275 Madison Avenue
also 22 East 40th Street, 273 Madison Avenue | Midtown | built 1931
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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.
- 1862
Three Murray Hill rowhouses stand on the Madison Avenue and 40th Street corner by 1862
By 1862 three attached rowhouses, numbered 273, 275 and 277 Madison Avenue and each just under 25 feet wide, stood on this corner of what was then an exclusive residential district. They were homes to many prominent New Yorkers for decades. Offices crept into the row by 1920, and in 1922 the New York Trust Company bought the corner house at 277 and opened a branch there. Those houses were later cleared for the skyscraper.
- 1923
Texas developer Jesse H. Jones founds Houston Properties to build in New York
Jesse H. Jones, the Houston builder and banker, was asked in 1921 to run a bank based in New York. He had no wish to live here but did want to build here, so in 1923 he set up Houston Properties Corporation, naming Alfred B. Jones, a former head of Kelly-Springfield Tire, as its president. Jones later chaired the Reconstruction Finance Corporation and served as Secretary of Commerce under Franklin Roosevelt. His New York firm went on to develop 275 Madison Avenue.
“Jones did not want to live in New York, but he did want to build here, and in 1923, Jones founded the Houston Properties Corporation…”
- 1930
Jones assembles the corner and Franzheim files plans for a 505-foot tower in 1930
In April 1930 Jesse Jones began negotiating with New York Trust and the owner of 273 Madison, and within a month held the whole 74-by-150-foot corner, including two stables on East 40th Street. He created a separate corporation for the project, as he did for each building. Kenneth Franzheim filed plans in June at a projected cost of $1.25 million, and in July Houston Properties announced a 505-foot tower. Leasing began early: the American Bankers' Association took two floors, while Franzheim and two engineering firms took the top three.
- 1930
Architect Kenneth Franzheim leases the tower's top three floors for his own office
While the tower was still under construction, the American Bankers' Association took two floors and New York Trust took nearly all of the ground floor and mezzanine. The architect, Kenneth Franzheim, rented the top three floors, sharing them with two engineering firms. He worked from the tower while his home was at 1158 Fifth Avenue.
- 1931
A polished black granite base set like a stage carries Franzheim's white-brick slab tower
Kenneth Franzheim treated the three-story granite base as a stage setting, in a black-and-silver scheme with abstract ornament. Above it the 43-story slab tower steps back, its white brick stripes alternating with dark window bands and almost no applied ornament. The Landmarks Preservation Commission, which designated the building on January 13, 2009, calls it a transitional work between exuberant Art Deco and the plainer International Style.
- 1931
The American Bankers' Association and New York Trust move into the finished tower
In April and June of 1931 the American Bankers' Association and the New York Trust Company moved into the completed building, and the New York Times covered both moves. Leasing agent Cross & Brown faced a difficult market, so its advertisements pitched the "Uptown Wall Street" location together with the building's value and floor layouts.
- 1933
Johns-Manville moves into the tower in 1933 as New York Trust takes over the building
Houston Properties ran into financial trouble soon after the tower opened. In July 1932 the 275 Madison Avenue Corporation, which New York Trust operated, sued to foreclose on a $5.5 million second mortgage, and the bank took over running the building in 1933. In January of that year the Johns-Manville Corporation leased several floors for its general headquarters, and the building became associated with the company. A court vacated the receivers named that December.
Source: Wikipedia
- 1936
Berenice Abbott photographs the tower in 1936 for her Changing New York series
Five years after the building opened, photographer Berenice Abbott photographed 275 Madison Avenue for Changing New York, her series recording how the city's streetscape evolved during the 1930s. One contemporary account had called the tower "of novel aspect." The Landmarks Preservation Commission cites the photograph in its 2009 designation report, which describes the building as one of the city's notable skyscrapers of its time.
“…photographed in 1936 by Berenice Abbott as part of her famous “Changing New York” series…”
- 1943
American Home Products takes most of the top 23 floors for its headquarters in 1943
A group of businessmen bought the building in March 1943, and Brown Wheelock Harris Stevens took over leasing. At the same moment American Home Products took most of the upper 23 floors as offices for itself and nine subsidiaries, reportedly on condition that it could occupy 13 floors by May 1. Tishman bought the tower in 1951 and leased space back to the company, which moved to 685 Third Avenue in 1961.
Source: Wikipedia
- 1951
American Home Products sells its headquarters tower to Tishman and rents space back
Eight years after taking most of the top floors, American Home Products sold the building to Tishman Realty & Construction and rented back seventeen entire floors plus parts of seven more. Tenants at that time also included Procter & Gamble, the boiler maker Babcock & Wilcox, New York Trust and Johns-Manville.
- 1971
Johns-Manville, the tower's major tenant, announces a move to the Denver suburbs
In 1971 Johns-Manville, the building's major tenant, announced that it would shift its corporate headquarters to a suburb of Denver, Colorado. Two years later Goldman-DiLorenzo acquired the lease on the building, taking on a $2.8 million mortgage that raised its leverage. By 1976 the first mortgage holder had begun foreclosure proceedings.
Source: Wikipedia
- 1980
A $22 million sale leads to a new Madison Avenue lobby with imported French marble
In 1980 New Madison-275 Associates, acting for the foreign syndication firm Gestam, bought the tower for $22 million. Until then the only entrance had been on 40th Street. A $2 million renovation designed by Oppenheimer, Brady and Vogelstein added a Madison Avenue entrance and a lobby with mirrored wall panels, stainless steel and Art Deco chandeliers, using rose marble from the French quarry that supplied the original lobby.
Source: Wikipedia
- 2009
The Landmarks Preservation Commission designates the tower a city landmark
The Landmarks Preservation Commission designated the 275 Madison Avenue Building on January 13, 2009, after a public hearing on June 24, 2008. Three speakers backed designation, among them the owner's representative and spokespeople for the Historic Districts Council and the Municipal Art Society.
“Three people, including a representative of the building’s owner and representatives of the Historic Districts Council and the Municipal Art Society, spoke in favor of designation.”
Further reading
- 275 Madison AvenueWikipedia
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