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| photo by Alice Lum |
The bank opened at 31 Union Square at the corner of 16th Street. Then as business flourished moved to 17 Union Square and once again in 1888 to 29 Union Square.
By the turn of the century the Square was becoming encircled by sophisticated commercial buildings; among them the Queen Anne style Century Building on the north side and the elaborate Moorish Revival Decker Piano Building on the west side at No. 33.
In 1900 stock in the Bank of the Metropolis was selling for $475 a share and the bank had capitol of $300,000. In catering to its exclusive commercial clients, the Board of Directors was made up of the likes of Louis C. Tiffany (Charles Tiffany’s jewelry store was on Union Square at the corner of 15th Street), Arnold Constable and publisher Charles Schribner.
Brentano’s Bookstore had long been a fixture at No. 31 Union Square since the Bank of the Metropolis left that building years earlier (when the Decker Piano firm put up its 1881 building, it was noted as being “next to Brentano’s). The bank purchased the property and, in 1902, commissioned architect Bruce Price to design a 16-story skyscraper on the long, thin site.
To make the most of a Union Square address, Price situated the entrance on the narrow, 32-foot end. Two polished granite Ionic columns supported a bowed, two story portico that bulged out from the façade. Here the frieze announced the bank’s name in bold carved letters.
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| Two heroic, polished granite columns support the bowed portico -- photo by Alice Lum |
Construction began late in 1901 by the contractors George A. Fuller Company which was simultaneously erecting its own skyscraper a few blocks away – later to become known as the Flatiron Building. On November 3 the $150,000 contract was signed for the Maine granite for the façade.
The grand new building was completed at a cost of $500,000 in 1903. The Buildings Department of New York announced that it was the narrowest building for its height in the city, “if not the world.” There were five rapid elevators, steam heat, electric light, mail chutes, and connections for telephones.
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| photo by Alice Lum |
Pittman’s Journal of Commercial Education was one of the first tenants, lured in part by the subway being constructed under Union Square. The Journal’s 1903 edition noted “The two-track tunnel of the rapid-transit line running through Union square passes the door of No. 31. This line will be opened in the autumn, and our new office is most favourably situated for the facilities it will offer.”
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| Price included details like carved stone lions' head water spouts -- photo by Alice Lum |
The building attracted a diverse list of tenants. Architects Jackson, Rosencrans & Caufield were early tenants, and later, in 1921, architect Charles B. Meyers would move in. The Employing Lithographers’ Association had its offices here as did engineers W. L. Fleischer & Co.
No. 31 would become home to a variety of Jewish charities such as the Jewish Board for Welfare Work in 1917, the Young Men’s Hebrew and Kindred Association in 1918, The American Jewish Committee in 1931 and the Jewish Consumptives Relief Society in 1937.
The Banking Law Journal reported on the merger of the Bank of the Metropolis with the Bank of the Manhattan Company. “Foreseeing the present trend of American banking practice toward the branch bank system, in 1918 [the Bank of the Manhattan Company] consummated a merger with the Bank of the Metropolis, at 31 Union Square, converting that bank into its uptown office, and providing convenient banking facilities for its clientele in that section of the city.”
On May 11, 1920 the estate of William Washington Cole sold the building to Mrs. Dora Kuch who intended to hold the property “as an investment.”
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| Union Square in 1928. The Bank of the Metropolis (far left) still retained its flamboyant cornice cresting -- photo NYPL Collection |
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| photo by Alice Lum |