Equitable Life Assurance Building

395 Broadway | also 61 Walker Street, 61A Walker Street | Tribeca | built 1901

Open on the map3 entries

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

  1. 1899

    Six older buildings, among them a cast-iron loft built for the Goelets, stand on this corner before 1899

    Before work began on the 15-story building in 1899, the corner of Broadway and Walker Street held six masonry buildings. Three were Federal-era dwellings converted to business use on Broadway; one housed a railway and steamship ticket office run by Gustav G. Lansing and a firm of notions importers, Sterns & Weil. Around the corner stood No. 61 Walker Street, a five-story loft with a cast-iron front made by the Architectural Iron Works for the Goelet family. Next to it, Nos. 63 and 65 were three-story buildings housing a restaurant and dry-goods dealers.

    Source: NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission

  2. 1901

    Robert Maynicke designs a 15-story neo-Renaissance loft and office building for developers Merrick and Corn

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    Peter J. Merrick commissioned the project and Henry Corn took it over; both were real estate developers behind many similar buildings in the area now protected as the Ladies' Mile Historic District. Robert Maynicke, a prolific commercial architect, designed the steel-frame building in 1899-1901, with limestone and terra-cotta facades five bays wide on Broadway and twelve along Walker Street. A two-story arcaded crown ends in a cornice with lions' heads.

    “Originally commissioned by Peter J. Merrick, the project passed to Henry Corn, both of whom were real estate developers…”

    Source: NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission

  3. 1981

    The upper floors of 395 Broadway are converted to residential use in 1981

    In 1981 the upper stories of the former Equitable Life Assurance Building were converted to residential use. Earlier tenants had included a railroad ticket office, a parasol maker and two Franklin Street dry-goods firms. In 1930, with the Equitable Life Assurance Society as owner, architects Starrett & Van Vleck set the storefronts back and lowered the vault covers to allow the street to be widened.

    Source: NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission

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