Graybar Building
420 Lexington Avenue | East Midtown | built 1927
Open on the map11 entries
Written with AI from the source each entry cites, then fact-checked.
- 1893
The Grand Central Palace, a domed exhibition hall, stands on the future Graybar site
Around 1893 a six-story building called the Grand Central Palace stood on most of the lot where the Graybar Building would later rise. It had a great glass-domed hall, three stories high, and a branch of the post office on the ground floor. The Times said it never lived up to expectations, with an auditorium used only occasionally, for exhibitions, an occasional political convention or a giant progressive euchre party.
- 1925
Builders keep Track 200 running through the site and use lead set in concrete to reduce train vibration
Track 200, which feeds a loop track in Grand Central, ran through the Graybar site and had to stay in continuous use, so for a time it was carried on an elevated trestle during construction, which began in 1925. Newspapers also reported that engineers devised a pan-shaped sheet of lead embedded in concrete to reduce train vibrations.
“Track 200, which provides access to a loop track in Grand Central Terminal, runs through the site and needed to remain in continuous use.”
- 1926
A 15th-floor lease gives the Eastern Terminal Office Building the name Graybar
Until May 1926 the project was known as the Eastern Terminal Office Building. That month the Graybar Electric Company leased the 15th floor, folding three of its New York offices into one. Its president, Albert L. Salt, was a friend of one of the developer's partners, and J. Walter Thompson, which had taken more space, did not want its own name on the tower, so Graybar got the honor. A company history called it Salt's greatest publicity coup.
“Though J. Walter Thompson had leased more floors, this prominent advertising firm did not want the building named for it…”
- 1927
Edward Trumbull finishes four ceiling murals in the Graybar Passage
In March 1927 the painter Edward Trumbull completed four ceiling murals in the Graybar Passage, the public corridor linking Lexington Avenue with Grand Central Terminal. His work was done a month before the first tenants moved into the offices above, and the Department of Buildings issued the certificate of occupancy that July.
- 1927
The New Yorker jokes that the Graybar is the largest something in the world
While the Graybar Building was still new, The New Yorker's Talk of the Town column of April 9, 1927, quipped that it was probably the largest, highest or most capacious something in the world, though the writer admitted not knowing which. The joke reflected how most coverage fixated on the building's size rather than its design. A critic for the same magazine later in 1927 simply called it impressive.
“The New Yorker said it was "probably the largest something, or the highest something, or the most capacious something, in the world…”
- 1927
The Graybar Building opens above Grand Central's train tracks
Sloan & Robertson's 30-story Art Deco tower at 420 Lexington Avenue opened in April 1927, built with air rights over Grand Central Terminal's underground tracks. It took its name from the Graybar Electric Company, which leased the 15th floor.
Source: Wikipedia
- 1927
Cast-metal rats climb the building's Lexington Avenue entrance
Three cast-metal rats, modeled on the cone-shaped guards once fitted to ships' mooring lines to keep rodents from climbing aboard, decorate the Graybar Building's south entrance. Their meaning is debated, with some reading them as a wink at office workers' daily "rat race."
Source: Ephemeral New York
- 1928
Condé Nast moves to the 19th floor, and Vanity Fair shows off the new offices
Condé Nast Publishing was among the first companies to sign a lease at the Graybar and took the 19th floor. In March 1928 its magazine Vanity Fair printed a full-page drawing of the building by the architect-delineator Hugh Ferriss, and described the new offices as a slightly more pretentious maisonette that was an integral part of Grand Central Station. Other tenants included J. Walter Thompson, Remington Rand and the architects of Rockefeller Center.
- 1953
Webb & Knapp buys the Graybar Building together with the Chrysler Building
In October 1953 Webb & Knapp acquired the Graybar Building together with the Chrysler Building and the Chrysler Building East. The Times reported at the time that the shareholders of Eastern Offices, Inc., the company behind the tower, included Graybar itself, the architects John Sloan and T. Markoe Robertson, and several members of the Todd family.
“Webb & Knapp acquired the Graybar Building, along with the Chrysler Building…”
- 1998
S.L. Green takes a 31-year sublease and starts a restoration that recreates a missing rat
In 1998 S.L. Green Realty acquired a 31-year operating sublease on the Graybar Building and began a major restoration overseen by the architects Beyer Blinder Belle. The work added a new entrance canopy and storefronts. It also recreated at least one of the rats that had gone missing above the center marquee of the south portal.
“S.L. Green Realty Corporation acquired a 31-year operating sublease on the building in 1998.”
- 2016
The city designates the Graybar Building a landmark
The Landmarks Preservation Commission designated the Graybar Building a New York City landmark on November 22, 2016, nearly ninety years after it opened alongside Grand Central Terminal.
Source: Wikipedia
Further reading
- Graybar BuildingWikipedia
- The rats of the Graybar BuildingEphemeral New York
Nearby
- 450 Lexington Avenue4 entries
- Grand Hyatt New York109 East 42nd Street | 12 entries
- MetLife Building (Pan Am Building)200 Park Avenue | 19 entries
- Grand Central Terminal89 East 42nd Street | 23 entries
- Chrysler Building405 Lexington Avenue | 20 entries
- St. Agnes Church143 East 43rd Street | 6 entries