New York Mercantile Exchange entrance, ca. 1975.

Completed in 1884 (as the entrance way tells us), the New York Mercantile Exchange Building was designed by architect Thomas R. Jackson. The "exchanges" were the way that a number of trades (butter, cheese, egg, dried fruits, poultry and canned goods) organized in order to maintain quality and standards, eliminate shady practices and lay out rules. (The 1872 on the facade notes the establish date of the Butter and Cheese Exchange of New York, the first exchange that would later become this larger organization.) The red brick, Queen Anne style structure has an imposing off-set tower and a mansard roof. Today the building, which sits within the Tribeca West Historic District, includes condos, office spaces, ground floor retail.