American Bank Note Co.'s Plant, ca. 1911.

The American Bank Note Company was incorporated in 1858 (though its history dates back to the 1790s and the work of engraver Joseph Perkins). For the rest of the 19th century it was the nation's most prominent printing and engraving company, producing bank notes, postage and revenue stamps, bonds, stock certificates, checks drafts and letters of credit for governments and institutions. American Bank Note produced American currency from 1858 to 1879 and even made Confederate money for a year or so during the Civil War.

In 1911, they built this five-story brick plant in the Bronx, designed by Kirby, Petit & Green, a firm who were known for other printing facilities including the plant that produced the San Francisco Examiner. The Gothic, fortress-like character of the building with its large and complete frontage of Lafayette Avenue from Tiffany to Barretto Streets makes it an imposing structure in this neighborhood. The American Bank Note Plant moved out of this building in 1986 (to a modern facility in Rockland County) and in the ensuing decades the building housed garment manufacturing, an alternative high school, and most recently a luxury condo named The Banknote.