Financial History Issue 113 (Spring 2015) | Page 27

The first Produce Exchange was at 39 Whitehall Street, between Water and Pearl Streets. It was designed by Leopold Eidlitz and completed in 1861. After the Produce Exchange moved to a new building on Bowling Green, the United States Army Building was constructed in the 1880s on the foundations of this building. The Army Building was bombed by protestors during the Vietnam War. George B. Post won a design competition for the new Produce Exchange at 2 Broadway, facing Bowling Green Park. The building required 4,000 drawings for its design, and the flag flying above the tower was at the time the largest ever made. The main hall of the Produce Exchange was 144 feet wide by 220 feet long and featured a skylight 60 feet above the floor. The Produce Exchange was demolished in 1957. The New York Stock Exchange adopted its current name in 1863, and two years later the organization ceased being a tenant occupying a variety of rented spaces when it moved into its own building on Broad Street. This photograph from the renowned firm of E. & H.T. Anthony & Co. was taken when the marble of the exterior was still gleaming white. Later photographs show the effects of urban pollution. This 1880s photograph shows the entrance to the Drexel, Morgan & Co. building at 23 Wall Street at the left. At the time, J.P. Morgan was in partnership with the prominent Drexel family of Philadelphia. After the death of Anthony J. Drexel in 1893, the firm was renamed J.P. Morgan & Co. At the center of the photograph is the enlarged and extensively redesigned New York Stock Exchange. The architect for the project was James Renwick Jr., who also designed St. Patrick’s Cathedral. His building for the NYSE featured eight polished red granite columns at the entryway. www.MoAF.org  |  Spring 2015  |  FINANCIAL HISTORY  25