Former Rogers and Peet Building

History and architecture

The Rogers, Peet & Company building is an eight-story neo-Renaissance style commercial and office building designed by the firm of John B. Snook & Sons. Constructed in 1899-1900 for clergyman Eugene A. Hoffman, the building was occupied by Rogers, Peet & Co., a well-known retailer of men’s and boys’ clothing, for a period of more than 70 years.

The Rogers, Peet & Co. building is an early example of a steel skeleton-framed skyscraper influenced by the Chicago school of architects, and stands out among a group of important early skyscrapers located in the vicinity of City Hall, New York’s original skyscraper district, for its clear articulation of the structural grid and restrained use of stylized classical ornament.

Constructed using the latest in fireproofing technologies, the building expresses its structural steel framing in the wide window bays on the east and north facades that are divided by strong vertical brick piers and recessed cast-iron or brick spandrels. The building is clad in stone and buff brick and crowned by a deep molded and denticulated copper cornice. In 1909 a three-bay addition to the building was constructed on Warren Street, executed by the firm of Townsend, Steinle & Haskell but continuing the original design.

During a long and prolific career, architect John B. Snook (1815-1901) designed numerous buildings in New York City as well as several others in Brooklyn, the Bronx, Westchester County, and New Jersey. In 1887 Snook’s three sons and a son-inlaw joined him in practice, thus establishing the firm of John B. Snook & Sons. It remains unclear what role the elder Snook played in the design of the Rogers, Peet & Company Building, but the building nevertheless represents a culmination of the architect’s 64-year career of designing and building commercial structures.

Rogers, Peet & Company

During the second half of the 19th century, the American clothing industry underwent a dramatic shift from custom-made clothing to pre-manufactured clothing as a result of industrial expansion and the corresponding growth of urban and national markets. An important element in this change was the emergence of advertising as an industry in its own right. For most of the 19th century, bombastic or outright false ad copy had been the norm in the retail trade, and the expectation among consumers. But as mass-production of standardized goods began to take hold, and as technology improved to facilitate mass communication, companies responded by modernizing their merchandising and advertising practices.

Rogers, Peet & Company was founded in 1874, when Broadway clothing merchants Marvin N. Rogers and Charles B. Peet joined their respective businesses to take advantage of the growing market for ready-made men’s clothing. The other founding members of the firm, which dealt primarily in retail but also ran a wholesale operation, were Frank R. Chambers and William R. H. Martin. Following the pioneering example of John Wanamaker’s retail establishment of the 1860s and 1870s in Philadelphia, Rogers Peet early on adopted a fixed-price, quality-guaranteed policy and began to rely on truthful advertising as a primary marketing tool.

An 1876 newspaper article noted the firm’s huge inventory, low prices, and use of price tags, a novelty in retail at that time. The growing emphasis on honesty, respectability, and customer service in retail was reflected in the partners’ decision, in 1886, to introduce an employee profit-sharing system as a means of encouraging professionalism, salesmanship, and productivity. By the 1890s, Rogers, Peet & Co. had gained widespread recognition for these forward-thinking business strategies, and especially for their innovative and popular advertising style.