23 Wall Street

Coordinates: 40°42′25″N 74°00′38″W / 40.706954°N 74.010644°W / 40.706954; -74.010644

23 Wall Street

(2007)
Location 23 Wall Street
Manhattan, New York City
Built 1913[1]
Architect Trowbridge & Livingston
Architectural style Neoclassical
NRHP Reference # 72000874[2]
Significant dates
Added to NRHP June 19, 1972
Designated NYCL December 21, 1965

23 Wall Street or "The Corner", is an office building formerly owned by J.P. Morgan & Co. – later the Morgan Guaranty Trust Company – located at the southeast corner of Wall Street and Broad Street, in the heart of the Financial District in Manhattan, New York City.

The building was designated a New York City landmark in 1965,[1] and was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1972. Since it was purchased in 2008 by interests associated with the billionaire industrialist Sam Pa, it has been left in a state of disuse.

Description

Designed by Trowbridge & Livingston and built in 1913,[1] the building was so well known as the headquarters of J.P. Morgan & Co. – the "House of Morgan" – that it was deemed unnecessary to mark the exterior with the Morgan name.[3] The building is known for its classical architecture and formerly for its well-appointed interior, including a massive crystal chandelier and English oak paneling, but, overall, is more notable for its history than its architecture.[4]

Even though property prices in the area were very high, the Morgan building was purposely designed to be only four stories tall; the contrast to the surrounding high-rises is reinforced by the astylar exterior, rendered as a single high piano nobile over a low basement, with a mezzanine above, and an attic storey above the main cornice. The plain limestone walls are pierced by unadorned windows in deep reveals. The foundations were constructed deep and strong enough in order to support a forty-story tower should the need arise in the future.

Across Broad Street from this building is the New York Stock Exchange, and across Wall Street is Federal Hall National Memorial. Directly outside are entrances to the Broad Street station (J Z trains) on the BMT Nassau Street Line of the New York City Subway.

1920 bombing

Damage from the 1920 bombing on 23 Wall Street (2006)

On September 16, 1920, the building was the site of the Wall Street bombing, in which thirty-eight people were killed and hundreds injured, 143 of them seriously.[5][6] The building received heavy damage, with shrapnel entering the building through its large wide windows. To this day, the damage to the limestone façade is visible on the outside of the building, as the company said it would never repair the damage in defiance to those who committed the crime.

Because the Morgan building was so well known, many assumed that the target of the assumed anarchist bombing was actually the bank itself.

Later history

In 1957 the building was linked to neighboring 15 Broad Street, a 42-story L-shaped tower[7] on a limestone base that tactfully echoes 23 Wall Street's facade. In 1989, JP Morgan moved its operations to 60 Wall Street, a larger and more modern building two blocks to the east.[8] 23 Wall Street was extensively renovated in the 1990s as a training and conference facility for J.P. Morgan & Co.[9]

This building and 15 Broad Street were sold in 2003 for $100 million to Africa Israel & Boymelgreen.[7] The two buildings have become a condominium development, Downtown by Philippe Starck, named for French designer Philippe Starck, one of a growing number of residential buildings in the Financial District.[7] Starck made the roof of 23 Wall into a garden and pool, accessible to the residents of the development.[10]

Africa Israel gained full control of 23 Wall Street in 2007;[11] it was sold to a partnership of the China International Fund and Sonangol Group in 2008.[12] The building has been unoccupied for years, and given the recent arrest of Sam Pa, believed to be a key leader of the China Investment Fund and the Sonangol Group, the future of this important Wall Street landmark remains uncertain. [13]

In popular culture

References

Notes

  1. 1 2 3 New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission; Dolkart, Andrew S. (text); Postal, Matthew A. (text) (2009), Postal, Matthew A., ed., Guide to New York City Landmarks (4th ed.), New York: John Wiley & Sons, ISBN 978-0-470-28963-1, p.15
  2. ↑ NRHP
  3. ↑ "23 Wall Street", Time Magazine (September 24, 1923); accessed 15 March 2010.
  4. ↑ White, Norval & Willensky, Elliot (2000), AIA Guide to New York City (4th ed.), New York: Three Rivers Press, ISBN 978-0-8129-3107-5, p. 19
  5. ↑ Baily, Thomas A; Kennedy, David M. (1994). The American Pageant (10th ed.). D.C. Heath and Company. ISBN 0-669-33892-3.
  6. ↑ Barron, James. "After 1920 Blast, The Opposite Of 'Never Forget'; No Memorials on Wall St. For Attack That Killed 30" New York Times (September 17, 2003)
  7. 1 2 3 "Project Updates: 15 Broad Street". LowerManhattan.info. Archived from the original on 19 February 2007. Retrieved 2007-01-25.
  8. ↑ Beasley-Murray, Benjamin; Platt, Gordon (1 June 2003). "Newsmakers : J.p.morgan Landmark Sold". Global Finance Magazine. Retrieved 1 August 2014.
  9. ↑ Gambee, Robert (1999). Wall Street: Financial Capital. W. W. Norton & Company. pp. 18–20. ISBN 9780393047677.
  10. ↑ Dunlap, David W. (2004-05-11). "Condos, Not Roll-Tops, on Finance's Holiest Corner". The New York Times. Retrieved 2007-01-25.
  11. ↑ Koblin, John (August 2, 2007). "Leviev and Boymelgreen: The Thrill Is Officially Gone". The New York Observer. Retrieved October 17, 2011.
  12. ↑ Murray, Laura Rena; Morrissey, Beth; Ojha, Himanshu; Martin-Menard, Patrick (October 17, 2011). "African Safari: CIF's Grab for Oil and Minerals". Caixin. Retrieved October 17, 2011.
  13. ↑ Cuozzo, Steve. (December 27, 2015) "The Wall Street Landmark Left to Rot". New York Post Accessed December 27, 2015.

External links

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