Bowery Savings Bank Building
110 East 42nd Street | also 107 East 41st Street | Murray Hill | built 1921
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Written with AI from the source each entry cites, then fact-checked.
- 1914
The Grand Union Hotel, on the site of the future Bowery Savings Bank branch, is condemned for subway platforms
In February 1914 the Grand Union Hotel was condemned through eminent domain because platforms for the planned Lexington Avenue subway line were to run diagonally under its site. The condemnation proceedings cost $3.5 million. In January 1921 the Bowery Savings Bank bought the eastern half of the hotel's site, where 110 East 42nd Street would rise.
Source: Wikipedia
- 1923
The Bowery Savings Bank opens its 42nd Street branch with a police-escorted move
York and Sawyer designed the bank's Romanesque Revival building, built in 1921–23, around a banking hall about 80 by nearly 200 feet with a 65-foot ceiling and six polished-marble columns in different colors. The branch opened on June 25, 1923, with 5,600 accounts. To stock it, the bank moved $202 million in deposits from its original office using 14 armored cars guarded by 100 armed police officers.
Source: Wikipedia
- 1923
Stone carvings turn the Bowery Savings Bank's facade into a bestiary of thrift
The Bowery Savings Bank's 42nd Street building, completed in 1923, wears carved mascots of finance across its facade: a man clutching a sack of money, a man with his hand out, beehives, squirrels gathering nuts, a bull, and a woman prying open a jewelry box. Two separate carvings warn against waste: a rat gnaws at the foot of a man holding a beehive, and elsewhere a dead rat hangs from a rope.
Source: Ephemeral New York
- 1927
Bank president William E. Knox is found dead in the third-floor resting room
William E. Knox, hired as a clerk in 1887 and president of the Bowery Savings Bank since 1922, was found dead of a gunshot wound through the heart in the building on February 4, 1927. He had gone to the third-floor resting room for an hour's rest, with a dinner in his honor at the Union League Club due that evening. A teller embezzlement three months earlier had weighed on his mind, Daytonian says.
Source: Daytonian in Manhattan
- 1927
A clock, bronze display cases and the first revolving doors are added to the entrance
In 1927 the facade of the bank was altered. A clock went up on brackets at the right of the main arched entrance, cast-bronze display cases were mounted flanking the banking-room entrance, and the first revolving doors were installed. The landmarks report notes that the clock brackets carried the emblem of GreenPoint Bank.
“In 1927 a clock was mounted upon brackets to the right of the great arched entrance…”
- 1929
The bank opens a safe-deposit department with 2,924 boxes at its 42nd Street branch
In March 1929 the 42nd Street branch of the Bowery Savings Bank added a safe-deposit department, starting with 2,924 boxes in seven sizes. To meet growing demand, the bank installed 860 more boxes before the year was out.
Source: Wikipedia
- 1946
Bowery Savings Bank promotes its first female bank officers
In 1946, the Bowery Savings Bank promotes its first women to officer positions at its 42nd Street headquarters, a milestone for a bank whose executive ranks had been all-male since its founding in 1834. The promotions take place inside York & Sawyer's cathedral-like banking hall, with its 44-foot ceiling and imported marble columns. The bank continues operating from the building for decades afterward.
Source: Daytonian in Manhattan
- 1968
A man in a black fedora hands a teller a stickup note and is chased into the subway
On April 30, 1968, a young man in a black fedora with a red feather gave teller Joan Dugan, 23, a note announcing a stickup. She filled an envelope with cash but also pressed the alarm button. Douglas DeWitt Boyce ran down the subway stairs with two guards behind him and was caught by Transit Authority detectives. He had no gun, and apologized to Dugan for scaring her.
Source: Daytonian in Manhattan
- 1972
A guard who helped blind customers is arrested for draining their accounts
Charles Harper, a guard hired in 1969, was known for helping blind customers with their slips. On October 3, 1972, customer Juliette Silvers made a deposit and he confirmed her balance as $2,857, which she wrote in Braille. A week later another guard told her it was $169.65. An investigation found Harper had been taking money from blind customers' accounts, and he was arrested on October 12.
Source: Daytonian in Manhattan
- 1993
The city landmarks both the exterior and interior of the Bowery Savings Bank
The New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission designates both the exterior and the banking room interior of 110 East 42nd Street individual landmarks in 1993. The dual designation protects York & Sawyer's Italian Romanesque facade along with the 44-foot banking hall, its imported marble columns, and its Hagia Sophia-inspired bronze chandeliers. The protection keeps the cathedral-like interior intact even after the bank later moves out.
Source: Daytonian in Manhattan
- 1999
The landmarked banking hall is turned over to Cipriani for events
The Landmarks Preservation Commission designated the facade and the banking hall interior on September 17, 1996. SL Green bought the building in March 1998, and a deal finalized in January 1999 converted the former banking floor into a Cipriani restaurant and event space. The office floors above were sold separately in December 2021 for $117 million.
Source: Wikipedia
- 2011
SL Green takes the building back for $85.5 million after Gotham Realty cannot pay its loan
Gotham Realty Holdings bought the building in 2007 for $111.5 million, financed with a $124 million loan. By 2011 it could not pay the remaining $90 million, and splitting the loan into two notes did not avert foreclosure. SL Green took back the property that year, paying $85.5 million, and bought the building's garage in 2013.
“SL Green took back the property in 2011, paying $85.5 million.”
Source: Wikipedia
Further reading
- 110 East 42nd StreetWikipedia
- The 1923 Bowery Savings Bank Building - 110 East 42nd StreetDaytonian in Manhattan
- The money motifs of a defunct 42nd Street bankEphemeral New York
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