Excelsior Power Company Building facts for kids
Quick facts for kids Excelsior Power Company Building |
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Front of the building (2013)
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| Former names | Excelsior Steam Power Company Building |
| General information | |
| Architectural style | Romanesque Revival |
| Address | 33–43 Gold Street |
| Town or city | New York City |
| Country | United States |
| Coordinates | 40°42′32″N 74°00′22″W / 40.70889°N 74.00611°W |
| Construction started | 1882 (initial section) 1887 (remainder of building) |
| Completed | 1889 |
| Technical details | |
| Floor count | 4 |
| Design and construction | |
| Architect | William G. Grinnell |
| Main contractor | Robert L. Darragh |
| Known for | Oldest remaining power station building in Manhattan |
| Designated: | December 13, 2016 |
| Reference #: | 0962 |
The Excelsior Power Company Building is a cool old building at 33–43 Gold Street in the Financial District of Manhattan, New York City. It was designed by William G. Grinnell in the Romanesque Revival style, which means it looks a bit like old Roman buildings with lots of arches. Robert L. Darragh built it.
Finished in 1889, this building is super important because it's the oldest known building in Manhattan that was built specifically to generate electricity for businesses. Imagine, it was like a giant battery charger for the city!
The Excelsior Power Company Building faces Gold Street and has seven full floors. On top, there's a small tower with extra sections added later. You'll notice cool round arches with fancy designs. The bottom part of the building has special clay decorations, and there's even a sign that used to show the Excelsior Power Company's name.
The very first part of the building was put up in 1882 for a company called American Heating and Power. The main building you see today was finished between 1887 and 1889, and it started working in 1888. It began as a main power station, but later it became an electrical substation, which helps manage electricity. In 1978, the company that owned it, Consolidated Edison, sold the building. It was then joined with a nearby property and turned into apartments. In 2016, the Excelsior Power Company Building was officially named a New York City landmark, meaning it's a special historical place.
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Building Design and Location
The Excelsior Power Company Building is located at 33–43 Gold Street in the Financial District of Manhattan, New York City. This area is known for its tall buildings and busy streets. The building is southwest of Fulton Street. It's actually part of a bigger building that covers addresses from 33–51 Gold Street and 82–88 Fulton Street.
William Covington Gunnell designed the Excelsior Power Company Building. The New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission (LPC) says this is the only building Gunnell is known to have designed in the city. Robert L. Darragh built it. He was a master mason, which means he was a very skilled builder who also worked on other famous New York City buildings like the Union Theological Seminary.
When it was first built, the upper floors of the Excelsior Power Company Building were rented out to businesses, especially factories. The actual steam power plant was in the basement. This basement even extended under the entire width of Gold Street! This plant was the main power source for a large area of downtown Manhattan.
What the Outside Looks Like
The Excelsior Power Company Building faces east towards Gold Street and has seven full stories. A small tower sits on top of the seventh-floor roof. Later, in 1902 and 1979, one-story additions were built next to the tower. There's also a water tower on the roof.
The front of the building on Gold Street is mostly made of red brick, laid in a common pattern. The very bottom part is made of granite. The front is divided into five vertical sections of different widths. There are two sections that stick out, two that are set back, and a slightly less deep one in the middle. The building has both vertical elements, like brick columns that stick out a little, and horizontal elements, like window sills and arched walkways.
The original main entrance was in the middle section. It had a metal sign that said "EXCELSIOR POWER CO. BLDG." and a clay plaque that read "1888 A.D." This old entrance was later changed into two windows, and a new entrance was built next to it. You'll see large round arches over the second floor, supported by brick columns. These arches really stand out! Above the arches in the set-back sections, there are fancy clay decorations that look like leaves. In the sections that stick out, there are decorative bands above the arches. A cool, old-fashioned lamp hangs from the second floor outside the middle section; it's even an official city landmark!
On the third through sixth floors, the windows are in flat-arched openings. The windows on the sixth floor and the seventh floor of the middle section have bricks arranged in a special way around them. The seventh floor has round-arched windows with decorative bands above them. A decorative ledge, which looks like it has little castle-like openings, runs above the seventh floor. The small tower on top of the middle section also has round-arched windows and decorative brick columns at its corners.
Building History
In the 1800s, the area around the Excelsior Power Company Building was very busy. It was near Manhattan's original diamond district and "Newspaper Row," where many newspapers were printed. It was also close to the Pearl Street Station, which was the very first commercial power plant in the United States, starting in 1882. The Pearl Street Station powered a very important part of the city.
The Excelsior Power Company Building is special because it's the oldest power plant building still standing in Manhattan. The Excelsior Power Company itself started in 1873. It first ran a large boiler near Printing House Square, providing steam to the newspaper buildings.
How It Was Built
The American Heating and Power Company was the first power company to build on this site. They started laying steam pipes in late 1881. In January 1882, American Heating bought a piece of land on Gold Street. That April, William Gunnell drew up plans for a four-story power plant. However, only the first two stories and part of the basement were finished.
By June 1882, American Heating had laid half a mile of pipes under the streets. But within a year, the company had problems because some of their pipes exploded. A manager took over American Heating's properties in May 1883. The company's properties, including the Gold Street plant, were sold at an auction the next year. The plant was then owned by the Columbian Heating and Power Company from 1884 to 1887.
The Excelsior Steam Power Company bought the power plant in October 1887. Excelsior hired Gunnell again to design changes for the building. His plans were to make the building seven stories tall and add a basement. Part of the front of the building was also set back to let more natural light into the lower floors, since Gold Street was narrow. This work, which covered the northern two-thirds of the plant, was finished by April 1888. That month, Gunnell planned to make the southern part of the site seven stories tall too. The plant's power generators, called dynamos, were working by July 1888, and the expanded power plant was completely finished in March 1889.
How It Was Used
The Excelsior Power Company Building originally used a "direct current" system to provide power. In 1888, the plant had six large boilers and a powerful engine. A huge 14-foot-wide spinning wheel and a wide belt sent power to seven generators, each producing a lot of power. This power was then sent to businesses in the surrounding neighborhood. By the end of 1889, the original generators were going to be replaced with even more powerful ones. The upper floors of the building were used by different businesses, including jewelers and printers.
In 1892, a structure was added to the roof. The building had some small fires in its early years, including in 1894 and 1901. The Excelsior company was bought by the New York Heat, Light and Power Company in 1895. The new company continued to use the plant to generate power and steam. Besides powering its own tenants, the Excelsior Power Company Building also supplied electricity to other office buildings and factories nearby, and even to the New York Daily Press newspaper.
Skylights were added to the roof in 1899. Around the same time, the Excelsior plant became an electrical substation with backup generators. The New York Heat company was bought in 1898 by a firm that later became part of the New York Edison Company in 1901. New York Edison built a 12-foot-tall structure on the roof of the building's southern section in 1902.
By the early 1920s, the backup generators were no longer used, and the businesses on the upper floors had moved out. The basement and the first three floors held large electrical devices called transformers. The fourth through seventh floors were used as offices by New York Edison. This continued until at least the late 1940s.
New York Edison's next company, Consolidated Edison, stopped using the Gold Street substation by 1961. They then bought the six-story building next door. The Excelsior Power Company Building was first thought of as a landmark in 1977, but the owner at the time didn't want it to be.
Becoming Apartments
Consolidated Edison sold the Excelsior Power Building and the building next door in 1978. A company called Thurcon Properties Limited bought both buildings. They turned them into an apartment complex with 197 units, from small studio apartments to larger three-bedroom ones. The renovations were managed by Wechsler, Grasso & Menziuso. By 1979, a newspaper writer noted that 70% of the apartments in the Excelsior Power Company Building were already rented!
In late 2015, the LPC held a public meeting to decide if the Excelsior Power Company Building should become a city landmark. Most people supported the idea, but some were against it. This was part of a review of many buildings that had been considered for landmark status for a long time but never officially approved. In December 2016, after many years, the Excelsior Power Company Building was finally made a New York City designated landmark.
