The Trinity Court Building was a building in

Lower Manhattan Lower Manhattan, also known as Downtown Manhattan or Downtown New York City, is the southernmost part of the Boroughs of New York City, New York City borough of Manhattan. The neighborhood is History of New York City, the historical birthplace o ...

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 ...

History

The earliest building to carry the name was built in 1879 for the

Western Union Telegraph Company The Western Union Company is an American multinational financial services corporation headquartered in Denver, Colorado. Founded in 1851 as the New York and Mississippi Valley Printing Telegraph Company in Rochester, New York, the company ch ...

. It had six stories, 5,000 square feet of space, stores on the ground floor, and commercial lofts in the rest. None of the sides were of equal length; the front facade was long and the other facades measured , , and .

Western Union The Western Union Company is an American multinational financial services corporation headquartered in Denver, Denver, Colorado. Founded in 1851 as the New York and Mississippi Valley Printing Telegraph Company in Rochester, New York, the co ...

sold it in 1888. The building was the focus of a complex tort in the 1890s over property value loss due to the operation of the Manhattan Elevated Railroad (later

IRT Sixth Avenue Line The Interborough Rapid Transit Company, IRT Sixth Avenue Line, often called the Sixth Avenue Elevated or Sixth Avenue El, was the second elevated railway in Manhattan in New York City, following the IRT Ninth Avenue Line, Ninth Avenue Elevated. ...

) in front of it. The builder (Western Union) and the defendant (railway) were both controlled by the same group of investors, who were asserted to be in collusion against buyer Augustus D. Shepard to nullify any damages collected. Mutual Life Assurance foreclosed on the building in 1914, and auctioned it to Alliance Realty. It was sold in 1919 to Frazar & Co, which was believed to have had plans to replace it with a new

skyscraper A skyscraper is a tall continuously habitable building having multiple floors. Most modern sources define skyscrapers as being at least or in height, though there is no universally accepted definition, other than being very tall high-rise bui ...

. The building was demolished in 1926. It was built in place the Trinity Court Building (1927–2015) (II).

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Trinity Court Building (1879-1926) Buildings and structures completed in 1879 Buildings and structures demolished in 1926 Financial District, Manhattan Skyscraper office buildings in Manhattan Demolished buildings and structures in Manhattan 1879 establishments in New York (state) 1926 disestablishments in New York (state)