The Prudence Building, or Prudence Bonds Building, was a fourteen-story edifice at the southeast corner of

Madison Avenue Madison Avenue is a north-south avenue in the borough of Manhattan in New York City, New York, that carries northbound one-way traffic. It runs from Madison Square (at 23rd Street) to meet the southbound Harlem River Drive at 142nd Stree ...

and 43rd Street, in

Midtown Manhattan Midtown Manhattan is the central portion of the New York City borough of Manhattan, serving as the city's primary central business district. Midtown is home to some of the city's most prominent buildings, including the Empire State Building, the ...

New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...

. It was the headquarters of the Prudence Bonds Corporation, opening in October 1923. Stores on the street level were leased to affluent shops. The banking floor was a close likeness of the

Bankers Trust Company Bankers Trust was a historic American banking organization. The bank merged with Alex. Brown & Sons in 1997 before being acquired by Deutsche Bank in 1999. Deutsche Bank sold the Trust and Custody division of Bankers Trust to State Street Corpo ...

building at the southeast corner of

Fifth Avenue Fifth Avenue is a major thoroughfare in the borough (New York City), borough of Manhattan in New York City. The avenue runs south from 143rd Street (Manhattan), West 143rd Street in Harlem to Washington Square Park in Greenwich Village. The se ...

and

42nd Street 42nd Street most commonly refers to: *42nd Street (Manhattan), a major crosstown street in the New York City borough of Manhattan It may also refer to: *42nd Street (film), ''42nd Street'' (film), a 1933 American Warner Bros. musical film with lyri ...

. The Bank of Manhattan was accorded a 21-year lease and moved its headquarters from

40 Wall Street 40 Wall Street (also the Trump Building; formerly the Bank of Manhattan Trust Building and Manhattan Company Building) is a neo-Gothic skyscraper on Wall Street between Nassau and William streets in the Financial District of Manhattan in Ne ...

. The building was demolished in 2016 and the site is now the location of

One Vanderbilt One Vanderbilt is a 73-story supertall skyscraper at the corner of 42nd Street (Manhattan), 42nd Street and Vanderbilt Avenue in the Midtown Manhattan neighborhood of New York City. Designed by Kohn Pedersen Fox for developer SL Green Realty, ...

Design

The structure was built on a plot 66.8 by . The building was entered from Madison Avenue via antique bronze doors. The entrance floor opened into a sixteen-foot-wide marble corridor with elevators leading to the upper floors. An imposing stairway of Italian Travertine marble, ten feet wide with ample landings, led directly to the banking floor. This area was eleven feet above street level. It was composed of marble with a twenty-foot ceiling of

Roman architecture Ancient Roman architecture adopted the external language of classical ancient Greek architecture for the purposes of the ancient Romans, but was different from Greek buildings, becoming a new architectural style. The two styles are often con ...

classic design. An artistic screen of marble and statuary bronze surrounded the banking space. The former ''Charles building'' was incorporated into the Prudence Building, which encompassed the area once occupied by several structures. The Charles building space became the loan department of the new edifice, a quiet section constructed of steel.''New Prudence-Bonds Building'', New York Times, July 8, 1923, pg. RE2.

Political importance

The headquarters of the

New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York New York may also refer to: Places United Kingdom * ...

State Committee for the presidential campaign of

Al Smith Alfred Emanuel Smith (December 30, 1873 – October 4, 1944) was the 42nd governor of New York, serving from 1919 to 1920 and again from 1923 to 1928. He was the Democratic Party (United States), Democratic Party's presidential nominee in the 1 ...

opened in the Prudence Building on May 5, 1924. The committee's chairman was

Franklin Delano Roosevelt Franklin Delano Roosevelt (January 30, 1882April 12, 1945), also known as FDR, was the 32nd president of the United States, serving from 1933 until his death in 1945. He is the longest-serving U.S. president, and the only one to have served ...

. After retiring from politics in 1929, Smith made his permanent home an apartment at the southeast corner of 12th Street and Fifth Avenue. His office was in the Prudence Building. It was the administrative center of

Tammany Hall Tammany Hall, also known as the Society of St. Tammany, the Sons of St. Tammany, or the Columbian Order, was an American political organization founded in 1786 and incorporated on May 12, 1789, as the Tammany Society. It became the main local ...

in 1950, having relocated from their former headquarters at East 17th Street and 4th Avenue in 1943. Specifically its offices were on the 5th floor of the Prudence Building.

Business locale

C. Klauberg & Bros., Inc., a razor and cutlery firm established in the early 19th century moved its quarters from the Prudence Building to the Biltmore Hotel at Madison Avenue and 43rd Street, January 1936. By making the change in location, the company increased its space by three times. Hoffritz, Inc., a cutlery interest with a store in the McAlpin Hotel, leased a unit in the Prudence Building in May 1936. Wheelock, Harris & Company negotiated the rental.''Expanding Firms Get Quarters In Midtown'', New York Times, May 7, 1936, pg. 43.

References

* * * * * {{coord, 40, 45.2, 0, N, 73, 58.72, 0, W, display=title Demolished buildings and structures in Manhattan Former skyscrapers Office buildings in Manhattan Office buildings completed in 1923 1920s architecture in the United States 1923 establishments in New York City