10 East 40th Street or the Mercantile Building is a skyscraper on 40th Street in

Midtown Manhattan Midtown Manhattan is the central portion of the New York City borough of Manhattan and serves as the city's primary central business district. Midtown is home to some of the city's most prominent buildings, including the Empire State Buildin ...

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 ...

, in the middle of the block between Fifth and

Madison Madison may refer to: People * Madison (name), a given name and a surname * James Madison (1751–1836), fourth president of the United States Place names * Madison, Wisconsin, the state capital of Wisconsin and the largest city known by this ...

avenues, extending back to 39th Street. Designed by

Ludlow and Peabody Ludlow and Peabody was an American architectural firm with offices in New York City formed by partners Charles S. Peabody and William Orr Ludlow in 1909. The firm continued in practice under that name until 1935. Peabody graduated from Harvard in ...

and built by

Jesse H. Jones Jesse Holman Jones (April 5, 1874June 1, 1956) was an American Democratic politician and entrepreneur from Houston, Texas. Jones managed a Tennessee tobacco factory at age fourteen, and at nineteen, he was put in charge of his uncle's lumbery ...

, it was finished in 1929 and is an example of

Renaissance Revival architecture Renaissance Revival architecture (sometimes referred to as "Neo-Renaissance") is a group of 19th century architectural revival styles which were neither Greek Revival nor Gothic Revival but which instead drew inspiration from a wide range o ...

. When it was built, it was the fourth-tallest tower in the world. It is high, with 48 floors, and contains of office or mixed-use space.

History

It was previously known as the Chase Tower, after its first tenant, Chase Brass & Copper. Its owner until his death in 1938 was

Frederick William Vanderbilt Frederick William Vanderbilt (February 2, 1856 – June 29, 1938) was a member of the American Vanderbilt family. He was a director of the New York Central Railroad for 61 years, and also a director of the Pittsburgh and Lake Erie Railroad and o ...

. During the 1970s, the building housed part of the

Mid-Manhattan Library The Stavros Niarchos Foundation Library (SNFL), popularly known as the Mid-Manhattan Library, is a branch of the New York Public Library (NYPL) at the southeast corner of 40th Street and Fifth Avenue in the Midtown Manhattan neighborhood of New ...

. In September 2002, the building's lobby was renovated, restoring the ceilings. Current tenants include the Moroccan consulate.

Last building on the direct current grid

On November 14, 2007, the building became the final site to be removed from Thomas Edison's original

direct current Direct current (DC) is one-directional flow of electric charge. An electrochemical cell is a prime example of DC power. Direct current may flow through a conductor such as a wire, but can also flow through semiconductors, insulators, or even ...

grid in New York City. The building was completed in 1929 when 90 percent of the electricity in lower Manhattan was direct current. In that year New York Edison announced plans that it was going to convert the entire system to

alternating current Alternating current (AC) is an electric current which periodically reverses direction and changes its magnitude continuously with time in contrast to direct current (DC) which flows only in one direction. Alternating current is the form in whic ...

. The last 2

rotary converter A rotary converter is a type of electrical machine which acts as a mechanical rectifier, inverter or frequency converter. Rotary converters were used to convert alternating current (AC) to direct current (DC), or DC to AC power, before the adven ...

substations generating direct current (at West 26th and West 39th Street) were retired in 1977 and the DC conversions were handled by solid-state

rectifier A rectifier is an electrical device that converts alternating current (AC), which periodically reverses direction, to direct current (DC), which flows in only one direction. The reverse operation (converting DC to AC) is performed by an Power ...

units. The 2007 event shifted the responsibility for providing the conversion from Con Edison to the building via a local converter. Many of the buildings built in 1929 and before still use direct current with the local converter – most notably for elevators. 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 ...

third rail A third rail, also known as a live rail, electric rail or conductor rail, is a method of providing electric power to a railway locomotive or train, through a semi-continuous rigid conductor placed alongside or between the rails of a railway t ...

electric system is still direct current (with the

Metropolitan Transportation Authority The Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) is a public benefit corporation responsible for public transportation in the New York City metropolitan area of the U.S. state of New York. The MTA is the largest public transit authority in th ...

providing the local converters from AC to DC.

References

External links

Article in ''Architecture Week''

Building's leasing site
{{Bryant Park Office buildings completed in 1929 Skyscraper office buildings in Manhattan Art Deco architecture in Manhattan 1929 establishments in New York City Bryant Park buildings

History

Last building on the direct current grid

See also

References

External links