Originally the American Railway Express Company Building, this building remained the headquarters of the American Express Company until 1975. It now is the home of J.J. Kenny/Standard and Poors. Built in the neoclassical style, the building’s concrete and steel framed structure are faced with white brick and terra cotta over a granite base. An H shaped floor plan results in a pair of slender 23-story wings, embracing and arching over light courts fore and aft, an elegant solution to the deficiencies of electric office lighting before the introduction of fluorescent fixtures. Note the asymmetric eagle on lower arch and the symmetrical one on the arch atop the building

American Express Company Building (white building at middle), ca. 1920. The American Express Company, founded in 1850, has been located at this lower Manhattan site since 1874. Housed in rental offices in two, five-story brownstones at 63 and 65 Broadway, the American Express Company purchased the lots in 1903. Constructed between 1916 an 1917, the concrete-and-steel-frame building was designed by James L. Aspinwall of the firm of Renwick, Aspinwall & Tucker. The H-shaped plan created central light courts, which allowed for maximum light and air to the interior offices. Faced in granite at the base and white brick and terra cotta on the upper floors, the massive neo-classical structure added to the canyon-esque environment on this section of Broadway. American Express moved their headquarters out of this building in 1975.

Adams Express Building, July 16, 1936. The 32-story Adams Express Building was designed by Francis Kimball (architect of Brooklyn's Montauk Club) and constructed between 1912 and 1914. When complete the building featured over a million square feet of terracotta. The style of the structure is called palazzo by the Landmarks Preservation Commission, but it described often as simple and utilitarian, almost devoid of a style. Mirroring arguments that are still occurring today, many developers and architects complained that the Adams Express Building cast an 875-foot shadow, devaluing the real estate that fell in its shadow. Tall building that went straight up from the street level to the roof, including this one and the 40-story Equitable Building, were partial the reason for the 1916 zoning law changes that required setbacks above a certain height, determined by the width at the street. In 1916 the building had more than 300 of its windows damaged by an explosion on the Jersey City waterfront. The Black Tom explosion was a German sabotage attempt to stop the United States from arming the Allies during the First World War. The explosion damaged the Statue of Liberty and awoke people as far away as Maryland, thinking they were experiencing an earthquake. In the 1990s the building saw a $20 million renovation by new owners, the Metropolitan Life Insurance Company. They also discovered goldfish living in a pool of warm water created by a high water table under the building's boilers. Today it is owned by a huge real estate firm and is occupied by law firms and financial institutions, among others.

American Express Company Building ARCHITECT: James L. Aspinwall; Renwick, Aspinwall & Tucker DATE: 1914-17 STYLE: Neo-Classical The American Express Co. Building was constructed in 1916-17 in neo-Classical design. It was built as the new headquarters of the American Express Co. The concrete-and-steel-framed building was designed with an H-shaped plan with tall slender wings arranged around central light courts, a type of plan employed from the 1880s through the 1910s to provide offices with maximum light and air. Both facades, clad in white brick and terra cotta above a granite base, are articulated in the tripartite composition of base-shaft-capital then popular for skyscrapers.

"Taken from the roof of a 55 story building on Broadway looking southwest toward New York Harbor. The Adams Building is in the foreground and rising to the west is the Whitehall Building on West Street. Also visible is Battery Park with Castle Clinton, and in the harbor the Statue of Liberty and the ocean liner "Ile de France, May 4, 1938."

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.

61 Broadway - Adams Express Building Architect: Francis H. Kimball Completed: 1916 Rising 33-stories without setbacks, the Adams Express Building once dominated the view from ships entering New York Bay by virtue of its height and white glazed southern façade. For its construction, architect Francis H. Kimball took advantage of new developments in steel frame construction, foundation engineering and wind bracing. The building originally served as the headquarters of the Adams Express Company, founded in 1840 by Alvin Adams, who began his business delivering packages using a wheelbarrow. The company grew rapidly to become a major competitor in the express delivery business before being consolidated in 1918 with the other major express companies to form the behemoth American Railway Express Company, later the Railway Express Agency.