The Metropolitan Savings Bank Building opened on May 30, 1867, at the northeast corner of

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and East 7th Street, in

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 ...

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. Its original address was 10 Cooper Institute (now 61

Cooper Square __NOTOC__ Cooper Square is a junction of streets in Lower Manhattan in New York City located at the confluence of the neighborhoods of Bowery to the south, NoHo to the west and southwest, Greenwich Village to the west and northwest, the East Vi ...

). The building, which was designed by architect Carl Pfeiffer in

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style, is four stories high, wide and deep, and was considered at the time it opened to be one of the most finely constructed edifices, "from

garret A garret is a habitable attic, a living space at the top of a house or larger residential building, traditionally, small, dismal, and cramped, with sloping ceilings. In the days before elevators this was the least prestigious position in a bu ...

to basement." Its facades were composed of

white marble Marble is a metamorphic rock composed of recrystallized carbonate minerals, most commonly calcite or dolomite. Marble is typically not foliated (layered), although there are exceptions. In geology, the term ''marble'' refers to metamorphosed ...

, with the upper floor being enclosed by a

mansard roof A mansard or mansard roof (also called a French roof or curb roof) is a four-sided gambrel-style hip roof characterised by two slopes on each of its sides, with the lower slope, punctured by dormer windows, at a steeper angle than the upper. The ...

. The building was

fireproof Fireproofing is rendering something (structures, materials, etc.) resistant to fire, or incombustible; or material for use in making anything fire-proof. It is a passive fire protection measure. "Fireproof" or "fireproofing" can be used as a n ...

, as no combustible materials were used during construction, either internally or externally. The entire cost of the structure was $150,000. The Metropolitan Savings Bank was chartered in New York in 1852. In 1935 the bank moved its headquarters from Cooper Square to 754 Broadway. In 1942, it merged with the Manhattan Savings Institution (founded 1852) and the Citizens Savings Bank to form the Manhattan Savings Bank. In 1990, Edmund Safra's Republic National Bank bought the Manhattan Savings Bank, and was in turn purchased by

HSBC HSBC Holdings plc is a British multinational universal bank and financial services holding company. It is the largest bank in Europe by total assets ahead of BNP Paribas, with US$2.953 trillion as of December 2021. In 2021, HSBC had $10.8 tri ...

in 1999. The building was designated a

New York City Landmark 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 1969,, p.65 and was added to the National Register of Historic Place in 1979.

Interior design

The main hall was in length, and wide. Its height was . Its acoustic properties were excellent.

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was used inside for building desks, chairs, and stairways. The office furniture evoked a simple design and reflected excellent taste The President's room, located behind the banking house proper, was less spacious, as offices were given the maximum space. Another feature of the interior was its immense

safe A safe (also called a strongbox or coffer) is a secure lockable box used for securing valuable objects against theft or fire. A safe is usually a hollow cuboid or cylinder, with one face being removable or hinged to form a door. The body and ...

Lessees

The fireproof construction of the Metropolitan Savings Bank enabled the rapid renting of any free space not used by the bank. The basement and cellar beneath it was leased for ten years to the Stuyvesant Safe Deposit Company. The floor just above the bank was leased by the

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Assessor of Internal Revenue. The third floor, unlet when the building first opened, was rented for a decade by the Eastern Star Lodge of

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Later uses

In 1937, the building was sold to the First Ukrainian Assembly of God, and it has been used since that time as a church, most recently by the First Ukrainian Evangelical Pentecostal Church.

References

Notes

External links

* {{National Register of Historic Places in New York, state=collapsed Third Avenue East Village, Manhattan Metropolitan Savings Bank Buildings and structures on the National Register of Historic Places in Manhattan New York City Designated Landmarks in Manhattan Buildings with mansard roofs 1867 establishments in New York (state)