Landmarks Preservation CoffillQssion August 24, 1982, Designation List 158 LP-1224 CARY BUILDING, 105-107 Chambers Street, Borough of Manhattan. Built 1856-57; architects King & Kellum; iron cast by D.D. Badger's Architectural Ironworks. Landmark Site: Borough of Manhattan Tax Map Block 145, Lot 3. On November 18, 1980, the Landmarks Preservation Commission held a public hearing on the proposed designation as a Landmark of the Cary Building and the proposed designa tion of the related Landmark Site (Item No. 10). The hearing was continued to February 10, 1981 (Item No. 3). Both hearings had been duly advertised in accordance with the provisions of law. Nine witnesses spoke in favor of designation. There was one speaker in opposition to designation. A letter hffi been received in favor of designation. DESCRIPTION AND ANALYSIS The Cary Building, built in 1856-57, is one of New York's most important 19th-century commercial structures. Designed by one of New York's most prominent firms specializ ing in commercial architecture, with cast-iron fronts fabricated by the city's most important foundry, it is a significant early product of the period during the middle of the century when New York's premier position in the commercial life of the nation was established. The pioneering Cary Building exemplifies three developments which set major patterns for the spectacular commercial growth of post-Civil War New York: 1) the commercial redevelopment of the area north and west of City Hall; 2) the introduction of the Italianate "palazzo" type; and 3) the development of the cast-iron facade. The build ing's architects, Gamaliel King and John Kellum, were important for their role in shap ing the new commercial city; and the foundry which cast the building's iron fronts, Daniel D. Badger's Architectural IronWorks,was the first major foundry in the business and eventually the most prolific and influential. As an early product of key trends in the city's commercial development, as one of the earliest surviving cast-iron buildings, and as the product of a major architect and foundry, the Cary Building is of seminal importance to the development of 19th-century commercial New York. The Commercial Transformation of Lower Manhattan and the Cary Building The unparalleled growth of New York City in the 19th century, which led to its emergence as the largest and richest city in the country, was primarily the result of commerce. Following the end of the War of 1812, which reopened the Atlantic trade routes, and the opening in 1825 of the Erie Canal, which connected New York to the interior, the city grew into the country's major port and trading center. Commercial pressure almost immediately began to push the city beyond the traditional limits of lower ~anhattan, and a pattern of rapid development and redevelopment emerged. The city's commercial districts moved northward into former residential areas, replacing older houses with first-class shops. New well-to-do residential districts developed still further north on the city's outskirts. Older prime commercial areas to the south became warehouse and wholesale districts.l

-2- Followingthe completion in 1846 of the A.T. Stewart store, the first department store in the country,2 on Broadway between Reade and Chambers Streets, the residential dis trict along Broadway north of City Hall rapidly changed into the city's leading commer cial district. Over the next forty years, the Broadway area between City Hall Park and Madison Square became the commercial heart of the metropolis. Stewart's store also set architectural precedents for that development: his architect, John Snook, designed an enormous stone "palazzo," with cast-iron and glass storefronts, in the newly fash ionable Italianate style. This was the first of the "commercial palaces" built for New York's "merchant princes," and it set the style and the type for the next several decades. The change in the Broadway area was noticed as early as 1852: The

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