American Bank Note Company Building

The American Bank Note Company Building is a five-story building at 70 Broad Street in the Financial District of Manhattan in New York City. The building was designed by architects Kirby, Petit & Green in the neo-classical style, and contains almost 20,000 square feet (1,900 m²) of space, with offices and residences on the upper floors. The exterior consists of a main facade on Broad Street with two columns, as well as side facades with pilasters on Beaver and Marketfield Streets.

The building was erected in 1908 as the home of the American Bank Note Company, a leading engraving company that produced banknotes, currency, stamps, and stock certificates. The company had previously occupied several other sites in Lower Manhattan, and it developed a printing plant in the Bronx after 70 Broad Street was completed. After the company sold the American Bank Note Company Building in 1988, the structure was sold to numerous owners, and renovated into offices and residences. The American Bank Note Company Building is a New York City designated landmark and listed on the National Register of Historic Places (NRHP). It is also a contributing property to the Wall Street Historic District, a NRHP district created in 2007.

The American Bank Note Company Building is in the Financial District of Manhattan in New York City, two blocks east of Bowling Green. The building occupies a site bounded by Broad Street to the east, Beaver Street to the north, and Marketfield Street to the south. Nearby structures include the Broad Exchange Building to the north and 26 Broadway to the west. The plot measures 44 feet (13 m) on Broad Street by 66 feet (20 m) on Beaver and Marketfield Streets. Because of the Financial District's street grid, which is derived from the original Castello Plan for New Amsterdam, the site is trapezoid-shaped.

The building is a neoclassical five-story structure with nearly 20,000 square feet (1,900 m²) of space. It contains office space and luxury apartments on the upper floors. It was designed by architects Kirby, Petit & Green, who based their design on their earlier structure for the Bush Terminal Company at 100 Broad Street. Hedden Construction Company was the general contractor and Charles H. Nichols was the consulting engineer. The American Bank Note Company Building is one of several "hybrid" bank buildings erected in the early 20th century with both banking quarters and executive offices.

The facades are divided into three horizontal layers by broad cornices above the first and fourth floors. The single-story base is made of rusticated stone blocks above a raised basement and water table made of smooth ashlar, and a string course runs above it. The second through fourth stories are faced with smooth ashlar, while the fifth floor serves as an attic and is also faced with smooth ashlar. An elaborate entablature runs above the fourth floor, encircled by a metal railing. Another cornice runs above the attic and contains gargoyle medallions at the corners. The Woodbury Granite Company provided the granite for the facade.

The main entrance is through a set of glass-and-metal doors in the center of the Broad Street elevation; it is accessed by a small staircase leading from the sidewalk, flanked by short pedestals. Above the doorway, a carved eagle is perched on a cartouche atop two crossed branches. There is a tall, narrow casement window on either side of the entrance stair, as well as a shorter narrow window on the water table. The second through fourth floors on this facade contain two fluted, Corinthian columns, which support a metal-lettered frieze with the American Bank Note Company's name. The columns frame a recessed central bay with casement windows on each level.

The side facades on Beaver and Marketfield Streets, to the north and south respectively, each contain five vertical bays. As with the main facade, the first story contains rusticated stone blocks. On the side facades, the three central bays of the first floor each contain large square window openings with aluminum windows. The center bays on the second through fourth floors have aluminum windows in each bay, flanked by large Doric-style pilasters, while the outer bays on each floor consist of flat ashlar masonry with narrow windows and ventilation openings. At the attic, the side facades have openings that are of the same width as the windows on the lower floors.

The original interior spaces were elaborately furnished. In general, the Shaw Furniture Company designed the furniture; the Black & Boyd Manufacturing Company made the lighting fixtures, and McNulty Bros. made the plaster ceilings. The building also included two elevators.