Whitehall Building

1 Western Union International Plaza | also 2 Washington Street, 17 Battery Place | Financial District | built 1902

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Written with AI from the source each entry cites, then fact-checked.

  1. 1902

    Vaseline discoverer Robert Chesebrough's company builds the Whitehall Building as a speculative office tower

    Robert Chesebrough, the chemist known for discovering Vaseline, and his son William led the Battery Place Realty Company, which was set to develop the lot facing Battery Park after a Chesebrough-owned company bought it in 1901. Henry Hardenbergh designed the 20-story tower, and builders dug out the old cellars of the houses that previously stood there before sinking caissons for the foundation. It opened in May 1903 and was finished in 1904, named for Peter Stuyvesant's seventeenth-century White Hall.

    “…led by Robert Chesebrough, a chemist known for discovering Vaseline, along with his son William A. Chesebrough…”

    Source: Wikipedia

  2. 1910

    The 31-story annex rises as the city's largest office building, with the Whitehall Club on its top floors

    The Battery Place Realty Company began soliciting construction bids for an annex in 1908, and Clinton and Russell were hired to design it. Foundation work started in December 1909 and the steel frame went up from May 1910 at about four stories a week. When finished it was the biggest office building in New York. The top four floors housed the Whitehall Club, a lunch club for downtown merchants that became the city's leading maritime club.

    Source: Wikipedia

  3. 1940

    A bombing by opponents of Nazi Germany damages the German consulate and the Daily Worker at 17 Battery Place

    The German consulate in New York and the Communist newspaper the Daily Worker both kept offices at 17 Battery Place. In 1940 a bomb planted by opponents of Nazi Germany damaged those offices. The consulate moved out of the building the following year.

    Source: Wikipedia

  4. 1950

    A lookout with a telescope and a six-foot megaphone steers Moran tugboats from the Whitehall Building

    By the mid-twentieth century, the Moran Towing Company kept offices in the building. Before radio dispatching, a man high up watched the harbor through a telescope for arriving ships. He then bellowed instructions through a six-foot megaphone to the Moran tugboats waiting at the Battery below.

    “…a man high in the building would watch with a telescope for incoming ships, and then use a six-foot megaphone to shout instructions…”

    Source: Wikipedia

  5. 1974

    A fire at 2 Washington Street empties the complex of 5,000 workers while one firm's computers keep trading

    A 1974 fire in the Whitehall complex's 22-story Washington Street addition, then called One Western Union International Plaza, forced 5,000 office workers out of the buildings. The New York Times reported that the computers of the securities firm Hayden, Stone & Co. went on handling transactions automatically during the evacuation.

    “…a fire at 2 Washington Street forced the evacuation of 5,000 office workers across the entire Whitehall complex…”

    Source: Wikipedia

Further reading

Nearby

All 276 buildings with stories in Financial District