American Telephone & Telegraph Company Building

History and architecture

The American Telephone & Telegraph Company Building, designed by noted architect William Welles Bosworth and constructed in three phases from 1912 to 1922, is an important example of Greek-inspired neo-Classical design. Envisioned by company president Theodore Newton Vail as a grand corporate symbol, the building was designed to create an impression of quality, durability, and permanence expressive of the Telephone Company’s commitment to public service.

Its architect, Welles Bosworth, was a prominent designer of classical buildings and a leading preservation architect and this, his only large-scale office building, is considered one of his finest works. Inspired by Greek and Roman precedents, the facades of the American Telephone and Telegraph Building are clad in Vermont granite and incorporate nine superimposed colonnades, with eight three-story high Ionic colonnades based on the order of the then recently excavated Temple of Sardis stacked on a double-height base of colossal columns copied from the Doric order of the Athenian Parthenon.

The impression of solidity is enhanced by the use of stone spandrel panels at the base of each story grouping which contrast with bronze spandrels and window frames in the upper two-thirds of the bays.

The spacing of the bays on Dey Street and certain other features of the design reflect the theories of Professor William H. Goodyear regarding Greek architectural practice and were intended to create a sense of “rhythmic beauty.” The facades are beautifully detailed with Greek-inspired ornament, including swags, and wreaths, lion heads, frets, paterae, anthemia, and delicate foliate reliefs. The concern for classical detailing also extended to the articulation of the subway stair enclosures on Dey and Fulton Streets and to the southbound platform of the Fulton Street IRT subway where the A level basement Broadway facade of the 1912-16 portion of the building was faced with granite and given special bronze gates and shop windows enriched with classical motifs.

The western end of the building which contained the company’s executive offices is surmounted by a small Ionic temple with a stepped roof modeled on the mausoleum of Halicarnasus and is capped by a golden orb which originally supported a gilded bronze figure of The Genius of Electricity. From 1916 until 1983, this building was the headquarters of the American Telephone and Telegraph Company, the largest corporation in the world for much of the twentieth century.

It remains in use as an office building.