1876

The Drexel Building at 23 Wall Street in New York, the six-story tower that Anthony Drexel had erected for J.P. Morgan in 1876.

The building was the home to Drexel, Morgan & Co with the powerful J.P. Morgan as chief executive after the death of Anthony Drexel. When Drexel passed away in 1894 the company’s name was changed to J.P. Morgan & Co.

It was sold by the Drexel family to the 'House of Morgan' in 1912 and torn down the following year to make way for the marble palace that stands there today.  

When Anthony Drexel bought the land in 1876, which was only 771 square feet, he paid $248,958 or an astounding $348 a square foot. By 1913 the land without the building was assessed for tax purposes at $2.5 million.

1913

23 Wall Street was the original home of JP Morgan Bank or the 'House of Morgan'. For the JP Morgan & Company Building, J.P. Morgan used Trowbridge and Livingston and commissioned them to design a four-story monumental and imposing structure in the neoclassical style. The facade was solidly constructed out of 3-foot deep blocks of white Tennessee marble.

The building contains an astylar exterior, with plain limestone walls pierced by unadorned windows in deep reveals. The ground story is rendered as a single high piano nobile over a low basement; with a main cornice above.

The banking room, which took up nearly the entire ground floor, contained offices and was used for banking transactions. This space contained a coffered ceiling with a dome and, later, a large crystal chandelier. Mechanical equipment and vaults were in the basement, with executive offices and employee facilities on the upper floors.

In 1957, the building was linked to neighboring 15 Broad Street, and the two buildings served as the J.P. Morgan & Co. headquarters until 1988. During the 2000s, there were plans to convert both 23 Wall Street and 15 Broad Street into a condominium complex. 23 Wall Street was sold in 2008 to interests associated with the billionaire industrialist Sam Pa. Since the late 2000s, it has been in a state of disuse.