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