280 Broadway
280 Broadway – also known as the A.T. Stewart Dry Goods Store, the Marble Palace, the Stewart Building, and the Sun Building – is a seven-story office building on Broadway, between Chambers and Reade streets, in the Civic Center neighborhood of Lower Manhattan in New York City. Built from 1845 to 1846 for Alexander Turney Stewart, the building was New York City's first Italianate commercial building and the first department store in the United States. The building also housed the original Sun newspaper from 1919 to 1950 and has served as the central offices for the New York City Department of Buildings since 2002. It is a National Historic Landmark and a New York City designated landmark.
Trench & Snook had designed the original store at the corner of Broadway and Reade Street, as well as two annexes in the early 1850s; further additions were designed by "Schmidt" in 1872 and Edward D. Harris in 1884. The facade is made of Tuckahoe marble and is divided into multiple sections, allowing the various expansions to be designed in a similar style. The ground level contains pilasters and columns, which originally framed plate-glass walls. The facade also contains a four-sided clock and a two-sided thermometer, which were added when the Sun occupied 280 Broadway. When the building was completed, the wholesale and retail departments of Stewart's store were arranged around a central rotunda. The current interior dates to 1884, when the rotunda was destroyed and the building was converted into offices.
Stewart's store opened on September 21, 1846, and grew rapidly in the next two decades. The store's retail division moved uptown in 1862, but the wholesale division remained there until 1879. Henry Hilton bought the building from Stewart's widow in 1882 and converted the building to offices. Hilton sold the building in 1908 to Felix Isman, who lost it to foreclosure four years afterward. The newspaper moved into 280 Broadway in 1919 and renamed it the Sun Building in 1928. After the Sun vacated the building in 1950, there were various plans to demolish the building, which did not come to fruition. Instead, the building has been used as city government offices since 1965, and it was rehabilitated from 1995 to 2002.
Site
280 Broadway is in the Civic Center neighborhood of Lower Manhattan in New York City. It occupies the western section of the city block bounded by Broadway to the west, Reade Street to the north, Elk Street to the east, and Chambers Street to the south. The land lot is rectangular, running along Broadway, Reade Street, and Chambers Street. Nearby buildings and locations include Tower 270 to the southwest; the Broadway–Chambers Building and 287 Broadway to the west; the Ted Weiss Federal Building to the north; the African Burial Ground National Monument to the northeast; 49 Chambers and the Surrogate's Courthouse to the east; and Tweed Courthouse, New York City Hall, and City Hall Park to the south.The lot covers, with a frontage of about on Broadway and about on Reade and Chambers Streets. The site was expanded in four phases. It originally measured on Broadway and on Reade Street. The first expansion, in 1850–1851, comprised a rectangular plot on Broadway and Chambers Street. An L-shaped plot measuring wide on Chambers Street and wide on Reade Street was built in 1852–1853; it wrapped around a parcel on Chambers Street that was not acquired until 1872. The fourth and final expansion, in 1884, was a rectangular parcel on Chambers and Reade Streets, extending through the entire block.
Previous uses
Prior to the settlement of New Amsterdam in the 17th century, the site was largely a ravine that drained into Collect Pond in the northeast. The surrounding area contains evidence of the interments of individuals, mostly of African descent. Interments may have begun as early as the 17th century. These corpses were part of a cemetery called the Negros Burial Ground, which operated until the 1790s. During the next two centuries, historians were aware of the burial ground's existence but had believed that the corpses were destroyed. The section of the Negros Burial Ground between Duane and Reade Streets, east of Broadway, was initially lower than the surrounding ground. The land was raised by up to, and subsequent buildings' foundations were relatively shallow, thus preserving this section of the cemetery.Just prior to the construction of the current building, the northwest corner of the site had contained Washington Hall, the former headquarters of the Federalist Party. The red-brick building was built from 1809 to 1812 on the site of the African Burial Ground. Designed by John McComb Jr., the building was converted to a hotel in 1828. Washington Hall became less prominent during the mid-19th century, as the oyster bar in its basement became more important than the hotel itself. The hotel burned down in July 1844 and was replaced by the original section of the current building. The rest of the site contained residences, which were all demolished by 1884.
Architecture
280 Broadway was originally a dry-goods store operated by Alexander Turney Stewart and was designed in five stages by four architects. The original store, as well as its first two additions in 1850–1851 and 1852–1853, were both designed by John B. Snook and Joseph Trench of the firm Trench & Snook. The third annex was designed in 1872 by a person who is named in planning documents as "Schmidt". The fourth annex was designed in 1884 by Edward D. Harris. The building was originally only four stories tall but was expanded upward in two stages. The fifth story was added between 1850 and 1852, and the sixth and seventh stories were added during the 1884 expansion. The sculptor Ottaviano Gori likely carved much of the building's stonework, while Signor Bragaldi was responsible for the frescoes and other decorations. The building's design was inspired by that of the Travellers Club in London and Frances Trollope's Bazaar in Cincinnati.Until the late 20th century, there was confusion over who was responsible for 280 Broadway's design. At the store's opening on September 21, 1846, Trench, Gori, and Bragaldi were all variously cited as the architects. The New York Herald did not mention any specific architect on opening day, but it credited Bragaldi as the "designer of the entire building" the next day, likely under pressure from Bragaldi himself. By the 1970s, evidence from historian Mary Ann Smith indicated that the original building and the early-1850s expansions were designed by Trench & Snook. There is also some uncertainty as to whether Snook was involved in the design of the original store, as he was a junior partner in Trench's firm, but both men were definitely involved in the early-1850s expansions.
Facade
280 Broadway's facade is made primarily of Tuckahoe marble, although cast iron columns were added on the first floor in 1850. Stewart had planned to expand the building since before it opened. As a result, Trench and Snook designed the facade so that its design could be copied easily. The first story initially contained plate-glass windows imported from France. After the first two expansions were completed in 1853, the building had 2,000 pieces of plate glass. The first floor contained doors and windows, each with a single pane of plate glass, while the upper floors contained sash windows with plate-glass panes separated by mullions.Broadway
From north to south, the Broadway elevation of the facade is divided vertically into five sections, each with three bays on the first five stories. The northern three sections are part of the original building, while the southern two sections were completed in 1851. The southern two sections differ slightly in width from the northern three sections. The second and fourth sections, as counted from north, project slightly from the facade by about. At ground level, the bays are flanked by either flat engaged pilasters or fluted freestanding columns, both of which are placed atop pedestals and capped by Corinthian-style capitals. There are recessed windows or doorways between each set of pilasters and columns. An entablature, as well as a cornice with modillions, run above the ground story.The upper stories are all made of marble, and each section is delineated by vertical quoins. The second through fifth stories all contain rectangular windows, which gradually decrease in height on upper stories. A band course extends under all of the second-story windows. In the projecting sections of the facade, the band course is interrupted by marble balustrades under the second-story windows, and there is a carved keystone and a triangular pediment above each of these windows. Within these sections, there are eared architraves above the windows on the third through fifth stories. In the non-projecting groups of windows, only the second-story windows have eared architraves, while the third to fifth stories have flat architraves. In all bays, each window sill on the third through fifth stories is supported by two corbels; the sills below the third-story and fifth-story windows are linked by band courses. A cornice with dentils runs above the fifth story.
On the sixth and seventh stories, the projecting sections each have three windows and two blank panels, while the non-projecting sections have five windows. The windows on both stories are separated by pilasters with capitals; the sixth-story capitals are in the Tuscan order while those on the seventh floor are in the Scamozzi style. There are cornices above both stories. A balustrade runs on the roof above the seventh story, but the projecting pavilions have parapets instead of balustrades.
At the corner of Broadway and Chambers Street is a four-sided clock. It was installed in 1917 when the New York Sun moved into the building. Designed by Gerald A. Holmes and manufactured by the International Time Recording Company, the clock consists of a bronze case measuring across, tall, and weighing. Each clock face has an octagonal dial; an hour hand with a star-shaped tail and a heart-shaped pointer; and a minute hand with a crescent-shaped tail and a rhombus-shaped pointer. Over each clock dial is the inscription "The Sun", while under each dial is the text "It Shines for All"; these two inscriptions refer to the Sun motto., the clock has been maintained by the city's "clock master", Marvin Schneider, since 1992.
There is a two-sided analog thermometer on the northern end of the Broadway elevation, near Reade Street. The thermometer was installed in 1936 and is housed in a bronze case manufactured by the United States Bronze Sign Company. The case measures and contains dials measuring across. The triangular hands measure long and indicate the temperature in increments of, from. The words "The Sun / It Shines for All" is also inscribed on this thermometer.