63 Nassau Street, ca. 1974.

No. 63 Nassau Street, a New York City Landmark since 2007, included one of just five extant cast iron facades by James Bogardus.

A trained watchmaker and inventor with Dutch colonial roots, Bogardus took out the first patent for the architectural use of cast iron in 1850. The Bogardus facade at No. 63 Nassau was an update to an 1844 structure owned by Augustus Thomas, the son of "kitchen tinware manufacturer" Thomas Thomas (real name). When the elder Thomas died in 1856, Augustus Thomas — who had offices in another Bogardus-designed cast iron-fronted building at 183 Broadway — contracted Bogardus to update his Nassau Street home to stand out among new commercial storefronts in the area's nascent jewelry district.

The LPC attributes the facade to Bogardus, taking a number of indicators into consideration, including a distinctive detail: bas-relief medallion busts of Benjamin Franklin, visible at the third story. Similar details had been identified at confirmed Bogardus facades (he was known to retain and re-use wooden patterns for his cast iron molds).