Western Union Building
60 Hudson Street | also 56 Hudson Street | Tribeca | 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.
- 1924
Western Union quietly buys up the block, using middlemen so owners will not grow suspicious
From September 1924 Western Union bought a pair of seven-story buildings on Hudson Street, one occupied by the grocer R. C. Williams & Company, plus a stable and a one-story building on Thomas Street, all on the block where its future headquarters would rise. By November it held about 75 percent of the block between Hudson, Thomas and Worth Streets and West Broadway. It used intermediaries to deal with the remaining owners and finished assembling the site in July 1927.
“Western Union hired intermediaries to negotiate for the remainder of the block so existing property owners would not become suspicious.”
Source: Wikipedia
- 1928
Western Union announces plans for the world's largest telegraph building at 60 Hudson Street
In May 1928 Western Union formally announced its new building on the block between Hudson Street and West Broadway, from Thomas Street to Worth Street. The site sat close to the Stock Exchange, the commodity exchanges and the Wall Street ticker service, and to the Walker Street operations building linked to branch offices by 25 pneumatic tubes. The cheaper land in what is now Tribeca also eased the move of the many telegraph lines.
- 1929
Four workers die when a derrick collapses on the 22nd floor during construction
Work began on August 21, 1928, on a 24-story building that had to be fireproof and secure against theft and tampering from outside, which was why it was expected to take two years. In April 1929 a derrick on the 22nd floor collapsed and four workers were killed. According to the Wall Street Journal, it was also the first New York project to use a well-point system of drainage in its excavation.
Source: Wikipedia
- 1930
Western Union switches its telegraph lines to 60 Hudson with no break in service
In early October 1930 Western Union cut its telegraph circuits over from the old Walker Street building to the new headquarters without interrupting service, a feat treated as an engineering event of note. The "Telegraph Capitol of America" held its continuously running telegraph rooms on floors 11 through 15, with multiplex transmitters, printers, a stock ticker, a marine ticker and time-signal apparatus. The building contained seventy million feet of wire and thirty miles of conduit.
“…the "cutting over" of the telegraph lines from the Walker Street building to the 60 Hudson Street facility, without a break in service…”
- 1930
Messenger boys get classrooms, a library and a gym inside the telegraph headquarters
Western Union devoted the second floor and part of the mezzanine to its messenger service, with classes in high school subjects and mechanical trades, a library and a gymnasium. Elsewhere the building had training schools for operators, employee lounges, research laboratories on the ninth floor and the president's suite on the 24th. The main floor held an auditorium for lectures to staff and a cafeteria.
“…devoted to the use of the messenger service with classrooms for high school study and mechanical trades, a library, and a gymnasium…”
- 1930
Ralph Walker designs a cliff-like tower with brick that shades from dark to light
Designed by Ralph Walker of Voorhees, Gmelin & Walker, the Western Union Building rises as a cliff-like mass with complex setbacks, departing from the shape of its site. Its brick walls are textured like a curtain and part at ground level into proscenium-like entrances. It was among the first buildings with graded brick, dark at the base and lighter toward the top. The Landmarks Preservation Commission designated it on October 1, 1991.
“The building was among the first to have a graded brick color scheme, from dark at the bottom to light at the upper stories…”
- 1930
Five floors of the new headquarters run telegraph rooms around the clock
Floors eleven through fifteen held the telegraph rooms that ran around the clock, fitted with all-new equipment such as multiplex transmitters, simplex printers, telephone gear, the stock ticker, the marine ticker and time signal apparatus. Other floors handled routing of the building's wires, equipment testing and operator training schools, while the ninth floor held research laboratories and the twenty-fourth the president's suite.
- 1934
Lowell Thomas's news program is set to broadcast from the "Telegraph Capitol of America"
In February 1934 a Kingston, New York, newspaper announced that the Lowell Thomas news program would be broadcast on Friday evening, February 23, from the Western Union Building at 60 Hudson Street, which it called the Telegraph Capitol of America. Its headline said listeners could telegram Thomas for free that night. Researcher Barry Popik's collection of press clippings found the nickname in use at least that early.
Source: barrypopik.com
- 1948
Western Union sells 60 Hudson for $12.5 million and leases it back
In 1948 Western Union sold its headquarters to a Chicago-based company for $12.5 million and rented it back. The telegraph company planned to use the proceeds to pay off long-term debt and to modernize its equipment.
“In 1948, Western Union sold 60 Hudson Street to a Chicago-based company for $12.5 million, leasing back the structure…”
Source: Wikipedia
- 1973
Western Union moves its headquarters to New Jersey but keeps thousands of workers at 60 Hudson
By late 1971 Western Union had said it would move its corporate offices to New Jersey, while keeping nearly 3,000 workers at 60 Hudson Street. It moved its headquarters to Upper Saddle River in 1973 and kept occupying much of the Tribeca building. Western Union sold its leasehold in 1981 and gradually moved out after 1983.
Source: Wikipedia
- 1991
The city landmarks the building after the owner's representative asks three times to postpone the hearings
The Landmarks Preservation Commission held its first hearing in September 1989 and continued it twice more, in December 1989 and April 1990, each time at the request of the owner's representative. At the third hearing the talk turned to the building's special use by communications firms. Five witnesses spoke for designation at the first hearing, and the commission designated the Western Union Building on October 1, 1991.
“…the owner's representative again requested that the hearing be continued…”
- 2006
A city panel approves diesel fuel storage on six floors despite neighbors' fire fears
In 2006 a New York City panel approved storing nearly 2,000 gallons of diesel fuel on six floors of 60 Hudson Street, part of roughly 80,000 gallons of fuel oil held in the building. Community opponents argued that the fuel was a fire hazard that could cause a catastrophic failure of the building, which had become one of the world's major internet hubs.
Source: Wikipedia
- 2019
Friends of Duane Park get into the usually closed landmark lobby for a Groundhog Day fundraiser
On a Saturday evening in early February 2019 the building's management opened its long-closed lobby to the Friends of Duane Park and about 75 ticket buyers for the group's third annual Groundhog Day fundraiser. The block-long lobby has patterned brick walls and a vaulted ceiling. The architect George Boyle, who has adapted the building to its current uses, called it one of the first fully brick interiors. More than 100 telecommunications tenants now occupy the building.
Source: tribecatrib.com
- 2024
60 Hudson is described as Manhattan's densest carrier hotel for internet traffic
Telecommunications companies now fill the building as a place to connect their networks. A Digital Realty manager told Data Center Frontier in 2024 that it is probably the largest and densest carrier hotel in Manhattan, with its meet-me room on the ninth floor. A cable vault under the building lets carriers bring in lines, including subsea cables that land on Long Island, Wall Street or New Jersey.
Source: datacenterfrontier.com
Further reading
- 60 Hudson StreetWikipedia
Nearby
- 50 Hudson Street2 entries
- 44 Hudson Street1 entry
- 84 Thomas Street6 entries
- 86 Thomas Street1 entry
- 42 Hudson Street1 entry
- 11 Worth Street2 entries