A View Up Broadway From Bowling Green

This 1889 view of Broadway north from Bowling Green shows the street before skyscraper construction would permanently alter the famous corridor.

We are dating the photograph by the buildings visible and most importantly the presence of overhead telegraph wires.

After the blizzard of 1888 caused wires around the city to come down, a movement to place wires underground began in earnest. Upon taking office in 1889 Mayor Hugh J. Grant immediately set upon removing overhead wires, sending crews with axes to chop down poles if the companies responsible for the wires did not promptly relocate them.

We see pedestrians going about their business as horse drawn vehicles make their way up and down Broadway. Parking does not seem to pose a problem and a wagon advertising  “hams” is making a delivery on the west side of Broadway. Bowling Green’s original 1771 fence is visible in the foreground.

The Buildings

On the right with arched entryway is the nine-story Welles Building at 14-16-18-20 Broadway. Beginning in 1882 the Welles Building became the home of the Petroleum Exchange.

It make sense that adjacent to the Welles Building, in 1885-1886 the Standard Oil Company would build its ten-story 157 foot tall headquarters at 26 Broadway.

In 1895 architects Kimball and Thompson added six stories to the original Standard Oil Building. In 1920 Standard Oil took out a 99 year lease on the Welles Building at the then record lease price of $250,000 annually.

The new Standard Oil Building built between 1921-1928 was a complete redesign by architects Carrère & Hastings; and Shreve, Lamb & Blake, associate architects. This expanded Standard Oil Building with its tower and curved facade incorporates parts of the previous Standard Oil Buildings and other modified structures into one building.

Down the block on the right at 50 Broadway is the Tower Building. It was the first steel frame building constructed in New York (1888-1889). Designed by Bradford Lee Gilbert the Tower Building was a prototype for future skyscrapers. In a steel skeleton building, the entire weight of the walls and floors is borne and transmitted by a framework of steel beams and posts. The Tower Building would remain on the site until 1914 when Standard Oil acquired and then demolished it.

Across the street from Tower Building at 45 Broadway is the ten-story Aldrich Court Building built in 1886-1887.

According to About New York columnist Meyer Berger, when Aldrich Court was completed, people from all over flocked to the tower on top of the building to get an unobstructed view of the harbor, Hudson and East Rivers.

The Aldrich Court Building was demolished in 1982.

Except for Bowling Green’s fence, no structure visible in this photograph remains today.