Downtown Walking Tour Site #3 - 25 Broadway - The Cunard Building

Postcard from 1920's

The Cunard Line had its' beginnings in Nova Scotia where Samuel Cunard was building a steam shipping company. He won a contract from Great Britain to carry the Royal Mail from Great Britian to Halifax, Nova Scotia and Boston in 1839. In 1840, the Cunard Line completed it's first Trans-Atlantic crossing with passangers, establishing a regular passenger service.

During the Gilded Age, luxury liners were built to accomodate the very wealthy. Immigrants also used these liners to come to America. They were housed in steerage, the lowest decks of the ship.

RMS Mauretania

The Cunard Line included the RMS Mauretania and RMS Lusitania in 1907. Lusitania was sunk by the Germans in 1915 helping push the United States into World War I. During the late 1930's they added the Queen Mary and Queen Elizabeth. With the advent of jet airliners in the 1950's, the need for regular transatlantic sea travel collapsed. The company turned to tourism as a way to survive. Having been bought by Carnival Cruises, the Cunard brand is maintained as a luxury line with a return to the traditions of the early 1900s.


The building itself opened in 1921 and served as its' HQ for its' North American operations. The main floor contained a ticket booking hall. The hall itself is a work of art with domed ceilings filled with frescos. After the Cunard Line moved it's HQ to midtown, the booking hall was turned into a post office with the ceiling left intact. I was fortunate enough to have visited the hall while the Post Office was there. Sadly, they have shut it down and the booking hall is now closed.

The following photographs are details of the front of the building. 

Ceiling

Main Hall looking towards front entrance

Main Entrance

Nautical detail of ship

Neptune

Detail shot

More Nautical Detail

Top Floors

For information on my walking tour, visit me at Donnie Walks NYC

What I learned today - The Great Depression

I was doing some background research about the NYSE to fill in some holes about its' history, when I stumbled on a mention of the Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act.

Most of us remember the Great Depression in terms of the Stock Market crash during October 1929, with Black Tuesday being the worst; and The Dust Bowl that destroyed the Great Plains.

But another factor was the tariff act. After it passed, a trade war ensued and reduced US trade by 50%. It was quickly repealed after FDR became President and they created the current system where trade agreements are passed as regular legislation instead of treaties, which require a 2/3rds majority.

So yeah, that it what I learned today.

Documents that will be used in the tour

Just thought I would give everyone a preview of some things I will cover.

The original map of New Amsterdam

What the Equestrian Statue of King George III may have looked like.

1930's shot of Lower Manhattan. I use this pic to explain the changes along the East River after shipping changed.

Gilded Age Banquet at Delmonico's in 1906

Stock Certificate from the 1800's. Used while talking about the American Bank Note Company at 70 Broad St.

Wall Street in the mid-1800s

City Hall on Wall St sometime after 1789.

1920 bombing of Wall St.

Newspaper Row - I like the way the great dailies tower over City Hall - late 1800's

Downtown Walking Tour Site #2 - 26 Broadway - The Standard Oil Building

Standard Oil was the oil monopoly headed by John D Rockefeller. The company was established in 1870 and quickly dominated by buying up or driving out of business other oil companies. It was considered a vertical monopoly, which means that it controlled all the steps from extraction to refining to selling of oil to gasoline. At it's peak in 1904, Standard Oil controlled 91% of ALL oil production in the United States.

During this period, other corporations were also creating monopolies such as US Steel by JP Morgan. They created these companies in the form of trusts to avoid state laws and regulations. The immense power and wealth amassed in the hands of a few men lead to a public outcry and an era of trust busting. The press attacked these men as robber barons.

TR Attacking Standard Oil

Just to give you an idea of the immense wealth, when John D Rockefeller passed away in 1937, his net worth was 1.4 billion dollars. Not a large amount in our times. But, according to Forbes Magazine, it translated into 663 billion dollars in 2007. Also, in 1937, the national GDP was 93 billion dollars.









In reaction to the monopolies, Congress passed the Sherman Antitrust Act in 1890. However, it wasn't until Teddy Roosevelt became President in 1901 when the Act started to be enforced. In 1909, The US government sued Standard Oil and forced its' breakup in 1911. The case went all the way to the US Supreme Court which ruled that the Act was valid under the Commerce Clause of the Constitution.


Now, on to the building itself. In 1885, Standard Oil moved it's headquarters from Ohio to NYC.

Close-up of building

At first, the headquarters was 10 stories on a smaller section of this location. Over the years it expanded until 1921 when the company took over the southern end of the block and began building the current building. It was one of the first building to use setbacks as called for in the Zoning Law of 1916. the 31 floor tower is lined up to the street grid instead of the building itself, creating an interesting effect of the building as a whole. They finished it in 1928 and the building served at the HQ until 1946 when they moved to 75 Rockefeller Center in Midtown.





A few photos to close this out.

A photograph from the 1930s

South Side Of Building

Clock Detail above Doorway

Urn at top of the tower

For information on my walking tour, visit me at Donnie Walks NYC