York Public Library

In 1929 the market buildings and the jail were razed and the Women's House of Detention, a hulking Art Deco behemoth rose, nearly dwarfing the courthouse.

Because of redistricting, the courthouse ceased operation in 1945, afterward used for various uses by the police department and other agencies.  But by 1958 it was abandoned.  Home to rats and pigeons, it was slated for demolition by the city in favor of an apartment building.

Fate stepped in when Margot Gayle, Democratic District  Leader, attended a Christmas time cocktail party at 51 Fifth Avenue in 1959.  Conversation turned to the courthouse and it was agreed that it should be saved.

At the time, there were no landmarks laws, no preservation movements, and recycling vintage buildings for new purposes was essentially unheard of.  Saving the courthouse would be a monumental undertaking.  The group started with the clock.  According to Ms. Gayle, "it had been stuck at 3:20 for several years."  A telegram was sent to Mayor Robert F. Wagner saying "What we want for Christmas is to get the clock started."

Wagner jumped on the cause and, eventually, other politicians, celebrities and literary figures joined in.  The clock was restored.  A new use was now needed for the building.  Although the New York Public Library was initially not receptive to the idea of having a branch in an old court building, the mayor swayed the directors by threatening to withhold capital funding.

By 1967 the renovation, designed by Giorgio Cavaglieri, was complete.  It was the first real example of historic preservation in the city.  In 1974 the Women's Detention Center was demolished and replaced by a beautiful community garden that perfectly compliments the renewed building.

photo by Alice Lum

Today the Jefferson Market Courthouse is not only one of the most distinctive buildings in Manhattan, it is one of the most beloved by New Yorkers.

non-credited photographs by the author

LaptrinhX.com has no authorization to reuse the content of this blog