Harriman Building, 39 Broadway

Buildings on west side Broadway, from Morris Street to Exchange Alley (right), notably the Harriman Building at 39 Broadway, Financial District neighborhood in Manhattan. Photo copyright 1928 by Irving Underhill, taken before the building opened in May that year (see ground floor below). Source: Museum of the City of New York.

Harriman Building is a 37-story office skyscraper built from 1926 to 1928. It was designed by Cross & Cross, a New York City-based architectural firm founded by brothers John Walter Cross and Eliot Cross. It was erected by the George A. Fuller Company, the same that constructed the Flatiron Building in 1901-1902. Harriman Building rises to a total height of 462 feet. The building has a frontage of 89.7 feet on Broadway and extends through to Trinity Place, with a frontage there of 92 feet and 190 feet in depth. The W.A. Harriman banking firm was the owner and occupied seven floors in the building. Continue below...

After the Revolution the property was owned by Alexander Macomb, a merchant who constructed a large residence, and it was occupied by George Washington as the presidential mansion in 1789, after his inauguration as President of the United States.

In the late 19th century and early 20th century, two five-story buildings occupied the site (photo on the right). In 1920, a five-story neoclassical building occupied the site at 35 to 39 Broadway, when Harriman Interests acquired the property. The building was erected by Gaston, Williams & Wigmore, Inc., exporters and operators of steamship lines, for their own occupancy a few years before.

In October 1929, Fred F. French Operators bought the Harriman Building. At the time, among the tenants, besides the Harriman firm, there were the Union Pacific Railroad, the Eastern Exchange Bank, John Muir & Co., Georgian Manganese Company and the Hamburg-American Steamship Company, which had bought the adjoining Aldrich Court Building (45 Broadway) in 1905.

In 1940, the Thirty-nine Broadway, Inc., was the owner of the 39 Broadway building. In January 1952, the Broadway-Trinity Place Corporation, owner of the building, sold it to Parkwood Estates. In 1964 the building was owned by Broadwall Holding Corporation.

The old Columbia Building is on the left. It was demolished about 1930 to make was for another skyscraper at 29 Broadway.