4. New York Produce Exchange
Image from Library of Congress featured in Broadway
In the 19th century, the New York Produce Exchange was located at 2 Broadway across from Bowling Green. George B. Post built this brick Romanesque revival building using steel cage construction, a foreshadowing of future skyscraper technique. Prices for global commodities like oil, wheat, and corn were set here. In 1900, $15 million dollars of business passed through the exchange each day.In the 1950s, as membership in the exchange declined, the building was no longer needed. The building was demolished in 1957 and replaced by the 32-story office tower, 2 Broadway.
When standing, the Produce Exchange was more noted for its activity than for its architecture, but its pending demolition brought supporters out. Architectural historian Talbot F. Hamlin asked New Yorkers if they were “such slaves to economic pressures that they can have no say in what they see, no power to preserve what they love?” A statement that still rings true in some cases today, as it did in in 1953.
