Aldrich Court Building, Lower Broadway

Buildings on the west side of Lower Broadway, notably the Aldrich Court Building, later Hamburg-American Building, at 45 Broadway. It was erected between 1886 (year is recorded at the top of the building's Broadway façade) and 1887. Photo from the George P. Hall & Son photograph collection, New-York Historical Society.

The Holland-America Line occupied the ground floor at 39 Broadway (on the left). It was founded in Rotterdam in 1873 and its main route was between Rotterdam and New York. It occupied this building from 1897 or before to 1911 or later.

In 1892 (until about 1906), the headquarter of the Hamburg-American Line was at 37 Broadway. In 1905, the company bought Aldrich Court Building and made it its headquarter. By 1906 the name "Hamburg-American Building" replaced the white painting in the lateral façade, the main entrance was reformed and received the name "Hamburg-American".

Both buildings at 35-37 and 39 Broadway were demolished to make way for the Gaston, Williams & Wigmore neoclassical building completed in 1918.

The United States Express Co. occupied the two five-story buildings adjacent to Aldrich Court (47 and 49 Broadway). Its General offices at 49 Broadway was also occupied by the Baltimore and Ohio Express Co., purchased by the United States Express in 1887. The company built a new headquarters in 1906 at 2 Rector Street.

The narrow six-story building at 51 Broadway, on the right, was erected after 1900.