National Title Guaranty Company Building
185 Montague Street | Brooklyn Heights | built 1930
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The city photographed every building for its tax records around 1940 and again in the 1980s. NYC Municipal Archives.
Written with AI from the source each entry cites, then fact-checked.
- 1929
National Title Guaranty buys two Montague Street lots and plans a new headquarters
Early in 1929 the National Title Guaranty Company sold its old offices at 172-174 Montague Street to the developer Ralph Jonas for about $850,000. The following month it purchased the 185 and 187 Montague Street lots, from National City Bank and from Jonas respectively. Architects filed plans on February 8 for a building meant to cost $350,000, and by March the design had grown to 16 stories.
“Early the next month, National Title Guaranty bought the sites at 185 and 187 Montague Street from National City Bank and Jonas, respectively.”
Source: Wikipedia
- 1929
Sculptor Rene Chambellan designs the building's limestone screen, one of many Art Deco commissions
Rene Paul Chambellan, born in West Hoboken, New Jersey, served as an Army sergeant in France in 1917-19. Afterward he joined Raymond Hood and John Mead Howells in decorating Chicago's Tribune Building. For the architects of 185 Montague Street he designed the limestone screen and interior decoration. He also designed the theater wall decoration for the same firm's Bushnell Memorial Hall in Hartford.
“Rene Paul Chambellan, who was responsible for the design of the building's limestone screen (and interior decorative elements), became a noted architectural sculptor.”
- 1930
The 16-story National Title Guaranty building opens, nearly fully leased
National Title Guaranty had moved its offices in by November 1929, and the building was officially opened on April 3, 1930, the same day as the branch of the National Exchange Bank and Trust, which the company had organized. Rental agents had leased all but about 1,500 square feet despite high vacancy rates nearby. Tenants included Mutual Life Insurance, Commercial Casualty Insurance, American Surety and the lawyer Meier Steinbrink.
Source: Wikipedia
- 1930
Harvey Wiley Corbett and Wallace Harrison design a stepped Art Deco tower with a sculpted stone base
The 16-story brick and limestone tower steps back above the 12th floor to meet the 1916 zoning rules, ending in a temple-like top that was lit at night. Rene Paul Chambellan designed the limestone screen across the first two floors, with panels showing rosettes, hammers, warriors and eagles. The architects claimed the black marble ceiling of the entrance vestibule was the first of its type in the country.
“The vestibule's black marble ceiling, which the architects claimed was the first of its kind in the United States, was intended to make the vestibule appear taller.”
Source: Wikipedia
- 1935
The liquidation of the National Title Guaranty Company, the building's namesake, is formally approved
By 1933 the company's liabilities were five times its assets, and the New York State Insurance Commissioner took control of it and five other firms in August of that year for reorganization. Formal approval to liquidate the company came on January 23, 1935. Its debts had shrunk considerably by then but still outweighed its assets.
- 1936
Four National Title Guaranty officers, including former president Manasseh Miller, are found guilty of conspiracy
After the company's liquidation, a federal grand jury indicted its officers for conspiracy and mail fraud, accusing them of misrepresenting the safety of the company's investment products. In December 1936 four of them, among them the former president Manasseh Miller and his successor Matthew McNamara, were convicted and sentenced but released on bail pending appeal. In 1937 the convictions were overturned by the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.
“In December 1936, four of the officers including former president Manessah Miller and his successor Matthew McNamara, were found guilty of conspiracy…”
- 1946
Tenants sue to stop owners from tearing down the building's upper floors
In October 1944 the developer Webb and Knapp purchased the building, leasing the lower three stories to the Bank of the Manhattan Company and intending to demolish the upper floors once existing leases ran out in mid-1946. The lawyer Hunter Delatour and 44 other tenants sued the owners in March 1946, arguing the plan broke an emergency law because nothing would replace the building. The building kept nearly all of its original design.
Source: Wikipedia
- 1947
The Bank of the Manhattan Company makes 185 Montague Street its Brooklyn headquarters
The Bank of the Manhattan Company opened a branch at 185 Montague Street in April 1947, and the building served as its Brooklyn headquarters, with eight more branches around the borough. Chase Manhattan Bank moved in during 1955 and shut its branch next door at 189 Montague Street, following Chase Manhattan's merger with the Bank of the Manhattan Company. Tenants in the 1970s included Brooklyn Community Board 2 and a City Planning office.
Source: Wikipedia
- 2017
The Landmarks Preservation Commission designates the building over the owner's objection
The commission held a hearing on November 29, 2016, where seven people spoke for designating the National Title Guaranty Company Building, including representatives of Council Member Stephen Levin, the Municipal Art Society and the Brooklyn Heights Association. The owner spoke against it. The commission designated the building a landmark on January 24, 2017.
Further reading
- 185 Montague StreetWikipedia
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