195 Broadway, also known as the Telephone Building, Telegraph Building, or Western Union Building, is an
early skyscraper
The earliest stage of skyscraper design encompasses buildings built between 1884 and 1945, predominantly in the American cities of New York City, New York and Chicago. Cities in the United States were traditionally made up of low-rise buildings, ...
on
Broadway
Broadway may refer to:
Theatre
* Broadway Theatre (disambiguation)
* Broadway theatre, theatrical productions in professional theatres near Broadway, Manhattan, New York City, U.S.
** Broadway (Manhattan), the street
**Broadway Theatre (53rd Stree ...
in the
Financial District
A financial district is usually a central area in a city where financial services firms such as banks, insurance companies and other related finance corporations have their head offices. In major cities, financial districts are often home to s ...
of
Manhattan
Manhattan (), known regionally as the City, is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the five boroughs of New York City. The borough is also coextensive with New York County, one of the original counties of the U.S. state ...
,
New York City
New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...
. It was the longtime headquarters of
AT&T
AT&T Inc. is an American multinational telecommunications holding company headquartered at Whitacre Tower in Downtown Dallas, Texas. It is the world's largest telecommunications company by revenue and the third largest provider of mobile tel ...
as well as
Western Union
The Western Union Company is an American multinational financial services company, headquartered in Denver, Colorado.
Founded in 1851 as the New York and Mississippi Valley Printing Telegraph Company in Rochester, New York, the company chang ...
. It occupies the entire western side of Broadway from
Dey Street
Dey Street is a short street in Lower Manhattan, in New York City. It passes the west side of the World Trade Center site and the World Trade Center Transportation Hub. It runs for one block between Church Street and Broadway. It origina ...
to
Fulton Street.
The site was formerly occupied by the
Western Union Telegraph Building
The Western Union Telegraph Building was a building at Dey Street and Broadway in the Financial District of Manhattan in New York City. The Western Union Building was built with ten above-ground stories rising . The structure was originally d ...
. The current 29-story, building was commissioned after AT&T's 1909 acquisition of Western Union. It was constructed from 1912 to 1916 under the leadership of
Theodore Newton Vail
Theodore Newton Vail (July 16, 1845 – April 16, 1920) was president of American Telephone & Telegraph between 1885 and 1889, and again from 1907 to 1919. Vail saw telephone service as a public utility and moved to consolidate telephone networks u ...
, to designs by
William W. Bosworth
William Welles Bosworth (May 8, 1869 – June 3, 1966) was an American architect whose most famous designs include the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Cambridge campus, the original AT&T Building in New York City, and the Theodore N. Vail ...
, although one section was not completed until 1922. It was the site of one end of the
first transcontinental telephone call
A telephone call, which for marketing purposes is claimed to be the ''first transcontinental telephone call'', occurred on January 25, 1915, a day timed to coincide with the Panama–Pacific International Exposition celebrations. However, the trans ...
, the first intercity
Picturephone
The history of videotelephony covers the historical development of several technologies which enable the use of video, live video in addition to telecommunication, voice telecommunications. The concept of videotelephony was first popularized in t ...
call, and the first transatlantic telephone call. Though AT&T's headquarters relocated to
550 Madison Avenue
550 Madison Avenue (formerly known as the Sony Tower, Sony Plaza, and AT&T Building) is a postmodern skyscraper at Madison Avenue between 55th and 56th Streets in the Midtown Manhattan neighborhood of New York City. Designed by Philip Johnson ...
in 1984, 195 Broadway remains in use as an office building .
Bosworth's design was heavily Greek-influenced: though the facade is made of white Vermont granite, it features layers of gray granite columns in
Doric Doric may refer to:
* Doric, of or relating to the Dorians of ancient Greece
** Doric Greek, the dialects of the Dorians
* Doric order, a style of ancient Greek architecture
* Doric mode, a synonym of Dorian mode
* Doric dialect (Scotland)
* Doric ...
and
Ionic styles, as well as various Greek-inspired ornamentation. The northwestern corner of the building was designed similar to a
campanile
A bell tower is a tower that contains one or more bells, or that is designed to hold bells even if it has none. Such a tower commonly serves as part of a Christian church, and will contain church bells, but there are also many secular bell tower ...
with a stepped roof, which formerly supported the ''
Spirit of Communication
''Spirit of Communication'' is the formal name for the statue by Evelyn Beatrice Longman originally called ''Genius of Telegraphy''. The statue has been the symbol of AT&T (and also the former Western Electric) since their commission was comple ...
'' statue. The Greek design carried into the large lobby, clad with marble walls and floors, and containing sculptural ornament by
Paul Manship
Paul Howard Manship (December 24, 1885 – January 28, 1966) was an American sculptor. He consistently created mythological pieces in a classical style, and was a major force in the Art Deco movement. He is well known for his large public com ...
and
Gaston Lachaise
Gaston Lachaise (March 19, 1882 – October 18, 1935) was a French-born sculptor, active in the early 20th century. A native of Paris
Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 re ...
. The exterior and first-floor interior spaces were designated as city landmarks by the
New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission
The New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission (LPC) is the New York City agency charged with administering the city's Landmarks Preservation Law. The LPC is responsible for protecting New York City's architecturally, historically, and cu ...
in 2006.
Site
195 Broadway is on the west side of
Broadway
Broadway may refer to:
Theatre
* Broadway Theatre (disambiguation)
* Broadway theatre, theatrical productions in professional theatres near Broadway, Manhattan, New York City, U.S.
** Broadway (Manhattan), the street
**Broadway Theatre (53rd Stree ...
, between
Fulton Street to the north and Dey Street to the south, in the
Financial District
A financial district is usually a central area in a city where financial services firms such as banks, insurance companies and other related finance corporations have their head offices. In major cities, financial districts are often home to s ...
of
Lower Manhattan
Lower Manhattan (also known as Downtown Manhattan or Downtown New York) is the southernmost part of Manhattan, the central borough for business, culture, and government in New York City, which is the most populated city in the United States with ...
in
New York City
New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...
.
The building has a
frontage
Frontage is the boundary between a plot of land or a building and the road onto which the plot or building fronts. Frontage may also refer to the full length of this boundary. This length is considered especially important for certain types of ...
of on Dey Street, on Broadway, and on Fulton Street.
According to the
New York City Department of City Planning
The Department of City Planning (DCP) is the department of the government of New York City responsible for setting the framework of city's physical and socioeconomic planning. The department is responsible for land use and environmental review, p ...
, the lot has an area of .
195 Broadway shares a block with the
Millennium Hilton New York Downtown
The Millennium Downtown New York is a hotel in Lower Manhattan, New York City, located at the southeast corner of Fulton Street and Church Street. The hotel is adjacent to 195 Broadway, with which it shares the block, and is located across Chu ...
hotel to the west. Other nearby buildings include
St. Paul's Chapel to the north, the
Fulton Center
Fulton Center is a subway and retail complex centered at the intersection of Fulton Street and Broadway in Lower Manhattan, New York City. The complex was built as part of a $1.4 billion project by the Metropolitan Transportation Authority ...
and
Corbin Building
The Corbin Building (also known as 13 John Street and 192 Broadway) is a historic office building at the northeast corner of John Street and Broadway in the Financial District of Manhattan in New York City. It was built in 1888–1889 as a ...
to the east, and the
World Trade Center Transportation Hub
World Trade Center is a terminal station on the PATH system, within the World Trade Center complex in the Financial District of Manhattan, New York City. It is served by the Newark–World Trade Center line at all times, as well as by the H ...
and
3 World Trade Center
3 World Trade Center (3 WTC; also known as 175 Greenwich Street) is a skyscraper constructed as part of the new World Trade Center in Lower Manhattan, New York City. The tower is located on Greenwich Street along the eastern side of the World Tr ...
to the west.
Architecture
![0311New York City](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/44/0311New_York_City.JPG)
Though
William Welles Bosworth
William Welles Bosworth (May 8, 1869 – June 3, 1966) was an American architect whose most famous designs include the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Cambridge campus, the original AT&T Building in New York City, and the Theodore N. Vai ...
is credited as the architect, the design of 195 Broadway was largely influenced by
AT&T
AT&T Inc. is an American multinational telecommunications holding company headquartered at Whitacre Tower in Downtown Dallas, Texas. It is the world's largest telecommunications company by revenue and the third largest provider of mobile tel ...
head
Theodore Newton Vail
Theodore Newton Vail (July 16, 1845 – April 16, 1920) was president of American Telephone & Telegraph between 1885 and 1889, and again from 1907 to 1919. Vail saw telephone service as a public utility and moved to consolidate telephone networks u ...
. According to Bosworth, "It was the aim of Mr. Vail that
95 Broadwayshould express the ideal the Telephone Company stands for." For the lobby, Bosworth was inspired by the design of the
Parthenon
The Parthenon (; grc, Παρθενών, , ; ell, Παρθενώνας, , ) is a former temple on the Athenian Acropolis, Greece, that was dedicated to the goddess Athena during the fifth century BC. Its decorative sculptures are considere ...
's
portico
A portico is a porch leading to the entrance of a building, or extended as a colonnade, with a roof structure over a walkway, supported by columns or enclosed by walls. This idea was widely used in ancient Greece and has influenced many cult ...
s and Egyptian
hypostyle
In architecture, a hypostyle () hall has a roof which is supported by columns.
Etymology
The term ''hypostyle'' comes from the ancient Greek ὑπόστυλος ''hypóstȳlos'' meaning "under columns" (where ὑπό ''hypó'' means below or un ...
s to create "a forest of polished marble" supported by massive columns.
Bosworth's design was heavily Greek-influenced; it featured layers of gray granite columns in
Doric Doric may refer to:
* Doric, of or relating to the Dorians of ancient Greece
** Doric Greek, the dialects of the Dorians
* Doric order, a style of ancient Greek architecture
* Doric mode, a synonym of Dorian mode
* Doric dialect (Scotland)
* Doric ...
and
Ionic styles, and a lobby that included 43 oversized Doric columns made of marble.
Many building details, such as the columns and the metal grilles above each entrance bay, were nearly identical copies of similar features on classical Greek buildings such as the Parthenon and the
Temple of Artemis
The Temple of Artemis or Artemision ( gr, Ἀρτεμίσιον; tr, Artemis Tapınağı), also known as the Temple of Diana, was a Greek temple dedicated to an ancient, local form of the goddess Artemis (identified with Diana, a Roman god ...
.
Bosworth also incorporated several "architectural refinements" that
Brooklyn Museum
The Brooklyn Museum is an art museum located in the New York City borough of Brooklyn. At , the museum is New York City's second largest and contains an art collection with around 1.5 million objects. Located near the Prospect Heights, Crown H ...
professor
William H. Goodyear had noted as being characteristic of Greek architecture, including column spacing and progressively smaller columns at higher floors.
Ornament was yet another important part of the design and was ubiquitous within 195 Broadway.
Bosworth later wrote that he was "immensely proud" of the 195 Broadway design, from which he drew all of his subsequent Greek-inspired designs.
The main structure is 27 stories, including its attic and double-height lobby.
The Dey Street annex, along the southern portion of the building, was an L-shaped structure at the corner of Dey Street and Broadway with an extension reaching Fulton Street.
The westernmost on Fulton Street was designed like a
campanile
A bell tower is a tower that contains one or more bells, or that is designed to hold bells even if it has none. Such a tower commonly serves as part of a Christian church, and will contain church bells, but there are also many secular bell tower ...
to fit with its narrow and tall form.
The campanile is 29 stories high.
Facade
![Entrance to Fulton Center through 195 Broadway building on Fulton St](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/be/Entrance_to_Fulton_Center_through_195_Broadway_building_on_Fulton_St.JPG)
The facade is made of white Vermont granite.
It was built in three sections: the western portion of the lot facing Dey Street; the extension east to Broadway with a small wing extending north to Fulton Street; and the corner of Broadway and Fulton Street.
There are three sets of four bays on Dey Street and two such sets on Broadway; the "transitional bays" are plainer and slightly set back.
On Dey Street and Broadway, each set of four bays is arranged so that the center bays are wider, and the columns at higher stories are slightly set back with smaller diameters.
The Fulton Street facade, unlike the Dey Street and Broadway facades, is divided into two sections: the campanile to the west and the continuous eight-bay colonnade to the east.
On all three principal facades, the first-floor bays contain entrance frames or window frames made of bronze. Wheelchair ramps are cut into certain entrance bays along both Fulton and Dey Streets.
The building's articulation consists of three horizontal sections similar to the components of a
column
A column or pillar in architecture and structural engineering is a structural element that transmits, through compression, the weight of the structure above to other structural elements below. In other words, a column is a compression member. ...
, namely a base, shaft, and
capital
Capital may refer to:
Common uses
* Capital city, a municipality of primary status
** List of national capital cities
* Capital letter, an upper-case letter Economics and social sciences
* Capital (economics), the durable produced goods used f ...
. However, unlike in other buildings where the base and capital were more elaborate than the shaft, the entire facade of 195 Broadway consisted of "sustained decoration of superimposed orders", similar to ancient Greek and Roman buildings such as the
Septizodium
The Septizodium (also called ''Septizonium'' or ''Septicodium'') was a building in ancient Rome. It was built in 203 AD by Emperor Septimius Severus. The origin of the name "Septizodium" is from ''Septisolium'', from the Latin for temple of seve ...
in Rome or the
Library of Pergamum
The Library of Pergamum in Pergamum, Asia Minor or Anatolia (present day Turkey). It was one of the most important libraries in the ancient world.
The city of Pergamum
Founded sometime during 3rd century BC, during the Hellenistic Age, Perga ...
in what is now Turkey. The facade was thus composed of a Doric
colonnade
In classical architecture, a colonnade is a long sequence of columns joined by their entablature, often free-standing, or part of a building. Paired or multiple pairs of columns are normally employed in a colonnade which can be straight or curv ...
along the double-height first floor, and eight sets of triple-height Ionic colonnades on subsequent stories. The Doric columns at the base supported a frieze running along the top of the first floor.
The lowest story of each layer of Ionic colonnades contained
mullion
A mullion is a vertical element that forms a division between units of a window or screen, or is used decoratively. It is also often used as a division between double doors. When dividing adjacent window units its primary purpose is a rigid supp ...
s and
spandrel
A spandrel is a roughly triangular space, usually found in pairs, between the top of an arch and a rectangular frame; between the tops of two adjacent arches or one of the four spaces between a circle within a square. They are frequently fill ...
s made of stone, which contributed to the building's "solidity". A tall
parapet
A parapet is a barrier that is an extension of the wall at the edge of a roof, terrace, balcony, walkway or other structure. The word comes ultimately from the Italian ''parapetto'' (''parare'' 'to cover/defend' and ''petto'' 'chest/breast'). Whe ...
at the building's top was intended to show "strength and solidity binding the columns", as did the structure's transitional bays. The entire facade was designed like this except for the campanile-like tower on Fulton Street.
On the Fulton Street side, the westernmost three bays comprise a tower
whose facade consists of an ornate three-story base and a relatively undecorated 22-story granite shaft.
The base contains two garage openings on the first floor; two pairs of bronze-framed windows on the second floor, with each pair separated by an Ionic column; and a colonnade on the third floor, articulated by vertical
pilaster
In classical architecture
Classical architecture usually denotes architecture which is more or less consciously derived from the principles of Greek and Roman architecture of classical antiquity, or sometimes even more specifically, from the ...
s that contain various decorations.
The top stories are flanked by Ionic columns. The roof of this tower is a pyramidal crown inspired by contemporary renderings of the
Mausoleum at Halicarnassus
The Mausoleum at Halicarnassus or Tomb of Mausolus ( grc, Μαυσωλεῖον τῆς Ἁλικαρνασσοῦ; tr, Halikarnas Mozolesi) was a tomb built between 353 and 350 BC in Halicarnassus (present Bodrum, Turkey) for Mausolus, an ...
.
![Millenium Hilton July 2009](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/59/Millenium_Hilton_July_2009.jpg)
The minor elevations are along the north side of the Dey Street wing and the west sides of the Dey Street and Fulton Street wings. The western facade of the Fulton Street wing contains relatively plain window openings,
and the western facade of the Dey Street wing is a windowless wall mostly blocked by the Millennium Hotel.
The northern facade of the Dey Street wing also contains window openings; the center section of this facade is windowless and contained a "light court" which was infilled during the 1960s.
The facade contains ornaments such as swags and wreaths. There are bronze spandrels with decorative
frieze
In architecture, the frieze is the wide central section part of an entablature and may be plain in the Ionic or Doric order, or decorated with bas-reliefs. Paterae are also usually used to decorate friezes. Even when neither columns nor ...
s within the upper-story bays, and the facade of the top story under the parapet contains bronze lion heads. Foliated reliefs are located within the door and window frames at ground level, and
antefix
An antefix (from Latin ', to fasten before) is a vertical block which terminates and conceals the covering tiles of a tiled roof (see imbrex and tegula, monk and nun). It also serves to protect the join from the elements. In grand buildings, the ...
es are located above the shop windows and the Dey and Fulton Street subway entrances. The subway entrances also contained granite faces and bronze gates, and the decoration extended into the basement where the subway platform was located.
Interior
195 Broadway has almost a million square feet () of interior floor space, approximately per floor.
According to the Department of City Planning, the building has of gross floor area.
There were formerly 28 elevators serving the office floors,
but , there are 22 passenger elevators that travel from the lobby to the upper floors. The elevators are divided into zones, with each elevator only serving a certain range of floors. Specifically, eight elevators travel from the lobby to the 23rd through 28th floors; six elevators travel to the 15th through 22nd floors; and eight cars travel to the 4th through 15th floors. A single freight elevator serves all floors. The office floors contain varying ceiling heights. The 6th, 9th, 12th, 16th, 19th, 22nd and 25th floors have ceilings that are tall; the 28th floor's ceiling is tall; and the remaining office stories starting from the 4th floor are tall.
Sculptor
Paul Manship
Paul Howard Manship (December 24, 1885 – January 28, 1966) was an American sculptor. He consistently created mythological pieces in a classical style, and was a major force in the Art Deco movement. He is well known for his large public com ...
designed decorations for the interior, including elevator doors, floor panels, and drinking fountains made of bronze.
The bronze decorations in the lobby were removed when AT&T moved out during 1984.
Manship may have also worked on the chandeliers and windows in the lobby, though the extent of his involvement is unclear.
Lachaise was given the commission for the frieze lining the elevator bank on Fulton Street.
According to ''The New York Times'', 195 Broadway is considered to have the most marble of any New York City office building; the material is so ubiquitous that it was even used for the fire stairs. The structure also incorporates cast bronze or nickel silver on its interior furnishings, such as window frames and door knobs.
First floor
The lobby has a ceiling high and contains of floor area.
The ceiling is supported by white marble columns in the Doric order; the interior partitions are also made of white marble; and the floors are of gray marble. The ceiling contains a grid of
coffer
A coffer (or coffering) in architecture is a series of sunken panels in the shape of a square, rectangle, or octagon in a ceiling, soffit or vault.
A series of these sunken panels was often used as decoration for a ceiling or a vault, also c ...
s punctuated by heavy, green-and-gold decorated beams. The directory boards in the lobby are also brightly colored. There are forty bronze-and-alabaster chandeliers hanging from the ceiling. As with the facade, the lobby includes bronze furnishings and is heavily influenced by Greek architecture.
Among the Greek-inspired features of the lobby was a white marble mailbox with eagle carvings, modeled after a Greek
stele
A stele ( ),Anglicized plural steles ( ); Greek plural stelai ( ), from Greek , ''stēlē''. The Greek plural is written , ''stēlai'', but this is only rarely encountered in English. or occasionally stela (plural ''stelas'' or ''stelæ''), whe ...
.
The oldest section of the building, on the southwest side facing Dey Street included a lobby, shops, offices, fire stairs, and a narrow bank of elevators near the east wall.
The elevators face eastward, toward the larger Dey Street lobby.
[For a diagram of the interior, see ] The rest of the Dey Street (south) wing, extending eastward to Broadway, includes a main vestibule with revolving doors on Dey Street. It is surrounded to the north, west, and east by elevator banks.
Because Dey Street rose gradually as it approached Broadway to the east, there are numerous slightly raised enclosures near the entrance bays on Dey Street. The space is further subdivided by low-height railings and partitions of marble. A corridor extends east to Broadway, where originally there were two revolving-door entrances.
Under the campanile on Fulton Street, there was retail space, later largely converted to a pair of loading docks deep.
The Fulton Street (north) lobby also contains a passageway extending south to the Dey Street wing, and there are elevators on the south and east walls of the lobby.
When the corner space at Broadway and Fulton Street was completed, the wall separating the new lobby to the north and the old lobby to the south was removed. The elevator banks on the east wall were installed, and more columns were erected inside the lobby to create a hypostyle-like hall.
Cantilevered trusses were installed on the third floor to support the weight originally carried by the wall in the Broadway lobby. The corner section's construction included the addition of two more revolving doors on the northern section of the Broadway facade, three revolving doors on Fulton Street.
This section included a store for the Benedict Brothers.
The Broadway lobby, on the eastern side of the lot, is separated from both the Fulton and Dey Street wings by the elevator banks along these wings' eastern walls, as well as a pair of fire stairs. Passageways from both wings' lobbies lead east to the Broadway lobby.
The wings contain asymmetrical column arrangements, but this is not immediately visible from the Broadway lobby due to the presence of the elevator banks.
Prior to 2016, the lobby contained minimal retail space. Following a renovation that year, the lobby was slightly reconfigured to include three storefronts separated by full-height glass barriers and connected by a galleria.
Basements
195 Broadway contains five basement levels, labeled alphabetically from top to bottom (i.e. the lowest level is called basement "E").
Basement levels B, C, and E contain storage areas.
The uppermost basement level, the "A" level, is adjacent to the
Fulton Street station complex on the
New York City Subway
The New York City Subway is a rapid transit system owned by the government of New York City and leased to the New York City Transit Authority, an affiliate agency of the state-run Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA). Opened on October 2 ...
,
serving the . From the Fulton Street side, there is a direct entrance to the southbound platform of the
IRT Lexington Avenue Line
The IRT Lexington Avenue Line (also known as the IRT East Side Line and the IRT Lexington–Fourth Avenue Line) is one of the lines of the A Division of the New York City Subway, stretching from Lower Manhattan north to 125th Street in East H ...
station (served by the ), which is directly under Broadway. Going west from Broadway, the stairs to the subway are located in the second bay, and are framed by a bronze surround. In the basement, there is a granite wall between the platform and the building. Within the granite wall there are bronze sliding gates and a long window separated by bronze mullions. The sliding gates used to provide access to the station, a purpose that is now served by turnstiles.
Art
![Att goldenboy](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/56/Att_goldenboy.jpg)
The building originally featured a gilded bronze sculpture originally called ''Genius of Telegraphy'', placed atop the pyramidal roof of the campanile in 1916. The artist
Evelyn Beatrice Longman
Evelyn Beatrice Longman (November 21, 1874 – March 10, 1954) was a sculptor in the U.S. Her allegorical figure works were commissioned as monuments and memorials, adornment for public buildings, and attractions at art expositions in early 20th ...
created a statue depicting a winged male figure on top of a globe, wrapped by cables, clutching bolts of electricity in his left hand.
After a court-ordered divestiture of Western Union, the statue's official title was changed to ''Genius of Electricity'' by the time it was installed. The statue was renamed again to ''Spirit of Communication'' in the 1930s, but has been better known by its nickname, ''Golden Boy''.
In 1984 when AT&T moved to 550 Madison Avenue, the statue was relocated to the foyer of 550 Madison;
the statue was later moved yet again to New Jersey. As of 2021, the statue is located at the AT&T corporate campus in
Downtown Dallas
Downtown Dallas is the central business district (CBD) of Dallas, Dallas, Texas, United States, located in the geographic center of the city. It is the second-largest business district in the state of Texas. The area termed "Downtown" has tradit ...
.
One of Manship's earliest public works was "The Four Elements", a set of four bronze reliefs on the lower facade of the building.
The Manship reliefs are located above the revolving doors on the Broadway side,
as well as at the spandrels within the four westernmost bays along Dey Street.
The reliefs respectively represent earth, air, fire, and water.
They were later replaced with copies.
On Fulton Street, above the third story of the campanile, is a stone relief depicting a personification of Electricity with a shield containing the symbol of Western Union; a bronze lion in the center; and a stone relief of
Demeter
In ancient Greek religion and mythology, Demeter (; Attic: ''Dēmḗtēr'' ; Doric: ''Dāmā́tēr'') is the Olympian goddess of the harvest and agriculture, presiding over crops, grains, food, and the fertility of the earth. Although s ...
holding a torch.
In the lobby,
Gaston Lachaise
Gaston Lachaise (March 19, 1882 – October 18, 1935) was a French-born sculptor, active in the early 20th century. A native of Paris
Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 re ...
originally planned to design a "marble statue of a young woman" along the eastern wall of the Broadway elevator lobby, though this work was not installed.
Instead, this space was occupied by ''Service to the Nation in Peace and War'' (1928), an allegorical group by Chester Beach. The piece, in bronze and marble, depicts personifications of telecommunications, war, and peace.
History
![Western_Union_Telegraph_Building](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/32/Western_Union_Telegraph_Building.jpg)
From its 1885 establishment to 1910, AT&T was headquartered at 125 Milk Street in Boston. The current building at 195 Broadway was constructed under the leadership of AT&T's president Theodore Newton Vail, who had taken the role in 1907 and assumed the same title at
Western Union
The Western Union Company is an American multinational financial services company, headquartered in Denver, Colorado.
Founded in 1851 as the New York and Mississippi Valley Printing Telegraph Company in Rochester, New York, the company chang ...
in 1909 when that firm was purchased by AT&T. At the time, the site was occupied by the
Western Union Telegraph Building
The Western Union Telegraph Building was a building at Dey Street and Broadway in the Financial District of Manhattan in New York City. The Western Union Building was built with ten above-ground stories rising . The structure was originally d ...
.
In 1910, AT&T revealed plans to improve Western Union's offices "for the accommodation of the public and the welfare" of workers. Bosworth, who designed the
John D. Rockefeller
John Davison Rockefeller Sr. (July 8, 1839 – May 23, 1937) was an American business magnate and philanthropist. He has been widely considered the wealthiest American of all time and the richest person in modern history. Rockefeller was ...
estate at
Kykuit
Kykuit ( ), known also as the John D. Rockefeller Estate, is a 40-room historic house museum in Pocantico Hills, a hamlet in the town of Mount Pleasant, New York 25 miles north of New York City. The house was built for oil tycoon and Rockefelle ...
,
was offered the commission to design a headquarters building at 195 Broadway in November 1911. Simultaneously, work proceeded on 24 Walker Street, a shared-operations building erected further north between 1911 and 1914.
Construction
In 1912, plans were devised for a 29-story headquarters building that would be constructed on the western sidewalk of Broadway on the block stretching from
Dey Street
Dey Street is a short street in Lower Manhattan, in New York City. It passes the west side of the World Trade Center site and the World Trade Center Transportation Hub. It runs for one block between Church Street and Broadway. It origina ...
to
Fulton Street. The plan entailed constructing one wing on the Dey Street corner, followed by the second wing on the Fulton Street corner.
To minimize disruption to Western Union's operations, the new building was constructed in several portions, and the 195 Broadway Corporation was organized to take over operation of the existing structure.
Work began first on the Dey Street annex; the Western Union Building annex at 14–18 Dey Street was demolished in 1912.
The New York Associated Press, an occupant of the old building, moved to
51 Chambers Street in April 1914; Western Union employees moved to Walker Street two months later. The Dey Street annex was completed by late 1914.
As the building had not yet been finished,
Alexander Graham Bell
Alexander Graham Bell (, born Alexander Bell; March 3, 1847 – August 2, 1922) was a Scottish-born inventor, scientist and engineer who is credited with patenting the first practical telephone. He also co-founded the American Telephone and Te ...
made the first transcontinental telephone call in January 1915 from a company building on the south side of Dey Street.
The Broadway and Fulton Street wings then commenced construction. The new 195 Broadway building was declared completed in 1916, upon which 3,500 employees of AT&T and its subsidiaries moved into the structure.
The 195 Broadway Corporation also bought numerous adjacent plots of land to ensure that the new structure would be compliant with the upcoming
1916 Zoning Resolution,
which established limits in building
massing
Massing is a term in architecture which refers to the perception of the general shape and form as well as size of a building.
Massing in architectural theory
Massing refers to the structure in three dimensions (form), not just its outline from ...
at certain heights. Specifically, the Mail and Express Building between Dey and Fulton Streets was acquired in February 1916, followed by the acquisition of the four-story 205 Broadway building at Fulton Street in July, days before the zoning law took effect.
An agreement was made with the
Interborough Rapid Transit Company
The Interborough Rapid Transit Company (IRT) was the private operator of New York City's original underground subway line that opened in 1904, as well as earlier elevated railways and additional rapid transit lines in New York City. The IRT w ...
(IRT) to construct an entrance and exit from the base of 195 Broadway to the
Fulton Street subway station in 1915. An exit on Broadway opened in August 1916, and an entrance on Dey Street opened that October.
Bosworth was then directed to prepare plans for three 27-story annexes. Material shortages due to
World War I
World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...
prevented the expansion, and there were numerous
holdouts.
The 195 Broadway Corp. purchased the
New York Law School
New York Law School (NYLS) is a private law school in Tribeca, New York City. NYLS has a full-time day program and a part-time evening program. NYLS's faculty includes 54 full-time and 59 adjunct professors. Notable faculty members include E ...
structures at 172–174 Fulton Street in August 1918, at which point it owned almost the entire block bounded by Broadway and Dey, Fulton, and Church Streets.
However, the building permit had expired the previous month. Bosworth filed plans for a smaller addition to complete the corner of Fulton Street and Broadway in December 1919; it was initially denied for violating the zoning law's height restriction, but the following month, the city board of appeals allowed construction to proceed.
The corner section was finished in 1922, thereby completing the original headquarters.
This section included a store for the Benedict Brothers,
jewelers who held-out during the original construction and only agreed to give up their building in exchange for retail space in the building.
AT&T headquarters
![WTM tony 0137](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/b9/WTM_tony_0137.jpg)
195 Broadway's name changed several times in its early years, reflecting changes in its ownership. 195 Broadway was referred to as the "Western Union Building" during its construction and as the "Telephone and Telegraph Building" after completion. AT&T settled on the American Telephone & Telegraph Building name in the 1920s, which the building retained through the 1980s.
195 Broadway was closely associated with AT&T, and the 195 Broadway Corporation came to encompass all of the company's real estate holdings until AT&T moved out during the 1980s.
Vail retired in 1919, shortly after 195 Broadway was finished; the new AT&T president, Henry Bates Thayer, helped grow the company into an international telecommunications company.
While in use as AT&T headquarters, 195 Broadway was the site of one end of the
first transcontinental telephone call
A telephone call, which for marketing purposes is claimed to be the ''first transcontinental telephone call'', occurred on January 25, 1915, a day timed to coincide with the Panama–Pacific International Exposition celebrations. However, the trans ...
in 1923. The same building was the New York end of the first intercity
Picturephone
The history of videotelephony covers the historical development of several technologies which enable the use of video, live video in addition to telecommunication, voice telecommunications. The concept of videotelephony was first popularized in t ...
call in 1927 and of the first transatlantic telephone call, made to London, England, also in 1927.
The company also founded radio station
WEAF, which broadcast from 195 Broadway's Fulton Street tower and continued to do so after its 1925 purchase by
RCA
The RCA Corporation was a major American electronics company, which was founded as the Radio Corporation of America in 1919. It was initially a patent trust owned by General Electric (GE), Westinghouse, AT&T Corporation and United Fruit Comp ...
.
In 1941, ''The New York Times'' reported that work on the then-under-construction radio apparatus at
711 Fifth Avenue, the studios of RCA's
NBC
The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) is an Television in the United States, American English-language Commercial broadcasting, commercial television network, broadcast television and radio network. The flagship property of the NBC Enterta ...
division, was controlled from "a single little room" within 195 Broadway.
Western Union started erecting a new headquarters at
60 Hudson Street
60 Hudson Street, formerly known as the Western Union Building, is a 24-story telecommunications building in the Tribeca neighborhood of Manhattan in New York City. Built in 1928–1930, it was one of several Art Deco-style buildings design ...
in 1928.
Most of the company's operations moved to its new Hudson Street building two years later.
Western Union's ticker and messenger services, as well as the money-order department, were kept at 195 Broadway.
Benedict Brothers closed their shop in 195 Broadway's lobby in 1938. The next year, AT&T decided to display "the most accurate clock in the world" on the northernmost window bay along the Broadway facade, a showcase of the successful timekeeping service developed by AT&T's
Bell Labs
Nokia Bell Labs, originally named Bell Telephone Laboratories (1925–1984),
then AT&T Bell Laboratories (1984–1996)
and Bell Labs Innovations (1996–2007),
is an American industrial research and scientific development company owned by mult ...
. At that time, AT&T had developed a near-
monopoly
A monopoly (from Greek language, Greek el, μόνος, mónos, single, alone, label=none and el, πωλεῖν, pōleîn, to sell, label=none), as described by Irving Fisher, is a market with the "absence of competition", creating a situati ...
on the United States' telephone and long-distance service.
AT&T's
Western Electric
The Western Electric Company was an American electrical engineering and manufacturing company officially founded in 1869. A wholly owned subsidiary of American Telephone & Telegraph for most of its lifespan, it served as the primary equipment ma ...
division outgrew the original headquarters at 195 Broadway in the 1950s, having made significant profits during the
Cold War
The Cold War is a term commonly used to refer to a period of geopolitical tension between the United States and the Soviet Union and their respective allies, the Western Bloc and the Eastern Bloc. The term '' cold war'' is used because the ...
.
In 1957, Western Electric started planning its own structure diagonally across Broadway and Fulton Street, and five years later, moved into its new 31-story building at
222 Broadway. As a result of AT&T's increased profits in the 1950s and 1960s, the company performed several renovations at 195 Broadway, including installing
air conditioning
Air conditioning, often abbreviated as A/C or AC, is the process of removing heat from an enclosed space to achieve a more comfortable interior environment (sometimes referred to as 'comfort cooling') and in some cases also strictly controlling ...
throughout the building from 1959 to 1961. The attic, which formerly had benches and employee facilities for
squash
Squash may refer to:
Sports
* Squash (sport), the high-speed racquet sport also known as squash racquets
* Squash (professional wrestling), an extremely one-sided match in professional wrestling
* Squash tennis, a game similar to squash but pla ...
and
handball
Handball (also known as team handball, European handball or Olympic handball) is a team sport in which two teams of seven players each (six outcourt players and a goalkeeper) pass a ball using their hands with the aim of throwing it into the g ...
, was replaced with equipment to support the air conditioning system.
The facade was given a
steam cleaning
Steam cleaning involves using steam for cleaning. Its uses include domestic applications in cleaning flooring and household dirt removal, and industrial uses in removing grease and dirt from engines.
Use
Steam cleaning is not suited for all ma ...
in 1963, in honor of the 50th anniversary of 195 Broadway's completion. AT&T planned to replace the bronze grilles and alabaster chandeliers, but this was canceled after objections from architecture writer
Henry Hope Reed
Henry Hope Reed (11 July 1808 – 27 September 1854Johnson, Rossiter and John Howard Brown (1904). ''The Twentieth Century Biographical Dictionary of Notable Americans.'' The Biographical Society) was an American educator. He was considered th ...
.
Sale and later usage
![195 Broadway Aug 2020 02](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/7f/195_Broadway_Aug_2020_02.jpg)
In 1978, AT&T commissioned a new building at
550 Madison Avenue
550 Madison Avenue (formerly known as the Sony Tower, Sony Plaza, and AT&T Building) is a postmodern skyscraper at Madison Avenue between 55th and 56th Streets in the Midtown Manhattan neighborhood of New York City. Designed by Philip Johnson ...
. This new AT&T Building was designed by
Philip Johnson
Philip Cortelyou Johnson (July 8, 1906 – January 25, 2005) was an American architect best known for his works of modern and postmodern architecture. Among his best-known designs are his modernist Glass House in New Canaan, Connecticut; the pos ...
in the new
Postmodern
Postmodernism is an intellectual stance or mode of discourseNuyen, A.T., 1992. The Role of Rhetorical Devices in Postmodernist Discourse. Philosophy & Rhetoric, pp.183–194. characterized by skepticism toward the " grand narratives" of moderni ...
architectural style, and was completed in 1984, the same year of the
Bell System divestiture
The breakup of the Bell System was mandated on January 8, 1982, by an agreed consent decree providing that AT&T Corporation would, as had been initially proposed by AT&T, relinquish control of the Bell Operating Companies, which had provided loc ...
. As part of the divestiture, 195 Broadway, and the rest of the block where it was located, was sold for $70 million to businessman
Peter Kalikow
Peter Stephen Kalikow (born December 1, 1942) is president of H. J. Kalikow & Company, LLC, a New York City-based real estate firm. He is a former chairman of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA), in May 1983, using the profits to found a charity. AT&T removed the ''
Spirit of Communication
''Spirit of Communication'' is the formal name for the statue by Evelyn Beatrice Longman originally called ''Genius of Telegraphy''. The statue has been the symbol of AT&T (and also the former Western Electric) since their commission was comple ...
'' sculpture from 195 Broadway in 1981 for restoration and relocation. The company also removed Manship's original relief panels, which Kalikow replaced with replicas.
Subsequently, Kalikow made plans to renovate the structure and lease it out to office tenants.
The structure's facade was given a steam cleaning; the paint on the building's bronze finishes was removed; and metal ornaments were painted or shined.
Kalikow destroyed two smaller structures near the block's western boundary, and he initially planned to extend 195 Broadway all the way to Church Street as a 29-story office annex. The plans for the western side of the block were then changed to that for a hotel, but decided against that after marketing experts said a hotel would not be profitable. An office use was subsequently again considered, but dismissed since the floor area would have been too small for office tenants. Kalikow bought
air rights
Air rights are the property interest in the "space" above the earth's surface. Generally speaking, owning, or renting, land or a building includes the right to use and build in the space above the land without interference by others.
This legal ...
from the adjacent
St. Paul's Chapel to the north and changed the plans for the western part of the block back to a hotel. The plot was ultimately developed as the Millennium Hilton New York Downtown hotel, which opened in 1992.
Kalikow sold 195 Broadway to L&L Holding Co. and Beacon Capital Partners in 2005 for $300 million. At the time, Lois Weiss of the ''
New York Post
The ''New York Post'' (''NY Post'') is a conservative daily tabloid newspaper published in New York City. The ''Post'' also operates NYPost.com, the celebrity gossip site PageSix.com, and the entertainment site Decider.com.
It was established ...
'' said that the building was estimated to be worth $500 million. The building's exterior and first floor interior were officially designated as city landmarks by the
New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission
The New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission (LPC) is the New York City agency charged with administering the city's Landmarks Preservation Law. The LPC is responsible for protecting New York City's architecturally, historically, and cu ...
in July 2006. As part of the construction of the nearby
Fulton Center
Fulton Center is a subway and retail complex centered at the intersection of Fulton Street and Broadway in Lower Manhattan, New York City. The complex was built as part of a $1.4 billion project by the Metropolitan Transportation Authority ...
transit hub, 195 Broadway was to be connected to the underground
Dey Street Passageway
The Dey Street Passageway or Dey Street Concourse is a underground passageway in Manhattan, New York City, built as part of the Fulton Center project to rehabilitate the Fulton Street station complex and improve connectivity in Lower Manhattan ...
.
195 Broadway was sold again in 2013 to a group where
JP Morgan Asset Management
JPMorgan Chase & Co. is an American multinational investment bank and financial services holding company headquartered in New York City and incorporated in Delaware. As of 2022, JPMorgan Chase is the largest bank in the United States, the w ...
was the majority stakeholder.
The ground-floor lobby was renovated in 2016 with the addition of three retail spaces.
JP Morgan put the building for sale in 2019 with an initial asking price of $800 million.
The structure was ultimately bought by two Korean organizations for $500 million while the ground story lease was sold to Safehold Inc. for $275 million.
Tenants
![195 Broadway plaque by Matthew Bisanz](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/84/195_Broadway_plaque_by_Matthew_Bisanz.JPG)
, tenants include:
*
HarperCollins
HarperCollins Publishers LLC is one of the Big Five English-language publishing companies, alongside Penguin Random House, Simon & Schuster, Hachette, and Macmillan. The company is headquartered in New York City and is a subsidiary of News Cor ...
*
Omnicom Media Group
Omnicom Group Inc. is an American global media, marketing and corporate communications holding company, headquartered in New York City.
Omnicom's branded networks and specialty firms provide services in four disciplines: advertising, customer re ...
*
Thomson Reuters
Thomson Reuters Corporation ( ) is a Canadian multinational media conglomerate. The company was founded in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, where it is headquartered at the Bay Adelaide Centre.
Thomson Reuters was created by the Thomson Corpora ...
*
Getty Images
Getty Images Holdings, Inc. is an American visual media company and is a supplier of stock images, editorial photography, video and music for business and consumers, with a library of over 477 million assets. It targets three markets— creative ...
*
Abrams Books
Abrams, formerly Harry N. Abrams, Inc. (HNA), is an American publisher of art and illustrated books, children's books, and stationery.
The enterprise is a subsidiary of the French publisher La Martinière Groupe. Run by President and CEO Michael ...
*
Gucci
Gucci (, ; ) is an Italian high-end luxury fashion house based in Florence, Italy. Its product lines include handbags, ready-to-wear, footwear, accessories, and home decoration; and it licenses its name and branding to Coty, Inc. for fragrance ...
[
]
Critical reception
In 1914, a writer for ''The New York Times'' stated that Bosworth and AT&T officials had collaborated to provide a building that would serve as "an artistic addition to the towering commercial structures of the lower part of the city", with a well-planned interior design. Kenneth Clark, writing for ''Architectural Record'', stated that the detail paid to the Greek-inspired features was among the building's "strongest points". In 1922, an anonymous writer in ''The American Architect: Architectural Review'' said that the materials of 195 Broadway "stand for permanency both inside and out". At the time, the neoclassical style
Neoclassical architecture is an architectural style produced by the Neoclassicism, Neoclassical movement that began in the mid-18th century in Italy and France. It became one of the most prominent architectural styles in the Western world. The pr ...
was being used in headquarters buildings across the U.S., and Bosworth convinced AT&T officials to erect the headquarters in the Greek neoclassical style.
By the time Kalikow took ownership of 195 Broadway in 1984, he saw that the cast-bronze interior ornamentation had been painted, and said that "I got the feeling that what T&Twere trying to do was play it all down ..They didn't want anyone to know they lived in a palace."
See also
* List of buildings and structures on Broadway in Manhattan
*
References
Notes
Citations
Sources
*
*
*
*
*
*
{{Financial District, Manhattan, state=collapsed
1916 establishments in New York City
AT&T buildings
Broadway (Manhattan)
Financial District, Manhattan
New York City Designated Landmarks in Manhattan
New York City interior landmarks
Office buildings completed in 1916
Skyscraper office buildings in Manhattan
Western Union buildings and structures