Morgan Guaranty Trust Company Building

 office building, landmark, Neoclassical (architecture), terrorist attack, 1913_construction

4-story office building completed in 1913. Designed by Trowbridge & Livingston for J.P. Morgan & Co. – later the Morgan Guaranty Trust Company – it is located at the southeast corner of Wall Street and Broad Street, sometimes simply known as "The Corner". The entrance is through a chamfered corner facing the intersection. The walls are clad in pink Tennessee marble laid up in ashlar. Both facades are organized as a basement, main section, attic story and roof, framed by flat piers at either corner. The Broad Street facade has four bays, and its basement windows vary in height as the street slopes to the south. Above, the main section has four enormous, single, square-headed windows. An entablature supported by the corner piers separates this section from the attic story, where four pairs of small, square-headed windows continue the line of the large windows below. Above the attic story, an elaborate cornice is topped by a tall blind parapet, divided into four bays by recessed panels.

The Wall Street elevation is similar, but has five bays rather than four. The corner entrance is approached by five steps, with the double-height doorway recessed within a marble wall and framed by two giant piers. The attic above has three small square-headed windows, topped by a continuation of the cornice and parapet wall of the other two facades.

There are visible pockmarks on the Wall Street facade as the result of an explosion on September 16, 1920 that killed 38 people. It was believed to be an anarchist attack on Wall Street in general and J.P. Morgan in particular. The interiors were designed by Thomas Bruce Boyd who would eventually found the firm of Halsey, McCormack & Helmer. The lobby was given a coffered ceiling; J.P. Morgan had a wood-clad private office. Sadly, the interiors have been since gutted. Its former Louis Quinze chandelier that used to hang in the main hall was given by Morgan to be displayed in the lobby of 15 Broad Street next door where it remains today.

www.nytimes.com/2003/04/20/realestate/streetscapes-j-p-...
www.beyondthegildedage.com/2013/05/jp-morgan-company.ht...
hdl.handle.net/2027/njp.32101082993534?urlappend=%3Bseq...