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Downtown New York Walk: Wall Street

A walking tours through Lower Manhattan's skyscraper canyons and more than a century of high-rise construction. This walk focuses on the buildings on Wall Street.

ByThe Skyscraper Museum logoThe Skyscraper Museum
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16 stops•1.6km•20 min
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1 Wall Street
1 Wall Street icon

1 Wall Street

1 Wall Street - Irving Trust Building/now Bank of New York Architect: Ralph Walker of Voorhees, Gmelin & Walker Completed: 1931 One Wall Street was originally built as the headquarters for the Irving Trust, which was acquired by the building's present owner, the Bank of New York, in 1992.
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Bankers Trust Company Building
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Bankers Trust Company Building

4-16 Wall Street - Bankers Trust Building Architect; Trowbridge & Livingston; Extension: Shreve, Lamb & Harmon Completed: 1912; Extension: 1933 The original granite clad, Neoclassical tower, topped with a monumental stepped pyramid, rises on the corner of Broad and Wall Streets from a site ninety feet square. The pyramid, which was once the trademark of the now defunct Banker’s Trust, is modeled on the classical Mausoleum of Halicarnasus.
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Federal Hall National Memorial
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Federal Hall National Memorial

28 Wall Street -- Federal Hall National Memorial, originally United States Custom House, later United States Sub-Treasury Architect: Town & Davis, Samuel Thompson, John Ross and John Frazee Completed: 1842 This temple-like building was erected as the U.S. Custom House. Its initial design was the work of Ithiel Town and Alexander Jackson Davis, one of the famous and talented partnerships in America in the early nineteenth century. The Greek Revival style temple form used here set the standard for commercial and government architecture on Wall Street in the pre-Civil War period.
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New York Stock Exchange
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New York Stock Exchange

8-18 Broad Street, New York Stock Exchange Architect: George B. Post. Addition: Trowbridge & Livingston. Completed: 1903. Addition: 1927 George B. Post gave the New York Stock Exchange an appropriately monumental temple façade. The pristine white marble used for both Post’s original structure and Trowbridge & Livingston’s office building addition distinguishes the Exchange from its granite and brick clad neighbors.
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23 Wall Street
23 Wall Street icon

23 Wall Street

23 Wall Street -J.P. Morgan & Company Building Architect: Trowbridge & Livingston Completed: 1914 Known simply as 23 Wall, the buildings on the corner of Wall and Broad Street have represented the epicenter of American capitalism for over a century. The headquarters of J.P. Morgan and Co., originally Drexel, Morgan & Co., have been located here since its founding in 1873.
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30 Wall Street
30 Wall Street icon

30 Wall Street

30 Wall Street - United States Assay Office Architect: York & Sawyer. Extension: Halsey, McCormick & Helmer. Completed: 1921. Extension: 1953. A utilitarian 12-story addition was added onto the top of the restrained Italian Renaissance style former United States Assay Office in the 1950s. Note the very finely sculpted frieze running beneath the cornice of the first story, as well as the graceful iron-work.
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37 Wall Street
37 Wall Street icon

37 Wall Street

37 Wall Street - Trust Company of America Building Architect: Francis Hatch Kimball Completed: 1907 Festooned with stone cupids and cartouches around the entrance and topped with a richly sculpted cornice, this Beaux-Arts style high-rise was built to house The Trust Company of America. At 17 stories it was one of the first truly tall buildings, and is the oldest remaining high rise on Wall Street.
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40 Wall Street
40 Wall Street icon

40 Wall Street

40 Wall Street - Manhattan Company Building Architects: H. Craig Severance and Yasuo Matsui Completed: 1930. The 40 Wall Street Corporation was formed in 1929 to construct a speculative skyscraper for the anchor tenant, the Manhattan Company (the Bank of Manhattan).
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48 Wall Street
48 Wall Street icon

48 Wall Street

48 Wall Street - Bank of New York Building Architect: Benjamin Wistar Morris Completed: 1929 This high-rise was erected as a headquarters for the venerable Bank of New York, which had occupied the same site on the northeast corner of Wall and William Streets since 1797.
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City Bank-Farmers Trust Building
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City Bank-Farmers Trust Building

22 William Street City Bank-Farmers Trust Company Building Architect: Cross & Cross Completed: 1931 The powerfully sculpted form of this 57-story Art Deco tower is a result of the polygonal shape of the site, as well as the need to accommodate the headquarters of two different banks.
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Broad Exchange Building
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Broad Exchange Building

25 Broad Street - Broad-Exchange Building Architect: Clinton & Russell Completed: 1902 This 20-story speculative office tower was the largest building in the world at the time of its completion. With 326,500 square feet of revenue- producing space, it was nearly one and a half times larger than its closest rivals.
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National City Bank Building (1908)
National City Bank Building (1908) icon

National City Bank Building (1908)

55 Wall Street, New York Merchants Exchange/later National City Bank/now Regency Wall Street Hotel Architect: Isaiah Rogers; Addition: McKim, Mead & White Completed: 1842; Addition: 1910 A stately survivor from the mid-nineteenth century, 55 Wall Street was the second Merchant’s Exchange on this site. Architect Isaiah Rogers designed a three-story structure that made a monumental statement on Wall Street with a colonnade of colossal ionic columns.
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60 Wall Street
60 Wall Street icon

60 Wall Street

60 Wall Street – J.P. Morgan Building Architect: Kevin Roche, John Dinkeloo & Associates Completed: 1988 This Postmodern skyscraper was built for Morgan Bank, which occupied the entire 1.6 million square foot, 47-story tower. 60 Wall Street takes some stylistic cues from the nearby skyscrapers of the 1910s and 1920s.
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63 Wall Street
63 Wall Street icon

63 Wall Street

63 Wall Street -- Brown Brothers Harriman & Company Architect: Delano & Aldrich and Yasuo Matsui Completed: 1929 The private bank, Brown Brothers, Harriman & Company was the anchor tenant in the office tower developed and built by Starrett Brothers - who were also the contractors for 40 Wall Street and the Empire State Building.
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70 Pine Street
70 Pine Street icon

70 Pine Street

70 Pine Street -- Cities Services Building/now AIG Building Architect: Clinton & Russell and Holton & George Completed: 1932. Cities Services, a petroleum company, erected this tower to house its corporate headquarters as well as rental floors. The company’s founder and chairman, Henry L. Doherty, an eccentric engineer and inventor supervised the design of the tower and intended to live in the penthouse, although poor health prevented him from ever doing so.
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120 Wall Street
120 Wall Street icon

120 Wall Street

120 Wall Street Architect: Ely Jacques Kahn Completed: 1930 120 Wall Street embodies a more utilitarian approach to high- rise architecture than the Art Deco extravaganzas of the central financial district with its simple pyramid like massing.
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