skyscrapers are a common sight in metropolitan areas today and they have become increasingly
common as time goes on however the skyscraper as a concept is much older than many people think
with the earliest appearing as far back as the 1880s these buildings rapidly came into their
own by the turn of the century and among the most opulent of new york's early skyscrapers
was the city investing building also known as the broadway cortland building or the beninson
building despite its many names it is no longer present on the new york street map and most have
forgotten that it has ever existed well that stops today as we unearth the legacy of new
york city's lost city investing building i'm your host ryan silkesh and you're watching it's history
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now before we get into the history of the city investing building i should point out that there
isn't much in the name of comprehensive sources its demolition happened over 50 years ago at this
point and it didn't leave much of a legacy but here's what we learned in our research
the story of the city investing building begins with francis h kimball around the turn of the 19th
century he was well established in architecture designing several skyscrapers and other structures
often with terracotta ornamentation he was no stranger to the task already having several
years of experience under his belt the prestige of architectural studies in england and several
buildings accredited to his name it's safe to say that this man was a success a few of his
accomplishments to note include the grand madison building 26 broadway the corbin building and 37
wall street which now houses a commercial space for tiffany and company in some of his projects
kimball received aid from one robert e dowling an office building developer and president of
the city investing company which had split from the united states realty and construction company
in late 1904 with aid from dowling he had already created a building of note rather too
the trinity and the united states realty building reached completion in 1905 and featured a bridge
connecting the two structures at the rooftop both in neo-gothic style they remain standing to this
day but these guys built more than just those two buildings the city investing company had recently
acquired a plot of land on the corner of cortland street and dowling desired to develop it into
another skyscraper he brought kimball back on the team and spared no space in plotting an enormous
structure kimball planned a structure in the shape of the letter f with two protruding
structures around 40 feet by 65 feet opening on cortland street and this perhaps bizarre design
was accredited to the fact that many tenants back then desired plenty of light and air this building
ended up occupying 460 000 square feet making it the largest office building in new york by that
metric and placing it among the world's largest at the time the realization of such a monumental task
needed many groups on board and the city investing building had no shortage of aid in its
construction the heading construction company took on the general contract in 1906 with the o'rourke
engineering and construction company taking on the foundation work with wyskoff and stern for
the steel frame griggs and hull brook for the steam and electricity and william c tucker as
the consulting sanitary engineer excavation began in november of 1906 with an average of 275 workers
laying the foundation during the daytime and 100 doing the same at night within a month rumors
began circulating that a planned extension could take up to 39 stories one less than the nearby
and also under construction singer tower which you might recall from another one of our videos
this brought a lot of attention to the city investing building because the singer tower
was intended to be the world's tallest building at the time a title which it indeed
held well these plans remained as fictitious as the rumors that created them the excitement only
grew as time went on excavation reached completion within 120 days and the foundation began to take
shape the girders making up the main structure quickly went up and the building arrived at
completion in a record time of 22 months over the course of its construction 3 000 workers
found employment but tragically one worker lost his life as a temporary floor gave way beneath
him the finished building was spectacular one of new york city's largest buildings at the time its
entrance stated its importance to a significant effect the facade had many terra cotta decorations
a signature of kimball's work porcelain and enamel bricks reduced cleaning cost as they did not lose
their color over time preserving their original beauty as the years wore on the main entrance
on broadway greeted visitors with a limestone anti-chamber and then a lobby twice its height
the entrance hall ran towards the cortland street station serving the interborough rapid transit
company's sixth avenue line at church street this lobby must have certainly been a sight to behold
decorated with colorful frescoes made of various italian marbles this lobby was a staggering 40
feet tall and 32 feet wide but its upper floors ceilings were not as towering the first stories
ceilings came in at 22 feet the second at 20 the third at 16 and a half and the remaining being
anywhere between 11 and 14 feet except for the 26th floor which came in at 16 feet tall
the building had 24 elevators 21 of which were plunger lifts operated from the lobby
and these 21 passenger elevators served from three banks in the lobby's south side distribution was
divided evenly among the floors one group of seven serving the lobby to the ninth story another group
of seven serving the ninth to the seventeenth story and the last group for the 17th to 26th
the 26th through 32nd stories were serviced by a single plunger elevator that ran through to the
top floors the remaining elevators were not plunger lifts but electric lifts for freight
the city investing building contained various other utilities aside from the elevators with a
3 000 square foot cellar beneath the broadway sidewalk there was plenty of space to stow away
its more rugged equipment the building's boiler plant had a maximum output of 1 500 kilowatts a
massive water system was also in the basement with a filtration capacity of 864 000 gallons
per day it also had two other water tanks one for fire protection with a capacity of 12 500
gallons and another 9 000 gallon tank for client services finally an electric light plant powered
the various fixtures throughout the building the seller had all of its clients bases covered
the grand walls of this building hosted various tenants throughout its history
starting in april of 1908 the earliest tenants included the interboro rapid transit company
the southern pacific transportation company midvale steel and the american car and foundry
company in the 1920s it gained a collection of other tenants such as the chemical bank
and the albert frank and company advertising agency basically aside from the west to east
elevator hall on the southern wall just about all of the building remained open for rental space
meaning that there was plenty of room for whoever wanted a spot in 1915 changes came to new york
skyline as the equitable building went up on the city investing buildings southeast this structure
put the city investing building under a permanent shadow blocking light for up to 24 of its floors
leading to many protests from tenants as a result the 1916 zoning resolution debuted across new york
city requiring buildings to be set back above a certain height so that the situation the
city investing building found itself in would not happen again in december of 1919 gregory beninson
bought the city investing building for 10 million dollars despite its estimated worth of only 7
million dollars as the building had a mortgage under the metropolitan life insurance company
valued at 5.75 million benson ended up getting a better deal despite overpaying its surface value
and hence the title was passed in july of 1920 at which point the city investing building became
known as the beninson building as the 1920s went on the beninson building saw more and more success
with beninson buying out adjacent properties planning to expand and make more office space
however with the wall street crash of 1929 the company took a heavy hit defaulting on
its mortgages and dooming the expansion plans so in october of 1931 the building and various other
structures it owned went on sale as foreclosure proceedings commenced with its parent company
at the time the building clocked in at 10.4 million in worth a price tag that apparently
spoke to charles f noyes who took over the title along with many of beninson's other properties
today depression is a fading memory millions of men and women have found employment and with it
confidence and hope the nation began clawing out of its financial woes in 1936 and the building's
new owners started to plan for renovation much of the project's funding came through rental income
but to clear debt from the great depression the building was auctioned off in 1938 this time the
title was passed to the new york trust company for five million dollars gaining another new name as
165 broadway in 1941 300 000 went into renovation for the now 35 year old building its entrances
elevators and hallways all underwent refurbishment restoring them to their original luster this
renovation also saw it gain fluorescent lighting which most certainly looked hideous anyhow around
this time nk winston and george georgie acquired 165 broadway and another building at 99 liberty
street for a total of 11 million dollars and yet the rains were passed again but this time to the
detriment of the fate of the building you see the renovations were the last good news that the
building would receive after an uneventful 20 years under its new owners united states steel
acquired the building and its neighboring singer building with plans to demolish the whole block
to build a 54-story headquarters where these great structures once stood news
of the demolition of singer tower drew outrage and protest from many preservationists who called for
the new york city landmark preservation commission to protect the historic site
however its neighbor the city investment building did not receive such protective protests
after the commission remained silent demolition proceeded by 1968 the city investing building was
the third tallest building ever to be demolished at the time with the singer being the tallest
though one liberty plaza now occupies the building's prior space its legacy remains in
the shadows of its more famous neighbor singer tower which is a rather sad outcome francis h
kimball intentionally made this building with lighter colored materials to contrast its
neighbor's darker and more somber appearance and it was this contrast in conjunction with the city
investing buildings grand size that made it stick out to most passer buyers so despite it literally
and figuratively living in the shadows the city investing building remains a lexicon of history
as a structure of note so keep its memory alive by sharing this video and before you leave hit
that subscribe button or click join to support the channel this is ryan socash signing off