The Morse Building, also known as the Nassau–Beekman Building and 140 Nassau Street, is a residential building 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 ...
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 ...
, at the northeast corner of
Nassau
Nassau may refer to:
Places Bahamas
*Nassau, Bahamas, capital city of the Bahamas, on the island of New Providence
Canada
*Nassau District, renamed Home District, regional division in Upper Canada from 1788 to 1792
*Nassau Street (Winnipeg), ...
and Beekman Streets. The Morse Building, designed by Benjamin Silliman Jr. and James M. Farnsworth, contains elements of the
Victorian Gothic
Gothic Revival (also referred to as Victorian Gothic, neo-Gothic, or Gothick) is an architectural movement that began in the late 1740s in England. The movement gained momentum and expanded in the first half of the 19th century, as increasingly ...
,
Neo-Grec
Néo-Grec was a Neoclassical Revival style of the mid-to-late 19th century that was popularized in architecture, the decorative arts, and in painting during France's Second Empire, or the reign of Napoleon III (1852–1870). The Néo-Grec vo ...
, and
Rundbogenstil
(round-arch style) is a nineteenth-century historic revival style of architecture popular in the German-speaking lands and the German diaspora. It combines elements of Byzantine, Romanesque, and Renaissance architecture with particular ...
style.
The Morse Building uses
polychrome brickwork
Polychrome brickwork is a style of architectural brickwork wherein bricks of different colours are used to create decorative patterns or highlight architectural features in the walls of a building. Historically it was used in the late Gothic peri ...
and
terracotta
Terracotta, terra cotta, or terra-cotta (; ; ), in its material sense as an earthenware substrate, is a clay-based ceramic glaze, unglazed or glazed ceramic where the pottery firing, fired body is porous.
In applied art, craft, construction, a ...
cladding to highlight its
fenestration
Fenestration may refer to:
* Fenestration (architecture), the design, construction, or presence of openings in a building
* Used in relation to fenestra in anatomy, medicine and biology
* Fenestration, holes in the rudder of a ship to reduce the w ...
. Its interior structure consists of a steel frame placed upon a
foundation
Foundation may refer to:
* Foundation (nonprofit), a type of charitable organization
** Foundation (United States law), a type of charitable organization in the U.S.
** Private foundation, a charitable organization that, while serving a good cause ...
that descends to an underlying layer of sand. The Morse Building was developed by G. Livingston and Sidney E. Morse, nephews of telegraph inventor
Samuel F. B. Morse
Samuel Finley Breese Morse (April 27, 1791 – April 2, 1872) was an American inventor and painter. After having established his reputation as a portrait painter, in his middle age Morse contributed to the invention of a single-wire telegraph ...
and sons of the site's previous owners. It was constructed from June 1878 to March 1880 and was one of the
tallest buildings in New York City when completed, standing at with ten stories. As completed, the building had 175 offices and modern amenities such as steam heat and gas lighting.
Bannister & Schell altered the building significantly in 1901–1902 to an
Edwardian
The Edwardian era or Edwardian period of British history spanned the reign of King Edward VII, 1901 to 1910 and is sometimes extended to the start of the First World War. The death of Queen Victoria in January 1901 marked the end of the Victori ...
Neo-Classical style, bringing the building to 14 stories and . Around 1965, the base was modified again and the balcony and cornice were removed. After a failed redevelopment attempt in the 1970s, it became a residential building in 1980, with 39 apartments. The building was designated a landmark 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. The Morse Building is also a contributing property to the
Fulton–Nassau Historic District
The Fulton–Nassau Historic District is a federally designated historic area of New York City roughly bounded by Broadway and Park Row, Nassau, Dutch and William Streets, Ann and Spruce Streets, and Liberty Street, in lower Manhattan. It c ...
, a
National Register of Historic Places
The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic v ...
district created in 2005.
Site
The Morse Building is 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 ...
, just east of
New York City Hall
New York City Hall is the Government of New York City, seat of New York City government, located at the center of City Hall Park in the Civic Center, Manhattan, Civic Center area of Lower Manhattan, between Broadway (Manhattan), Broadway, Park R ...
,
City Hall Park
City Hall Park is a public park surrounding New York City Hall in the Civic Center of Manhattan. It was the town commons of the nascent city of New York.
History
17th century
David Provoost was an officer in the Dutch West India Company. Hi ...
, and the
Civic Center
A civic center or civic centre is a prominent land area within a community that is constructed to be its focal point or center. It usually contains one or more dominant public buildings, which may also include a government building. Recently, the ...
. It is bounded on the west by
Nassau Street, on the south by Beekman Street, on the east by
8 Spruce Street
8 Spruce Street, previously known as the Beekman Tower and New York by Gehry, is a 76-story skyscraper designed by architect Frank Gehry on Spruce Street in the Financial District of Manhattan, New York City.
8 Spruce Street is one of the tal ...
, and on the north by
150 Nassau Street.
5 Beekman Street is diagonally across the intersection of Nassau and Beekman streets, while the
Potter Building
The Potter Building is a building in the Financial District of Manhattan in New York City. The building occupies a full block along Beekman Street with the addresses 38 Park Row to its west and 145 Nassau Street to its east. It was designed ...
and
41 Park Row are directly across Nassau Street. The Morse Building occupies a plot measuring on Nassau Street and on Beekman Street.
Architecture
The Morse Building stands tall with 14 stories
and is one of the oldest remaining fireproof
skyscraper
A skyscraper is a tall continuously habitable building having multiple floors. Modern sources currently define skyscrapers as being at least or in height, though there is no universally accepted definition. Skyscrapers are very tall high-ris ...
s in New York City.
Benjamin Silliman Jr. and James M. Farnsworth designed the Morse Building's lowest eight stories, built between 1878 and 1880.
[ ] The structure was the firm's first major project in New York City;
the firm had designed the Morse Building as a 10-story structure, but the top two stories were subsequently rebuilt.
The upper six stories were designed by William P. Bannister and Richard Montgomery Schell and built from 1901 and 1902.
The building's original design was inspired by the
Victorian Gothic
Gothic Revival (also referred to as Victorian Gothic, neo-Gothic, or Gothick) is an architectural movement that began in the late 1740s in England. The movement gained momentum and expanded in the first half of the 19th century, as increasingly ...
,
Neo-Grec
Néo-Grec was a Neoclassical Revival style of the mid-to-late 19th century that was popularized in architecture, the decorative arts, and in painting during France's Second Empire, or the reign of Napoleon III (1852–1870). The Néo-Grec vo ...
, and
Rundbogenstil
(round-arch style) is a nineteenth-century historic revival style of architecture popular in the German-speaking lands and the German diaspora. It combines elements of Byzantine, Romanesque, and Renaissance architecture with particular ...
styles. The Morse Building's corner location allowed it to have two full
facades: the southern
elevation
The elevation of a geographic location is its height above or below a fixed reference point, most commonly a reference geoid, a mathematical model of the Earth's sea level as an equipotential gravitational surface (see Geodetic datum § Vert ...
on Beekman Street and the western elevation on Nassau Street.
The design of the Morse Building contrasts with that of the Temple Court Building (now 5 Beekman Street) and Potter Building, from the same architects.
Silliman and Farnsworth's choice of building materials was influenced by the then-recent "Great Fires" of
Boston
Boston (), officially the City of Boston, is the state capital and most populous city of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as the cultural and financial center of the New England region of the United States. It is the 24th- mo ...
and
Chicago
(''City in a Garden''); I Will
, image_map =
, map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago
, coordinates =
, coordinates_footnotes =
, subdivision_type = Country
, subdivision_name ...
.
Brick and
terracotta
Terracotta, terra cotta, or terra-cotta (; ; ), in its material sense as an earthenware substrate, is a clay-based ceramic glaze, unglazed or glazed ceramic where the pottery firing, fired body is porous.
In applied art, craft, construction, a ...
were used as a fireproof material. The terracotta was sourced from a Chicago firm while the brick was made by the Peerless Brick Company of Philadelphia. The project also involved Smith & Prodgers as plasterers, Morton & Chesley as carpenters, and Steward & Vanhorn as the decorators and painters. Numerous other contractors provided various materials for the building.
The 1901–1902 expansion employed Charles Ward Hall, the building's then-owner, as chief engineer, and Hall & Grant Construction as general contractor.
The building was originally tall, making it one of
New York City's tallest buildings upon its completion.
According to a 1879 count, the former
New York Tribune Building
The New York Tribune Building (also the Nassau-Tribune Building) was a building in the Financial District of Manhattan in New York City, across from City Hall and the Civic Center. It was at the intersection of Nassau and Spruce Streets, at 154 ...
and
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 ...
were the tallest at , excluding their ornamental clock towers.
The completed building was said to be the tallest straight-walled building in the city, or even in the world.
Taller structures, including the Tribune and Western Union buildings, had
setbacks partway up their facades.
The Morse Building was cited as the first structure to use raised vertical terracotta joints, which in turn were credited with preventing rain from washing out the
mortar. It was also one of the first structures to use ornamental terracotta.
Facade
![Morse Building 138-42 Nassau Street](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/17/Morse_Building_138-42_Nassau_Street.jpg)
The current facade is divided into three horizontal sections: a two-story base, a six-story midsection from the original design, and a six-story upper section.
The building's exterior walls are thick in the cellar and thick at the first floor,
narrowing to at the eighth floor.
The facade was initially divided into four horizontal sections: a two-story base; two midsections of three stories; and an upper section of one full story, one attic story, and a
cornice
In architecture, a cornice (from the Italian ''cornice'' meaning "ledge") is generally any horizontal decorative moulding that crowns a building or furniture element—for example, the cornice over a door or window, around the top edge of a ...
with a parapet. The current first floor was originally a raised basement.
Prominent 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 subdivide the facade into three segments on Nassau Street and two on Beekman Street; these were designed to emphasize the horizontal lines as much as possible, in order to temper the perceived excessive height of the building.
There are five
bays
A bay is a recessed, coastal body of water that directly connects to a larger main body of water, such as an ocean, a lake, or another bay. A large bay is usually called a gulf, sea, sound, or bight. A cove is a small, circular bay with a narr ...
facing Nassau Street, divided by the pilasters into a 2-1-2 pattern, and four bays facing Beekman Street, divided by the pilasters into two groups of two.
The eastern facade is bare and contains arched windows.
During the reconstruction, the lowest of the facade was refaced with blocks of stone, while the rest of the original exterior was unchanged to a height of .
The first floor contains four storefront openings each facing Nassau and Beekman Streets, as well as an entrance to the residential units in the center bay on Nassau Street. The second floor has five rectangular windows on Nassau Street and four facing Beekman Street.
The third- through eighth-story windows are set in brick and terracotta. On the current third and sixth stories (and in the original eighth story), each bay has two semicircular arched windows, while on the fourth, fifth, seventh, and eighth stories, each bay has two flat-arched windows within a segmental arch.
The segmental arches were evocative of those of the Tribune Building, and the red and black brick added emphasis to the facade.
A
fiberglass
Fiberglass (American English) or fibreglass (Commonwealth English) is a common type of fiber-reinforced plastic using glass fiber. The fibers may be randomly arranged, flattened into a sheet called a chopped strand mat, or woven into glass cloth ...
cornice runs above the eighth story.
The ninth through thirteenth stories are set within brick. The pilasters from the lower stories continue upward, and each bay contains a single three-part window on each floor. A fiberglass cornice runs above the thirteenth story. There is a space between the tenth and eleventh story, between which was a balcony and cornice. The fourteenth story serves as an attic with another cornice above it. On the roof is an elevator room.
Foundation
At the bottom, the walls were offset to , where they rested on continuous concrete footings, each of which was thick. The walls exert a pressure of on the foundation, which descends to a layer of sand below curb level.
The Morse Building's northern wall abuts 150 Nassau Street and was
underpinned with brick and concrete during the construction of that building. The foundations of 150 Nassau Street descended to below ground level; the new footings installed during that project were only thick and were flush with the original wall. During the 1901–1902 expansion of the building, these footings were found to be insufficient to support the weight of the extra stories.
A force of 12,000 pounds per square foot (578,200 Newtons per square meter) would have been exerted on these footings, causing unequal settlement. As a result, a trench was dug along the north wall below the sub-basement level. Four longitudinal distributing beams were installed, serving as
grillages for short vertical center posts that rose to horizontal transverse girders; these transverse girders served as
cantilever
A cantilever is a rigid structural element that extends horizontally and is supported at only one end. Typically it extends from a flat vertical surface such as a wall, to which it must be firmly attached. Like other structural elements, a canti ...
s, more evenly distributing the force placed on each footing.
Features
The floors were constructed of iron
I-beam
An I-beam, also known as H-beam (for universal column, UC), w-beam (for "wide flange"), universal beam (UB), rolled steel joist (RSJ), or double-T (especially in Polish language, Polish, Bulgarian language, Bulgarian, Spanish language, Spanish ...
s placed at intervals of and supported at both ends by brickwork. These beams were spanned by fireproof corrugated arches infilled with concrete.
Two transverse partition walls, whose centers were apart,
separate the building into three unequal sections from north to south.
These partitions, along with the exterior walls, carry all of the iron beams.
The partitions were also fireproof, since Smith & Prodgers covered them with
lath
A lath or slat is a thin, narrow strip of straight-grained wood used under roof shingles or tiles, on lath and plaster walls and ceilings to hold plaster, and in lattice and trellis work.
''Lath'' has expanded to mean any type of backing mate ...
s of iron and layers of plaster. Post & McCord installed the iron beams in the frame with a steam
derrick
A derrick is a lifting device composed at minimum of one guyed mast, as in a gin pole, which may be articulated over a load by adjusting its guys. Most derricks have at least two components, either a guyed mast or self-supporting tower, and a ...
, marking the contractor's first use of that tool.
The original building did not need to use any interior columns because its entire weight was supported on the exterior piers.
When the upper six stories were constructed, the exterior walls were moved slightly and steel beams were installed to provide support for the frame. A "cap" of beams was installed above the eighth floor, from which these steel beams descended to the lower stories.
On the upper stories, eighteen steel beams were installed on the outer walls and five interior columns were placed atop grillage beams. The wall girders were concealed by the projecting eighth-floor belt course.
Originally, the building had an iron stairway with marble and slate treads at its center. There were also two
hydraulic elevators made by
Otis
Otis may refer to:
Arts and entertainment Characters
* Otis (Superman), in the films ''Superman'' and ''Superman II'' and related DC Comics media
** Otis Graves, in the TV series ''Supergirl''
* Otis (The Walking Dead), Otis (''The Walking Dead' ...
and a dumbwaiter for items. There were water tanks with of capacity. Fireplaces in each room connected to a steam-heating system, with a boiler and smokestack. The windows were glazed with plate glass while the hardware was made of bronze; the floors were made of wood.
The original basement was below street level with a ceiling, and a flight of stairs connected to the original first story, which had a ceiling. During the 1901–1902 reconstruction, the lowest two floors were raised several feet, and a new staircase and three elevators made by the
Portland Company
The Portland Company was established 10 November 1846 by John A. Poor and Norris Locomotive Works engineer Septimus Norris as a locomotive foundry to build railroad equipment for the adjacent Portland terminus of the Atlantic and St. Lawrence Ra ...
were installed, replacing the old staircase and elevators. The original oil lamps and gas pipes were replaced with electric lighting and steam heating; the plumbing was replaced; and the boiler was brought to the top of the new roof.
The Morse Building housed offices when it was completed, but in 1980, it was converted to 39 apartments with three units on each floor, ranging from in size.
History
Construction
During the late 19th century, the surrounding area had grown into the city's "Newspaper Row". Several newspaper headquarters had been built on the adjacent
Park Row, including the New York Times Building, the Potter Building, the
Park Row Building
The Park Row Building, also known as 15 Park Row, is a luxury apartment building and early skyscraper on Park Row in the Financial District of the New York City borough of Manhattan. The , 31-story building was designed by R. H. Robertson, a ...
, the New York Tribune Building, and the
New York World Building
The New York World Building (also the Pulitzer Building) was a building in the Civic Center of Manhattan in New York City, along Park Row between Frankfort Street and the Brooklyn Bridge. Part of the former " Newspaper Row", it was designed by ...
.
Meanwhile, printing was centered around Beekman Street.
The previous building on the Morse Building's site was occupied by the religious newspaper ''The New-York Observer'' between 1840 and 1859.
Richard Cary Morse and
Sidney Edwards Morse
Sidney Edwards Morse (7 February 1794 Charlestown, Massachusetts – 24 December 1871 New York City) was an American inventor, geographer and journalist. He was the brother of telegraphy pioneer and painter Samuel F. B. Morse.
Biography
Morse w ...
were the ''Observer'' founders; they were the brothers of
Samuel Morse
Samuel Finley Breese Morse (April 27, 1791 – April 2, 1872) was an American inventor and painter. After having established his reputation as a portrait painter, in his middle age Morse contributed to the invention of a single-wire telegraph ...
, who had invented
Morse code
Morse code is a method used in telecommunication to encode text characters as standardized sequences of two different signal durations, called ''dots'' and ''dashes'', or ''dits'' and ''dahs''. Morse code is named after Samuel Morse, one of ...
and the
electrical telegraph
Electrical telegraphs were point-to-point text messaging systems, primarily used from the 1840s until the late 20th century. It was the first electrical telecommunications system and the most widely used of a number of early messaging systems ...
, and had used one of the ''Observer'' building's rooms to experiment with his invention.
Richard and Sidney had an ownership stake in the land by 1845.
The ''Observer'' moved across Nassau Street to the
Old Brick Church site (now
41 Park Row) in 1859.
The building was shared by other newspapers, which moved out during the mid-19th century. Savery's Temperance House was formed in one section of the building; it later became the Park Hotel, which was losing patronage by the 1870s because of bad management.
In 1878, the Morse brothers transferred land ownership to their respective sons, Gilbert Livingston Morse and Sidney Edwards Morse Jr., who subsequently planned a speculative office building to replace the hotel.
Plans for the demolition of the Park Hotel were announced in April, with work to commence the following month. Silliman and Farnsworth had been hired to design the speculative office building, containing banking quarters on the lower floors and offices on the upper floors.
By June, work had started on the new building, to cost $175,000.
The ''Real Estate Record and Guide'' noted in 1879 that the "immense pile of masonry far overtopping adjoining structures" had thousands of bystanders.
At the time, the top three floors had already been rented.
Construction was completed in March 1880, at an ultimate cost of $200,000.
The original structure was when completed,
and contained 175 offices.
Early use
Upon the Morse Building's completion, office buildings were being erected in Lower Manhattan, as part of a development trend that had started after the
Panic of 1873
The Panic of 1873 was a financial crisis that triggered an economic depression in Europe and North America that lasted from 1873 to 1877 or 1879 in France and in Britain. In Britain, the Panic started two decades of stagnation known as the "Lon ...
. The ''Real Estate Record and Guide'' stated in 1882 that the Tribune, Times, Morse, and Temple Court buildings were close to the courts of the Civic Center, making these buildings ideal for lawyers. When the
old ''New York World'' building across Nassau Street burned in January 1882, the lower floors of the Morse Building suffered minor damage. Some of the decorative elements and windows were damaged, and one of the Morse cousins characterized the responding firefighters' actions as vandalism, blaming them for allowing part of the ''World'' building to fall onto the Morse Building. Nonetheless, in an 1883 article, the Morses said that they were receiving a 10%
return
Return may refer to:
In business, economics, and finance
* Return on investment (ROI), the financial gain after an expense.
* Rate of return, the financial term for the profit or loss derived from an investment
* Tax return, a blank document or t ...
on the building.
The Morse Building was reportedly constantly occupied by merchants and lawyers during the late 19th century.
The building contained the office and rooftop studio of the
Vitagraph Company of America
Vitagraph Studios, also known as the Vitagraph Company of America, was a United States motion picture studio. It was founded by J. Stuart Blackton and Albert E. Smith in 1897 in Brooklyn, New York, as the American Vitagraph Company. By 1907, ...
, which became the first motion-picture company in America; the company filmed ''Burglar on the Roof'', their "first posed picture", at the building in 1897 or 1898.
Other establishments such as the New York Canoe Club and the Multiple Speed and Traction Company were also housed in the Morse Building.
Gilbert Livingston Morse died in 1891, and a mortgage in his half-interest was given to Matilda C. McVicker. The next year, Sidney Jr. sold Gilbert's share of the building to lawyer Nathaniel Niles, who purchased the building as an investment.
In 1894, when a crack appeared in the facade during construction of the adjacent 150 Nassau Street, there were fears that the Morse Building was structurally unstable, though engineers said it was not serious.
The
American Tract Society
The American Tract Society (ATS) is a nonprofit, nonsectarian but evangelical organization founded on May 11, 1825, in New York City for the purpose of publishing and disseminating tracts of Christian literature. ATS traces its lineage back thro ...
, who was constructing 150 Nassau Street, was held liable for damages.
Sidney Jr. sold his own share to Niles in 1895,
though Sidney Jr. kept an office there until he died in 1908.
The Washington Life Insurance Company started
foreclosure
Foreclosure is a legal process in which a lender attempts to recover the balance of a loan from a borrower who has stopped making payments to the lender by forcing the sale of the asset used as the collateral for the loan.
Formally, a mortg ...
proceedings against Niles in 1898 for failure to pay the mortgage. Early next year, the Morse Building was placed for sale at a foreclosure auction,
and after a three-week adjournment of the auction, Washington Life Insurance bought the building for $601,000.
In November 1900, Washington Life Insurance signed a contract with Charles Ward Hall to exchange the Morse Building with Hall's Hamilton Building at
125th Street and
Park Avenue
Park Avenue is a wide New York City boulevard which carries north and southbound traffic in the boroughs of Manhattan and the Bronx. For most of the road's length in Manhattan, it runs parallel to Madison Avenue to the west and Lexington Avenu ...
in
East Harlem
East Harlem, also known as Spanish Harlem or and historically known as Italian Harlem, is a neighborhood of Upper Manhattan, New York City, roughly encompassing the area north of the Upper East Side and bounded by 96th Street to the south, F ...
.
At the time of the transaction, the buildings were worth $1.5 million in total. The
property title
In property law, title is an intangible construct representing a bundle of rights in (to) a piece of property in which a party may own either a legal interest or equitable interest. The rights in the bundle may be separated and held by different ...
was transferred the next month. Hall planned to rename the Morse Building to the Hall Building and remodel the interior, which included lowering the entrance to street level.
The Morse Building instead became known as the Nassau–Beekman Building, a move possibly inspired by the naming of 277 Broadway at
Chambers Street as the
Broadway–Chambers Building
The Broadway–Chambers Building is an 18-story office building at 277 Broadway, on the northwest corner with Chambers Street, in the Civic Center and Tribeca neighborhoods of Manhattan in New York City. Completed by 1900 to designs by architec ...
.
The Nassau–Beekman Building was already seen as "small and old-fashioned", especially when compared with the adjacent 23-story building at 150 Nassau Street, despite having been completed only twenty years prior.
Expansion
Bannister and Schell filed plans for the expansion in December 1900, at which point work was estimated to cost $150,000. Work started the following April.
The expansion converted the former basement into a full story, increasing by one the
floor number
A storey (British English) or story (American English) is any level part of a building with a floor that could be used by people (for living, work, storage, recreation, etc.). Plurals for the word are ''storeys'' (UK) and ''stories'' (US).
Th ...
of all other stories. The lowest two stories were refaced in rusticated stone. The attic and the walls of the former eighth story were dismantled, and a temporary wooden roof and walls were built around the eighth story (which was slated to become the new ninth story).
A new tenth story was built, and four additional brick-clad stories were erected to make the Nassau–Beekman Building a fourteen-story building.
A
cornice
In architecture, a cornice (from the Italian ''cornice'' meaning "ledge") is generally any horizontal decorative moulding that crowns a building or furniture element—for example, the cornice over a door or window, around the top edge of a ...
with large scroll
brackets
A bracket is either of two tall fore- or back-facing punctuation marks commonly used to isolate a segment of text or data from its surroundings. Typically deployed in symmetric pairs, an individual bracket may be identified as a 'left' or 'r ...
was built above the tenth story, supporting a balcony.
The architects had to work around existing tenants with minimal interruption in operations.
For instance, foundation work had to be done in two phases since the cellar tenant could only make half of the cellar available at any given time.
Elevator service was also maintained throughout the project, and so work on the new elevators was done one floor at a time.
The project faced several legal issues. A cafe owner at the Morse Building's ground level unsuccessfully tried to file an injunction to stop construction after Hall built a temporary bridge in front of the cafe to protect pedestrians; this decision was affirmed by the
New York Supreme Court, Appellate Division
The Appellate Divisions of the Supreme Court of the State of New York are the intermediate appellate courts in New York State.
There are four Appellate Divisions, one in each of the state's four Judicial Departments (e.g., the full title of the ...
. Another tenant refused to pay rent, claiming that he was being harassed due to construction, and Hall unsuccessfully tried to evict him. The project was completed by March 1902.
Later history
![Morse Building 12 Beekman Street WTM3 PAT M IN NYC 0047](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/89/Morse_Building_12_Beekman_Street_WTM3_PAT_M_IN_NYC_0047.jpg)
Several incidents involving the building's elevators occurred after the building's expansion. An elevator dropped two stories in 1904, leaving its occupants unharmed, and two people died in the elevator shafts in separate accidents in 1905 and 1907. Another incident in 1910 involved an elevator cab dropping and injuring six people. In addition, the building was damaged in 1916 by a fire at a nearby low-rise building on Beekman Street.
Metropolitan Life Insurance
MetLife, Inc. is the holding corporation for the Metropolitan Life Insurance Company (MLIC), better known as MetLife, and its affiliates. MetLife is among the largest global providers of insurance, annuities, and employee benefit programs, wi ...
foreclosed on the Nassau–Beekman Building in 1918 after Hall failed to pay the mortgage of $600,000. The next year, the building was sold to William E. Harmon; at the time, the building was valued at $1 million. Harmon's company, the United Cities Realty Corporation, renamed the building to the United Cities Realty Building. Ownership was later passed to Metropolitan Life in 1942;
Nassau Offices Inc. in 1945; Peter I. Kenmore in 1951; and Clarendon Building Inc. in 1952.
Around 1965, the base was remodeled in the neo-Classical style and the 10th-story cornice was removed,
based on plans by John J. Tudda and Richard R. Scherer. Chatham Associates bought the property in 1968, a year after the Morse Building's tax lot was combined with an adjacent lot to the east.
The New York World and Tribune buildings immediately to the north had been demolished in the 1950s and 1960s, and Pace College (later
Pace University
Pace University is a private university with its main campus in New York City and secondary campuses in Westchester County, New York. It was established in 1906 by the brothers Homer St. Clair Pace and Charles A. Pace as a business school. Pac ...
) built
1 Pace Plaza on the site of the latter. Pace also acquired the Morse Building and other nearby buildings in 1972, with plans to destroy them and build an office tower. These plans did not proceed and Pace University sold the Morse Building in 1979
to a
joint venture
A joint venture (JV) is a business entity created by two or more parties, generally characterized by shared ownership, shared returns and risks, and shared governance. Companies typically pursue joint ventures for one of four reasons: to acces ...
composed of Martin Raynes and the East River Savings Bank. The building was converted the next year to a
housing cooperative
A housing cooperative, or housing co-op, is a legal entity, usually a cooperative or a corporation, which owns real estate, consisting of one or more residential buildings; it is one type of housing tenure. Housing cooperatives are a distinc ...
with 39 apartments.
Minor modifications were made to the facade in 1995, with some pressed-metal elements being replaced with fiberglass. The pressed-metal cornice over the eighth floor was replaced around 2004 with a fiberglass cornice.
Residents commenced an effort to give the Morse Building city landmark status in the 1990s,
[ and 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 ...
designated the building as such on September 19, 2006. Additionally, on September 7, 2005, the Morse Building was designated as a contributing property to the Fulton–Nassau Historic District
The Fulton–Nassau Historic District is a federally designated historic area of New York City roughly bounded by Broadway and Park Row, Nassau, Dutch and William Streets, Ann and Spruce Streets, and Liberty Street, in lower Manhattan. It c ...
, a National Register of Historic Places
The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic v ...
district.
Critical reception
While Lower Manhattan's late-19th century skyscrapers generally received mixed reception, the building was mostly praised during its construction. ''American Architect and Building'' said in January 1879 that "the construction seems to have been carefully studied and well carried out". The same magazine said in July 1879 that "Many who watched the uprising walls wondered whether they would ever cease growing sky-wards", and applauded the building for exhibiting "contrast, diversity, and change". Another publication, ''The Manufacturer & Builder'', said in June 1879 that the design was "decidedly agreeable in its general appearance as well as in its details". ''The Manufacturer and Builder'' mentioned the flat roof as a minor criticism, but that it was better than having a roof proportional to the building's height, which would be "extravagantly high" like the Tribune Building's "abominable roof".
Upon the Morse Building's completion, several publications lauded the relatively simple design of the facade as well as the usage of brick and terracotta. ''Carpentry and Building'' magazine said, "Although there have been many tall buildings erected in New York of late years, this one outstrips them all". '' The Building News'' said that the Morse Building was "a very quiet and pleasing structure", rather than being gaudy. ''The Century Magazine
''The Century Magazine'' was an illustrated monthly magazine first published in the United States in 1881 by The Century Company of New York City, which had been bought in that year by Roswell Smith and renamed by him after the Century Associatio ...
'' stated in 1884 that the building's design was "not without evidence of effort in the right direction", especially when compared with nearby office structures, which were described as either "hideous" or "commonplace". Moses King
Moses hbo, מֹשֶׁה, Mōše; also known as Moshe or Moshe Rabbeinu (Mishnaic Hebrew: מֹשֶׁה רַבֵּינוּ, ); syr, ܡܘܫܐ, Mūše; ar, موسى, Mūsā; grc, Mωϋσῆς, Mōÿsēs () is considered the most important pro ...
, in his 1893 ''Handbook of New York'', praised the use of brick and terracotta in the Morse Building, "a solid handsome structure". Architectural critic Montgomery Schuyler
Montgomery Schuyler AIA, (August 19, 1843, Ithaca, New York – July 16, 1914, New Rochelle, New York) was a highly influential critic, journalist and editorial writer in New York City who wrote about and influenced art, literature, music ...
likewise said that the design was "impressive and dignified in the mass, and in many places exceedingly agreeable in detail", even though he had preferred the building to be five stories. When the building was expanded in the 1900s, Schuyler called it among the "last" and "best" of New York City's Gothic Revival
Gothic Revival (also referred to as Victorian Gothic, neo-Gothic, or Gothick) is an architectural movement that began in the late 1740s in England. The movement gained momentum and expanded in the first half of the 19th century, as increasingly ...
buildings, but said that the new owner was spending "good money in spoiling what it would have cost him no money at all to leave alone".
Modern architectural critics also discussed the effect of the building's articulation on its overall appearance. In 2006, Christopher Gray
Christopher Stewart Gray (April 24, 1950 – March 10, 2017) was an American journalist and architectural historian,Schneider, Daniel B (August 27, 2000)"F.Y.I. Hell's Kitchen in the Raw" ''The New York Times''. March 4, 2010. noted for his week ...
of ''The New York Times
''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...
'' said "the completed Morse Building looked like two or three warehouses stacked on top of one another." Architectural writers Sarah Landau
Dr. Sarah Bradford Landau (born 1935) is a noted architectural historian who taught for many years in the Department of Art History at New York University.
Landau earned her B.F.A. at the University of North Carolina (1957). She earned her M.A. ...
and Carl Condit
Carl Wilbur Condit (Cincinnati, Ohio, September 29, 1914 – January 4, 1997) was an American historian of urban and architectural history, a writer, professor, and teacher."Condit, Carl W(ilbur) (1914–1997)," ''The Hutchinson Unabridged Ency ...
said that the piers and articulation of the facade "imparted a quality of wholeness not typical of early skyscrapers." Architectural historian Robert A. M. Stern
Robert Arthur Morton Stern, usually credited as Robert A. M. Stern (born May 23, 1939), is a New York City–based architect, educator, and author. He is the founding partner of the architecture firm, Robert A.M. Stern Architects, also known a ...
contrasted the Morse Building with the Boreel Building on Broadway, saying that the Morse Building's frontage on two narrow streets "robb dit of a perspective".
See also
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References
Notes
Citations
Sources
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External links
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{{Financial District, Manhattan
1880 establishments in New York (state)
Civic Center, Manhattan
Historic district contributing properties in Manhattan
Commercial buildings completed in 1880
Brick buildings and structures
Edwardian architecture
Financial District, Manhattan
Gothic Revival architecture in New York City
Neoclassical architecture in New York City
New York City Designated Landmarks in Manhattan
Residential buildings completed in 1880
Romanesque Revival architecture in New York City
Skyscraper office buildings in Manhattan