Standard Oil Building, 1926. The Standard Oil Trust, founded in 1870 by John D. Rockefeller and others, quickly came to dominate the American oil market. In 1883, the trust began acquiring land on lower Broadway for a new headquarters. The massive nine-story neoclassical granite building took two years to construct at a cost of one million dollars. Twenty-six Broadway was soon the world's most famous business address, and John D. Rockefeller the first billionaire. Six stories were added to the building in 1895, as shown here. Another floor, added in 1911, was barely complete when the U.S. Supreme Court disbanded the Standard Oil Company for violating anti-trust laws. Following the First World War, the surrounding buildings were bought in order to expand the structure. Thomas Hastings of Carrère and Hastings reworked and essentially rebuilt the entire building, incorporating the first set backs in Manhattan and a pyramidal structure. Eventually reaching 31 floors, the Standard Oil Building was designated a New York City landmark in 1995.

This elegant limestone monument was the headquarters of Standard Oil of New Jersey, the successor of John D. Rockefeller's Standard Oil Trust, which was broken up into smaller components under anti-trust legislation in 1911. Through Standard Oil of New Jersey, the largest and most influential of these successor companies, Rockefeller and his board maintained control of the US oil industry. The Standard Oil Trust had operated out of buildings on this site since 1885. Their original ten-story building stood on Broadway at the northern end of the property. The new building was erected in phases, allowing the company to remain on site during construction. The last piece of construction, the center of the Beaver Street front and the light court was not completed until 1928 as tenants on that portion refused to vacate until their leases expired. The building's west front bows gently, following the curve of Broadway. Graceful terraces with balustrades, urns, and obelisks mark its setbacks. The tower is crowned with a symbolic oil-burning beacon set atop a stepped pyramid. In the classically inspired lobby, the names of the founders of Standard Oil are inscribed, like Roman emperors, in marble just above the cornice line. One of the most prolific and prominent firms of the early twentieth century, Carrère and Hastings was also the architect of the New York Public Library at 42nd Street. The Museum of American Financial History occupies part of the building's ground floor.

Standard Oil Building, 1926. The original Standard Oil Building (1885) was only ten stories tall, but in 1895 Kimball \&Thompson added six new skeleton frame floors and a north extension to the building, making it 280 feet tall. (The Standard Oil Building is the tallest structure, three buildings in from the corner at right.) The building was later drastically altered and expanded (the southern section of the building now occupies the two lots to the south, seen here).

In 1900, the consolidated Greater New York City was only two years old and it was growing, not just outward but skyward. These are the ten tallest buildings in New York City in 1900. They were constructed in the decade before the turn of the century. Today half of these structures remain standing, though now dwarfed by their neighbors. This story is adapted from the Skyscraper Museum's "Ten & Taller."

A walking tours through Lower Manhattan's skyscraper canyons and more than a century of high-rise construction. This walk focuses on the buildings around Broadway. This story is adapted from an exhibition at the Skycraper Museum. The original version can be seen here.

Produce Exchange Bank Building, 1920. Constructed directly across the street from the large New York Produce Exchange Building, the Produce Exchange Bank at 10 Broadway, had a relatively short lifespan. The neo-classical building was constructed between 1904 and 1905. In 1923 the building was demolished to make way for the complicated expansion of the nearby Standard Oil Building at 26 Broadway.

Standard Oil Building ARCHITECT: Carrere & Hastings; Shreve Lamb & Blake DATE: 1920-28 STYLE: Renaissance The irregular pentagonal site, one of the largest parcels assembled in lower Manhattan at that time, dictated the building’s distinctive shape. The powerful sculptural massing of the Standard Oil Building represents the new setback skyscraper forms that emerged during the early 1920s and suggests how tall buildings could be designed with vigorous massing and arresting silhouettes. The veneer-like limestone curtain walls are enriched with large-scale Renaissance ornamentation and reinforce the building’s picturesque quality, particularly at the upper stories.