5. Whitehall Building

The Whitehall Building is not on Whitehall Street. It is in on 17 Battery Place. (It is named for the house that Peter Stuyvesant built in 1655, which really was on Whitehall Streets.) Constructed in 1902-04, the building sits on a portion of the Hudson River that was filled in with landfill in the early nineteenth century. It was home to the two largest tug boat empires in New York City, Moran’s and McAllister’s. With twenty-two stories, the Whitehall Building was the tallest in New York City at the time and it offered a commanding view of the entire harbor.

Moran Tugboat Company, which moved their offices to the Whitehall building several years after it opened, took advantage of the height by sending a person to the roof, with a spotting scope and a megaphone, so he could shout orders to the tugboats in the harbor below. McAllister’s is still in operation and our most recent sighting of the tug boats was with the USS New York during Fleet Week: the Capt. Brian A. McAllister tug boat accompanied the transport dock on the way up the Hudson River.

17 Battery Place was constructed between 1902 to 1904 by architect Henry Hardenbergh, who also designed the Plaza Hotel, The Dakota apartments, the Arts Students League building on 57th Street, and has a small historic district named for him. At the top of the building on the 30th floor was the “Whitehall Club,” decorated with paintings of New York City figures like Peter Stuyvesant, Alexander Hamilton and the Duke of York. Famous lunchers at the Whitehall Club include Aristotle Onassis and Stavros Niarchos. Today 17 Battery Place remains an office building and is home to the New York Film Academy.