2 Broadway
also 3 Stone Street | Financial District | built 1958
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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.
- 1884
The New York Produce Exchange building rises on much of this site
The ten-story Produce Exchange headquarters is built here between 1881 and 1884 to designs by George B. Post. In 1900 the exchange handles about $15 million of business a day, but by the 1950s its membership has fallen to about 500 from a peak of 3,000. The building is later cleared for a new tower.
Source: Wikipedia
- 1885
Produce Exchange members pelt militiamen in Bowling Green with dough balls and apple cores
On June 19, 1885, dough balls, grain and apple cores fell from the windows of the Produce Exchange onto militiamen waiting in Bowling Green for two French ships, while several members sat on the second-story cornice for air. The 69th Regiment charged the main entrance and was stopped by a platoon of police, and Major Duffy warned he could not answer for what his men would do. The exchange later apologized and named the guilty members. This was the building that preceded the present tower.
Source: Daytonian in Manhattan
- 1929
A cigarette in a telephone booth sets fire to the Produce Exchange's second floor
A discarded cigarette smoldered in a second-floor telephone booth on June 6, 1929, then ignited at about 10 p.m. and spread along the row of booths. A night clerk, William C. Riker, turned in the alarm, and the fire took an hour to put out. The next day repairmen replaced 32 Western Union lines and 159 pairs of telephone wires. This was the earlier building on the lot.
Source: Daytonian in Manhattan
- 1957
Uris Brothers announce the demolition of the Produce Exchange for a 30-story tower
Talk of tearing down the old Produce Exchange began in the fall of 1930, but plans stalled, perhaps because of the Depression. On February 13, 1957 Uris Brothers announced that the building would be razed for a 30-story, 1.3-million-square-foot air-conditioned office tower. Emery Roth & Sons had already finished the drawings.
Source: Daytonian in Manhattan
- 1958
Lee Krasner is commissioned to make two abstract murals for the building
In 1958 the painter Lee Krasner was commissioned to make two abstract murals for the office building at 2 Broadway. The art historian Barbara Rose wrote that working on the collage maquettes let Krasner take her winged, floral and organic forms and scale them up into monumental abstractions for a public setting.
“In 1958, Krasner was commissioned to create two abstract murals for an office building at 2 Broadway in Manhattan.”
Source: Wikipedia
- 1959
Uris Buildings Corporation completes a 32-story office tower
After an earlier 1953 plan by William Lescaze is shelved, Uris Buildings Corporation takes over the project in January 1957 and hires Emery Roth and Sons. Demolition of the Produce Exchange begins that February. The finished 32-story, 421-foot tower is completed in June 1959.
Source: Wikipedia
- 1960
Billy Wilder's The Apartment features the building as the characters' office
The 1960 comedy-drama The Apartment, which Billy Wilder produced and directed, shows 2 Broadway as the building housing the office where the characters played by Jack Lemmon, Shirley MacLaine and Fred MacMurray are employed. It was also used as a filming location for the 1965 thriller Mirage, starring Gregory Peck and Diane Baker.
“2 Broadway was shown in the American comedy-drama film The Apartment (1960)... as the building in which the characters played by stars Jack Lemmon, Shirley MacLaine, and Fred MacMurray work.”
Source: Wikipedia
- 1998
The MTA signs a 49-year lease and moves its offices in
Tamir Sapir buys 2 Broadway for $20.5 million in 1995, and the Metropolitan Transportation Authority signs a 49-year lease for the entire building in July 1998. Skidmore, Owings and Merrill gives it a blue-green tinted glass facade in a renovation that ends up costing $499 million. By 2011 the building holds offices for about 4,200 MTA employees.
Source: Wikipedia
- 2003
The MTA's renovation reaches $499 million amid a corruption scandal
The MTA's refit of the building cost far more than planned: estimated at $39 million in 1998, it ended at $499 million plus $346 million in interest. Developer Frederick Contini was indicted for embezzling several million dollars, and investigators found some of the money went to the Gambino and Genovese crime families. Sapir settled his suit with the MTA in late 2003, with the job about two-thirds done.
Source: Wikipedia
Further reading
- 2 BroadwayWikipedia
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