British Empire Building
620 5th Avenue | also 4 West 50th Street, 8 West 50th Street, 6 West 50th Street | Midtown | built 1937
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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.
- 1931
Hugh Robertson revives the idea of a British commercial center in New York
The idea of a British trade center in America was not new. By 1925 the United States already had offices in Bush House on the Strand in London, and a reciprocal British center for New York had been planned years earlier, until talks over a Rector Street site failed. Hugh Robertson revived the project in 1931, and it became the British Empire Building at Rockefeller Center.
- 1932
Britain leases the first of Rockefeller Center's themed buildings and a baron lays the cornerstone
The British government leased the building in January 1932, the first of Rockefeller Center's themed buildings on Fifth Avenue to be spoken for, and planned it as a duty-free showcase for British commerce. On July 2, 1932, Francis Hopwood, Lord Southborough, placed the cornerstone. The steel went up in sixteen workdays, and the frame topped out on November 15 of that year.
Source: Wikipedia
- 1932
The British Building opens Rockefeller Center's Fifth Avenue frontage with an empire theme
The federal nomination for Rockefeller Center's historic status says work on 620 Fifth Avenue began in 1932 and that it was the first building on the Fifth Avenue frontage. Its sculpture takes the empire as its theme, drawing on Britain's natural resources and commerce, with doors and panels by Lee Lawrie, Carl Paul Jennewein and Rene Chambellan. La Maison Francaise, its twin across Channel Gardens, opened five months later.
“Begun in 1932, this was the first building in the complex to be constructed on the Fifth Avenue frontage.”
Source: National Park Service
- 1933
Dunhill opens a three-story tobacco shop with the world's largest conditioned humidor
Dunhill, the cigarette and tobacco brand, opened a three-story shop in the building in November 1933, with an Arthur Crisp mural and the largest conditioned humidor in the world. Other early tenants included Yardley London and Imperial Airways. The humidor room kept running continuously until rising rents forced it to shrink in 1985.
Source: Wikipedia
- 1935
A coin display with specimens from Ethiopia opens to the public in the building
On October 12, 1935, a coin exhibition opened to the public in the British Empire Building at Rockefeller Center. Among the exhibits were specimens of Ethiopian coins then in circulation. The Times headline mentioned a Selassie issue and thalers of 1870, and the display was open again the next day from 11 to 6 o'clock.
Source: Internet Archive
- 1937
The British Empire Building becomes the first completed Rockefeller Center building to be fully rented
In April 1937 the New York Times reported that the British Empire Building at 620 Fifth Avenue was fully rented. Of the eleven completed units in the midtown development, it was the first to reach 100 percent occupancy. The story ran on the front page of the paper's real estate section.
Source: Internet Archive
- 1942
An Anzac memorial garden opens on the roof, and Anzac Day services follow every year
A memorial to Australian and New Zealand fighters of World War I opened in the rooftop garden in 1942. Anzac Day services were held at the building each year after that. Lease terms meant the April 25 commemorations could take place only on weekends, and the ceremonies continued on the roof into the twenty-first century.
Source: Wikipedia
- 1943
Henry J. Kaiser takes part of the building's third floor for his personal New York offices
On June 13, 1943, Henry J. Kaiser disclosed that he would set up his own personal offices in New York, taking part of the British Empire Building's third floor at Rockefeller Center and assembling a staff there. His home offices had been in Oakland, California. He planned to supervise his wide range of interests from the city.
Source: Internet Archive
- 1985
Dunhill closes its Fifth Avenue humidor room, whose lockers bore the names of Kennedy and Churchill
In February 1985 Dunhill told customers to clear out their private cedar lockers by the end of the month, because it could no longer afford the soaring Fifth Avenue rent to store more than 400,000 cigars. The lockers bore gold-lettered names including John F. Kennedy, Winston Churchill, Alfred Hitchcock and Milton Berle. The store planned a more compact humidor open only to regular buyers.
Source: Internet Archive
- 1985
The Landmarks Commission designates Rockefeller Center, including the British Building
On April 23, 1985, the Landmarks Preservation Commission designated Rockefeller Center a New York City landmark in its Designation List 179. The designated property included the British Building, formerly called the British Empire Building, at 620 Fifth Avenue, the promenade and Channel Gardens beside it, and the sunken plaza with its skating rink and the statue of Prometheus.
“British Building (fonnerly the British Enpire Building), 620 Fifth Avenue; promenade and channel gardens…”
- 1986
Workers restore Rockefeller Center's Fifth Avenue roof gardens, with this building's turn next
The Times reported in June 1986 that a crew of fifteen had restored two of the roof gardens on the low Fifth Avenue buildings, carrying plants and soil by hand. The gardens were designed in 1931 by British horticulturist Ralph Hancock and Raymond Hood, and each restoration cost $48,000. The garden manager planned to restore the British Empire Building's rooftop the following spring.
Source: Internet Archive
- 1998
Landmarks Commission urges a retreat from plans to turn Fifth Avenue limestone into glass shopfronts
In 1998 Rockefeller Center's owners, Tishman Speyer, proposed adding six and a half feet to the one-story windows on four limestone buildings along Fifth Avenue, including the British Empire Building. On June 30 the Landmarks Preservation Commission urged the owners to scale back the plan, and preservationists feared it would diminish the impact of the buildings' huge doors.
Source: The New York Times
- 2000
Tishman Speyer and the Crown family buy Rockefeller Center's original buildings for $1.85 billion
In December 2000 Tishman Speyer, led by Jerry Speyer, teamed up with Chicago's Lester Crown family to buy the original 14 buildings and the land of Rockefeller Center, including the British Empire Building, for $1.85 billion. Speyer was a close friend of David Rockefeller. In 1995 David Rockefeller and a consortium led by Goldman Sachs had agreed to buy the buildings for $1.1 billion.
“Tishman Speyer, led by David Rockefeller's close friend Jerry Speyer and the Lester Crown family of Chicago, bought the original 14 buildings…”
Source: Wikipedia
Further reading
- British Empire BuildingWikipedia
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