1 Wall Street Building

History and architecture

Constructed in 1929-31 as the corporate headquarters of the Irving Trust Company, this 50-story, limestone faced skyscraper is situated on what was considered the "most expensive real estate in New York," the intersection of Wall Street and Broadway, The prestigious location became the site of this extraordinary Art Deco tower designed by the noted architect Ralph T, Walker of the firm of Voorhees, Gmelin & Walker.

The Irving Trust Company had been founded as the Irving Bank in 1851 in New York's Washington Market area to serve the needs of local merchants and food distributors, It then evolved through a series of mergers and acquisitions that began in 1907 when the Irving Bank merged with the New York Exchange Bank. By 1928, the bank had outgrown its impressive quarters in the Woolworth Building and was planning its own building on Wall Street. Ralph Walker, the architect chosen for the new facility, was well-known for his distinctive designs of buildings for the telephone and telegraph industries, In his work, Walker attempted to express the possibilities of modern machine technology in order to create buildings that would be suggestive of the modern period.