National Register of Historic Places

Liberty Tower

New York, New York County, New York
Listed
September 14, 1983
Type
Building
Period
Industrial
Ref No.
83001734

About this property

The Liberty Tower, formerly the Sinclair Oil Building, is a 33-story residential building in the Financial District of Manhattan in New York City. It is at 55 Liberty Street at the northwest corner with Nassau Street. It was built in 1909–10 as a commercial office building and was designed by Henry Ives Cobb in a Gothic Revival style. The site is adjacent to the New York Chamber of Commerce Building, while the Federal Reserve Bank of New York Building is to the east, across Nassau Street. Upon its completion, Liberty Tower was said to be the world's tallest building with such a small footprint, having a floor area ratio of 30 to 1. The building's articulation consists of three horizontal sections similar to the components of a column, namely a base, shaft, and capital. The limestone building is covered in white architectural terracotta with elaborate ornament. When the building opened in 1910, one of its first commercial tenants was the law office of future U.S. president Franklin Delano Roosevelt. Shortly after World War I, the entire building was bought by Sinclair Oil. In 1979, architect Joseph Pell Lombardi converted the building from commercial use into residential apartments and renamed it the "Liberty Tower", in one of the first such conversions in Manhattan south of Canal Street. The building was designated a city landmark by the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission in 1982 and was added to the National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) in 1983. It is also a contributing property to the Wall Street Historic District, an NRHP district created in 2007.

Location

55 Liberty St.
New York, New York County, New York
40.70870, -74.00934

Categories

ARCHITECTURE
National Register nomination ›
Sources

Property data from the National Register of Historic Places, National Park Service (public domain).

Description adapted from Wikipedia under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

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Nearby Historic Sites

Chamber of Commerce Building
Industrial
0 mi
Federal Reserve Bank of New York
Early Republic
0 mi
John Street Methodist Church
Industrial
0.1 mi
Equitable Building
Industrial
0.1 mi
Corbin Building
Industrial
0.1 mi

Nearby Battles

New York Armory Raid
1775Revolutionary War
0.3 mi

Questions about this property

When was Liberty Tower listed on the National Register?

Liberty Tower was listed on the National Register of Historic Places on September 14, 1983.

What type of historic resource is Liberty Tower?

Liberty Tower is classified as a building in the National Register of Historic Places.

What is the period of significance for Liberty Tower?

The period of significance for Liberty Tower is recorded as the industrial era.

Can I research the history near Liberty Tower?

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