BROADWAY – CORTLANDT SURVIVOR

by Kevin Walsh

There is a short run of mid-size buildings on Broadway between Cortlandt and Dey Streets downtown — some of them have been around for nearly 150 years despite all the skyscrapering going on along Broadway north and south of them.

 

The Germania Building at 175 Broadway handily notes the date of construction on the cornice, as many late 19th Century buildings do. 1865 was the year the Civil War ended and Lincoln was killed. It was built by the Germania Fire Insurance Company; its cast-iron tower turns 148 in 2013.

The World Trade Center rose and fell just southwest of the Germania, and the Fulton Transit Center is rising just to its north, but the Germania has fallen through the real estate cracks and carries on.

7/1/13

 

5 comments

John July 1, 2013 - 11:54 am

There were more of those C.I. buildings on Broadway between Reade St. and Worth St. across from Federal Plaza. I haven’t been there in years though.

Reply
John T July 1, 2013 - 1:54 pm

That 4th floor balcony – on July 4th, 1976 duing the Bicentennial party downtown, someone pushed a couple of big speakers on to that balcony and blasted the Beatles Rock n’ Roll album on Broadway. It was a spontaneous dance party, one of many great memories during that huge, fabulous, street fair.

Reply
Stuart Shay July 1, 2013 - 9:37 pm

The Germania Fire Insurance Company Left the Building in 1869, it did not go bankrupt

The history of the company can be found in the following PDF
http://www.nyc.gov/html/lpc/downloads/pdf/reports/germaniafinal.pdf

Reply
Kevin Walsh July 2, 2013 - 10:02 am

Ok — fixed —

Reply
bill May 13, 2020 - 5:06 pm

thanks for the info the company moved to the Bowery which was the center of Kleindeutschland at the time

Reply

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