Cary Building

History and architecture

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 specializing 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 building's architects, Gamaliel King and John Kellum, were important for their role in shaping the new commercial city; and the foundry which cast the building's iron fronts, Daniel D. Badger's Architectural Iron Works, 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.