Mutual Reserve Fund Life Association ARCHITECT: William H. Hume DATE: 1892-94 STYLE: Richardsonian Romanesque Revival The 13-story (plus basement) Mutual Reserve Building is one of New York City’s most significant examples of a tall late-19th-century office building designed in the Richardsonian Romanesque Revival style, with its two designed facades featuring granite and limestone cladding, rusticated piers, foliate carving, and arcaded base and upper section. The building is notable as an early steel cage-framed structure in New York, constructed just prior to the full development of the skyscraper.

Langdon Building, 1922. Originally known as the Mutual Reserve Fund Life Association Building, the Langdon Building is a Romanesque Revival structure designed by William Hume. The 13-story building was completed between 1892 and 1894 and it was one of the first towers in the city to use a steel frame structure (a sort of early version of a skyscraper). While the Mutual Reserve Fund Life Association occupied a number of floors, the other floors, including the ground level, included a barber shop, cigar stand, bike showroom, ticket office, and telegraph and telephone offices. The Association moved out in 1909 when it went into bankruptcy and the building was renamed the next year. This building later served as the headquarters for the New York Landmarks Preservation Commission between 1967 and 1980.