New York Songlines: New Street

West:

Bank of New York

1 (block): This landmark was put up in 1929-32 for the Irving Trust Co., a company formed in 1851 and named for author Washington Irving simply because his was a prestigious name at the time. (Coincidentally, the building occupies the lot where Irving had his law office at 3 Wall Street.) Ralph Walker's blueprint is considered a masterpiece of Art Deco skyscraper design; the lobby in particular is praised.

The Bank of New York acquired Irving Trust in 1988, and moved its headquarters here by 1998. BONY, New York's oldest bank, was founded in 1784 under the guidance of Alexander Hamilton, who was soon arranging loans from the bank to the new U.S. government as Washington's treasury secretary. The Bank's was the first corporate stock to be traded on the New York Stock Exchange in 1792. It helped finance the Erie Canal and the New York subway system. It merged with New York Life in 1922.

7: The Exchange Buffet, the world's first self-service restaurant, opened here on September 4, 1885.

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East:

New York Stock Exchange

Block (18 Broad Street):

The largest stock exchange in the world, the NYSE was founded on Wall Street in 1792 under a buttonwood tree; the exchange moved indoors in 1817 but did not prohibit trading in the street until 1836. It moved here in 1903, into a neoclassical landmark designed by George B. Post. The pediment, designed by J.Q.A. Ward, depicts Integrity surrounded by Agriculture, Mining, Science, Industry and Invention; the 90-ton sculpture had to be replaced in 1936 with a lighter hollow-lead version.

Abbie Hoffman threw dollar bills on the trading floor in 1967 to proclaim the Death of Money. More succesfully, ACT-UP in 1989 urged traders to "Sell Welcome!" in order to force the drug company to lower the cost of AZT.

West:

Corner (52 Broadway): Chemical Bank. Replaced Exchange Court, a 12-story building from 1898.

Old Standard Oil Building

Corner (26 Broadway): Starting in 1886, this was the headquarters of the Standard Oil Trust during the height of its power; John D. Rockefeller had his offices here, as did his partner Charles Pratt, founder of the Pratt Institute. When Standard Oil was broken up in 1911, this became the headquarters of Socony, later Mobil, which greatly expanded the building in the 1920s before moving to 42nd Street in 1956. (The expansion was begun by Carrere & Hastings, architects of the New York Public Library, and the tower added by Shreve, Lamb & Blake.) Upton Sinclair organized pickets here in 1914 in protest of the Ludlow Massacre.

Today the building houses (among other things) the Museum of American Financial History, opened in 1988.

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East:

Corner (30 Broad): A 48-story Art Deco building completed in 1932.

34: A fire that began at J.L. Van Doren's sperm whale oil shop here on July 19, 1845, killed 30 people, destroyed 300 buildings and caused $6 million in property damage.

44: International Office Products

(50 Broad): Willauer, Sharpe & Bready designed this 1913 building with two towers and white terra-cotta cladding. Wall Street bulls and bears can be seen on third story.

58: The New York Gold Exchange located here was the epicenter of Black Friday--September 24, 1869, when Jim Fisk and Jay Gould attempted to corner the gold market and caused a financial panic.

Corner (60 Broad): This building was the offices of Drexel Burnham Lambert, chaired by Michael Milken, known as the Junk Bond King. Milken went to jail for insider trading as Drexel became the symbol for the financial excesses of the 1980s. Now houses state offices. On this side is Cafe New Street.

West:

Block (2 Broadway): This building was designed in 1958 by Emery Roth & Sons, the WTC architects, and reskinned in 1999 by the modernists Skidmore, Owings & Merrill. It replaced George Post's 1882 Produce Exchange, a huge red Romanesque structure that ''was one of the city's greatest architectural losses'' (AIA Guide). New Street addresses in this building include:

69 (corner): Grotto Pizzeria

71: Sandwich Genie

77: Downtown Key & Lock Company

85: Joe's Shoe Repair

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East:

Block (16 Beaver): 16Beaver, "a space initiated/run by artists to create and maintain an ongoing platform for the presentation, production and discussion of a variety of artistic/cultural/economic/political projects." The building also houses the NYC Coalition Against Hunger.