New York Produce Exchange

The New York Produce Exchange's origins date to the New York Corn Exchange,{{harvnb|ps=.|Carhart|1911|p=214}}{{efn|The New York Corn Exchange was distinct from the Corn Exchange Bank, which had been formed by members of the Corn Exchange, but which was not part of the exchange itself.{{harvnb|King|1893|ps=.|pp=729–730}}}} which had been chartered in 1853.{{cite book|author=New York (State)|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=hBwUAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA133|title=A Compilation of the Laws of the State of New York: Relating Particularly to the City of New York|last2=Davies|first2=H.E.|publisher=Banks, Gould & Company|year=1855|page=133}} At the time, New York City's flour and grain trades were largely outdoors, centered at the intersection of Broad Street and South Street.{{harvnb|ps=.|Carhart|1911|pp=213–214}}{{harvnb|Wheatly|1886|ps=.|p=198}} The Corn Exchange combined four buildings on Broad and South Streets to make an L-shaped gathering room. The temporary headquarters had become inadequate for the exchange's needs by the late 1850s, with at least one thousand merchants crowded into the dingy quarters.{{harvnb|Edwards|1884|ps=.|p=67}}{{cite news|date=May 3, 1884|title=The Produce Exchange: From the Old to the New Building|page=3|work=New-York Tribune|id={{ProQuest|573105537}}}} Furthermore, a neighboring property could not be acquired for expansion.{{harvnb|Wheatly|1886|ps=.|pp=198–199}} Accordingly, during the early 1860s, members of the Corn Exchange formed two companies: one to build a new headquarters and another to operate the commodities exchange within that building.{{harvnb|Edwards|1884|ps=.|p=70}}{{harvnb|Wheatly|1886|ps=.|p=199}}

File:Old_New_York_Produce_Exchange,_Valentine's_Manual_(cropped).jpg

The New York Produce Exchange Company was founded in 1860 to construct a building on the block bounded by Whitehall, Moore, Pearl, and Water Streets. The company had tried to add stories to the existing structures on the block but were unable to do so because of weak foundations. The first building, later known as the Old New York Produce Exchange,{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ZsMpAAAAYAAJ&dq=Old+New+York+Produce+Exchange&pg=PA64|title=Report of the New York Produce Exchange 1885–1886|publisher=De Leeuw, Oppenheimer & Myers|year=1886|location=New York City|page=64|quote=… known as the 'Old New York Stock Exchange'}} was designed by Leopold Eidlitz as the result of an architectural design competition.{{harvnb|Stern|Mellins|Fishman|1999|ps=.|p=460}}{{harvnb|New York Produce Exchange|1873|ps=.|p=17}} The structure was completed in 1861 for $95,350. The first headquarters was sold in 1886 to the United States government, which remodeled it as the Army Building on 39 Whitehall Street.{{Cite book|url=https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=uc1.b2980286&view=2up&seq=428&size=150|title=Annual Report of the Secretary of War for the Year 1887|publisher=United States Government Printing Office|year=1887|volume=I|location=Washington, D. C.|page=414}}{{harvnb|King|1893|ps=.|pp=541–542}} The Army Building was itself renovated as an office building called 3 New York Plaza in 1986.{{Cite web|title=3 New York Plaza|url=https://www.emporis.com/buildings/113758/3-new-york-plaza-new-york-city-ny-usa|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190425151319/https://www.emporis.com/buildings/113758/3-new-york-plaza-new-york-city-ny-usa|archive-date=April 25, 2019|url-status=usurped|access-date=February 24, 2021|publisher=Emporis}}

The building occupied the entire city block, which was irregular in dimension. It contained a brick facade with olive stone trimmings, as well as windows topped by tall arches. Inside was originally a double-height exchange room with an open-timber ceiling supported by four piers of brownstone. The structure used iron only in the floor beams and the clerestory walls.{{harvnb|Landau|Condit|1996|ps=.|p=55}} The design of the building, with its top story in a cruciform shape, was described by architectural critic Montgomery Schuyler as "a very effective transeptual arrangement".{{cite magazine|last=Schuyler|first=Montgomery|date=July–September 1891|title=The Romanesque Revival in New York|url=https://usmodernist.org/AR/AR-1891-07-09.pdf|journal=Architectural Record|volume=1|issue=1|pages=12}}

On April 22, 1861, seven hundred Corn Exchange merchants formed the New York Commercial Association, which rented out the second floor of the Produce Exchange Building.{{harvnb|Edwards|1884|ps=.|p=68}} In theory, the Association was separate from the Corn Exchange, but in practice, all except two merchants from the Corn Exchange had joined the Association as well. The association served a network of produce and commodities dealers across the United States.{{harvnb|King|1893|ps=.|p=794}} The organization received a charter from the New York State Legislature in 1862.{{harvnb|New York Produce Exchange|1886|ps=.|p=107}} As part of the charter, the Association was authorized to hold annual elections for a board of managers.{{harvnb|New York Produce Exchange|1886|ps=.|pp=107–109}} At the end of the Association's first year, it had 1,238 members.{{harvnb|New York Produce Exchange|1873|ps=.|p=18}} Annual dues were originally $20 per member, rising to $25 in 1865.{{harvnb|Edwards|1884|p=70}}; {{harvnb|New York Produce Exchange|1873|p=18}}; {{harvnb|Wheatly|1886|ps=.|p=199}} The New York Commercial Association was legally renamed the New York Produce Exchange in 1868.{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=jeEm7DXHkNAC&pg=PA92|title=Chapter 30: An Act to amend an act entitled "An act to incorporate the New York Commercial Association", passed April 19, 1862|date=February 13, 1868|publisher=Supreme Court Appellate Division|page=92}}

The exchange had grown to contain 2,023 members by 1869, but four-fifths of its $49,000 annual income was being used to pay rent to the New York Produce Exchange Company. Accordingly, the exchange formed a committee in 1870 to determine how much to pay for the building, though no action was taken at first. In January 1872, the Produce Exchange's members voted to impose a $200 fee per member, which would be used to raise funds to buy the building.{{Cite news|date=January 31, 1872|title=The Produce Exchange Building Fund|language=en-US|page=3|work=The New York Times|via=newspapers.com {{open access}}|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/72248696/|access-date=February 28, 2021|issn=0362-4331}} The Produce Exchange ultimately purchased the building in May 1872 for $265,000 after 1,300 members agreed to pay the fee. Afterward, the Produce Exchange renovated the interior, adding space to accommodate the increased membership and converting the basement into a full story. A board room was installed on the fourth floor.{{harvnb|New York Produce Exchange|1873|ps=.|pp=19–20}} The Produce Exchange also created its own membership certificates and official seals,{{harvnb|New York Produce Exchange|1873|ps=.|p=22}} and membership initiation fees were raised to $300.{{harvnb|Edwards|1884|ps=.|p=71}}

Shortly after the Produce Exchange purchased its building, in 1873, the act of incorporation was revised to allow the exchange to hold up to $1.5 million in real and personal property. The initiation fee was raised to $500 the same year, at which point the exchange had 2,237 members. The initiation fee was raised once again to $1,000 in 1874. By 1875, the exchange had started searching for sites for a new building.{{cite magazine|date=October 16, 1875|title=The Committee on Rooms and Fixtures...|url=https://rerecord.library.columbia.edu/document.php?vol=ldpd_7031128_016&page=ldpd_7031128_016_00000262&no=1|journal=The Real Estate Record: Real Estate Record and Builders' Guide|volume=16|pages=|via=columbia.edu|number=396}} The exchange had grown to 2,468 members by 1878.{{Cite news|date=May 9, 1879|title=Produce Exchange Annual Report|language=en-US|page=8|work=The New York Times|url-access=limited|url=http://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1879/05/09/80751999.pdf|access-date=February 28, 2021|issn=0362-4331}} At that point, even the expanded building had become too small to accommodate the exchange.{{harvnb|Landau|Condit|1996|ps=.|p=116}} The New-York Tribune characterized it the following year as "insufficiently lighted, poorly ventilated, and generally damp", with its basement prone to flooding during high tides.{{Cite news|date=November 15, 1880|title=Local Miscellany|pages=8|work=New-York Tribune|via=newspapers.com {{open access}}|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/72346675/local-miscellany/|access-date=March 1, 2021}} In 1880, the Exchange updated its bylaws to limit membership to 2,700 and setting the new-member initiation fee at $1,000. Three hundred additional memberships were subsequently issued at $2,500 each.{{harvnb|Carhart|1911|ps=.|p=215}} The initiation fee system was ultimately abolished in 1882.{{cite news|date=June 27, 1932|title=Produce Market Nation's Oldest: Exchange Rich in Traditions Continually Adding to Its Breadth and Diversity Wide Variety of Trading|page=77|work=The Wall Street Journal|issn=0099-9660|id={{ProQuest|131006385}}}}

The second headquarters, or the New York Produce Exchange Building, was developed after the Produce Exchange formed a committee to look for a new building site in early 1879. The site-selection committee recommended that the building be south of Exchange Place, east of Broadway, and west of William Street.{{Cite news|date=May 21, 1879|title=Miscellaneous City News; the New Produce Exchange. Its Proposed Location and Plans--Large Expenditure Recommended.|language=en-US|page=8|work=The New York Times|url-access=limited|url=http://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1879/05/21/80754094.pdf|access-date=February 28, 2021|issn=0362-4331}} In June 1879, the members of the Produce Exchange voted to acquire a site and create a committee for a new building.{{Cite news|date=June 20, 1879|title=Merchants Voting to Build.; the Produce Exchange Decides to Have a New Building|language=en-US|work=The New York Times|url-access=limited|url=http://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1879/06/20/81752881.pdf|page=8|access-date=March 1, 2021|issn=0362-4331}} Initially, the Exchange wanted a site immediately north of the location it ultimately selected.{{Cite news|date=December 3, 1879|title=Miscellaneous City News.; the New Produce Exchange. Property-owners Subscribing in Aid of the Plot Selected by the Members|language=en-US|work=The New York Times|url-access=limited|url=http://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1879/12/03/80703009.pdf|page=2|access-date=February 28, 2021|issn=0362-4331}}{{efn|The site was the southern half of a block bounded by Broadway, Beaver Street, New Street, and Exchange Place (now the site of 26 Broadway).}} The exchange ultimately acquired land along the eastern side of Bowling Green, between Beaver and Stone Streets, in mid-1880 for $670,000.{{Cite news|date=June 2, 1881|title=Immense New Structures; Mr. Mills's New Office Building--the New Produce Exchange|language=en-US|page=8|work=The New York Times|url-access=limited|url=http://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1881/06/02/98558550.pdf|access-date=March 2, 2021|issn=0362-4331}}{{Cite news|date=June 2, 1881|title=The New Produce Exchange|pages=1|work=The Brooklyn Union|via=newspapers.com {{open access}}|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/72492381/the-new-produce-exchange/|access-date=March 2, 2021}} A section of Marketfield Street, which ran through the proposed building site, was closed to make way for the building, and New Street was extended south to the truncated connection of Marketfield Street.{{Cite news|date=August 5, 1880|title=The New Produce Exchange|language=en-US|work=The New York Times|url-access=limited|url=http://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1880/08/05/106232225.pdf|page=8|access-date=March 1, 2021|issn=0362-4331}}{{Cite news|date=August 5, 1880|title=Local Miscellany|pages=8|work=New-York Tribune|via=newspapers.com {{open access}}|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/72346462/local-miscellany/|access-date=March 1, 2021}}{{cite web|date=June 14, 1983|title=Street Plan of New Amsterdam and Colonial New York|url=http://s-media.nyc.gov/agencies/lpc/lp/1235.pdf|publisher=New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission|page=10|access-date=March 1, 2021}}

File:(King1893NYC) pg801 NEW-YORK PRODUCE EXCHANGE (cropped).jpg

In October 1880, some members of the exchange formed a new building committee and invited ten architects to an architectural design competition. Seven other architects submitted plans voluntarily.{{harvnb|Landau|Condit|1996|p=118}}; {{harvnb|ps=.|Stern|Mellins|Fishman|1999|p=460}}{{efn|Among the competitors were George B. Post, E. T. Mix, Frederick Clarke Withers, Leopold Eidlitz, Richard M. Upjohn, and Charles B. Atwood.}} The designs were required to include features such as ground-floor stores and offices, as well as a trading floor with space for 3,000 members.{{Cite news|date=January 19, 1881|title=Produce Exchange's New Building|language=en-US|page=8|work=The New York Times|url-access=limited|url=http://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1881/01/19/98912177.pdf|access-date=March 1, 2021|issn=0362-4331}}{{cite magazine|date=March 12, 1881|title=The New York produce Exchange Competition|url=https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=uva.x001788848&view=1up&seq=241|journal=American Architect and Architecture|pages=128}} The drawings were to be submitted to the Produce Exchange's building committee, who would exhibit the plans and hold a ballot among the exchange's members. The committee selected four submissions for further review, which were hung on the trading floor's walls without any names.{{Cite news|date=March 2, 1881|title=A New Building|pages=5|work=New-York Tribune|via=newspapers.com {{open access}}|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/72359847/a-new-building/|access-date=March 1, 2021}}{{Cite news|last=Whitehall|date=March 3, 1881|title=The Produce Exchange; Character of the Designs for the New Building|language=en-US|page=8|work=The New York Times|url-access=limited|url=http://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1881/03/03/98648770.pdf|access-date=March 1, 2021|issn=0362-4331}} The members of the exchange requested further guidance from the building committee a week before the formal vote was to be held in March 1881. The committee suggested a design entitled In me mea spes omnis, which The New York Times inferred was a submission by George B. Post.

Exchange members overwhelmingly voted for Post's plan, with 942 in favor of that design, compared to 249 for the other three proposals combined.{{Cite news|date=March 6, 1881|title=The New Produce Exchange Building|language=en-US|page=7|work=The New York Times|url-access=limited|url=http://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1881/03/06/109301627.pdf|access-date=March 1, 2021|issn=0362-4331}}{{efn|Post had submitted three designs, two with a mansard roof and one with a flat roof. In me mea spes omnis had been one of the mansard-roof designs, but the design was subsequently modified to include additional stories and a flat roof.}} Post's design had a frontage of about {{Convert|312|ft}} to the west on Bowling Green,{{efn|The building was on the eastern side of Bowling Green, which was composed of Broadway (north of the former intersection of Marketfield Street) and Whitehall Street (south of that intersection).}} {{Convert|150|ft}} to the north on Beaver Street, and {{Convert|148|ft}} to the south on Stone Street. Overall, the building covered an area of {{Convert|53779|ft2}}.{{harvnb|King|1893|p=794}}; {{harvnb|Landau|Condit|1996|ps=.|p=118}}{{harvnb|Wheatly|1886|ps=.|p=190}} The upper floors wrapped around a "light court" that was in the center of the building above the third-story trading floor. A clock tower on the southeastern corner of the site, measuring {{Convert|40|by|70|ft}},{{Cite news|date=May 4, 1884|title=Going Into a New Home.: Preparations for Opening the Great Produce Exchange Building.|language=en-US|page=3|work=The New York Times|url-access=limited|url=http://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1884/05/04/109306647.pdf|access-date=March 2, 2021|issn=0362-4331}} was added as part of a modification to the design. The building was about {{Convert|120|ft}} tall above its main roof and {{Convert|225|ft|0}} above its clock tower.{{Cite news|date=November 18, 1883|title=Statistics of a Large Building|pages=4|work=New-York Tribune|via=newspapers.com {{open access}}|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/72498687/statistics-of-a-large-building/|access-date=March 2, 2021}}{{cite news|last=Gray|first=Christopher|author-link=Christopher Gray (architectural historian)|date=August 21, 2014|title=A Brick Beauty Bites the Dust|newspaper=The New York Times|url-access=limited|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2014/08/24/realestate/new-yorks-produce-exchange.html|access-date=December 23, 2013|issn=0362-4331}}{{efn|According to Sarah Landau and Carl W. Condit (cited by Robert A. M. Stern), the main structure was {{convert|123|ft}} tall and the tower was {{convert|224|ft}} tall. According to other figures cited by Moses King, the main structure was {{convert|116|ft}} tall, the clock tower {{convert|225|ft}} tall, and the flagstaff above the clock tower {{convert|306|ft}} tall.{{harvnb|King|1893|p=794}}; {{harvnb|Wheatly|1886|ps=.|p=190}} }} Ultimately, Post devised 4,000 drawings for the exchange's headquarters.

The facade was largely made of red brick and terracotta, chosen because the materials were seen as fireproof. Granite was used on the ground-floor entrance terrace and the cellar walls. As a whole, the exterior was designed to appear low to the ground, with this quality being emphasized by strong horizontal lines.{{harvnb|Weisman|1972|ps=.|pp=189–190}} At ground level on the western, northern, and southern sides, the entrances consisted of triple arches between sets of paired columns. The remainder of the ground story on these sides contained rectangular storefronts.{{harvnb|Landau|Condit|1996|p=123}}; {{harvnb|ps=.|Stern|Mellins|Fishman|1999|p=460}} On the eastern side, a projecting terrace on New Street led to an entrance without columns.{{harvnb|ps=.|Landau|Condit|1996|p=123}} This terrace covered about {{Convert|4128|ft2}}.

The northern, western, and southern facades each contained two arcades above the ground level, one on top of the other. The lower arcade rose to the ceiling of the third-story trading floor but, due to the inclusion of three additional stories above the trading floor, was the equivalent of four stories high. There were decorative terracotta details on the lower arcade, including state-seal roundels above the windows atop each arch; ship-prow reliefs in the soffits; and a frieze above the arches with animal heads and cereal grains.{{harvnb|Landau|Condit|1996|ps=.|pp=124–125}} The upper arcade, directly above the trading floor, was aligned with the lowest two office levels (seventh and eighth stories overall) and contained arches half as wide as the arcade below it.{{harvnb|Weisman|1972|ps=.|p=188}} The ninth story contained rectangular openings that were again half as wide as the upper arcade stories. A heavy cornice ran between the ninth and tenth stories, and there were rectangular openings on the tenth story.{{harvnb|Landau|Condit|1996|p=123}}; {{harvnb|ps=.|Stern|Mellins|Fishman|1999|pp=460–461}}

The clock tower had four clock faces, one on each side. It lacked any windows, except where the interior stairways were placed but had large clock faces on each side with balconies.{{cite magazine|date=May 10, 1884|title=Around the Produce Exchange|url=https://rerecord.library.columbia.edu/document.php?vol=ldpd_7031128_033&page=ldpd_7031128_033_00000526&no=1|journal=The Real Estate Record: Real Estate Record and Builders' Guide|volume=33|pages=496|via=columbia.edu|number=843}} The clock faces on the tower were {{Convert|12|ft}} across, with numerals {{Convert|20|in}} tall, and weighed {{Convert|1500|lb}}.{{harvnb|Wheatly|1886|ps=.|pp=190–191}} The tower was topped by a heavy cornice similar to that on the main structure.

File:Structural design of the NY Produce Exchange.jpg

When the building was completed, it was described as having "12,000,000 bricks, 15 miles of iron girders, {{Frac|1|3|4}} miles of columns, 2,061 tons of terracotta, {{Frac|7|1|2}} of flooring, more than 2,000 windows, and nearly 1,000 doors".{{cite magazine|date=August 1884|title=The Produce Exchange, New York, N. Y. Mr. George B. Post, Architect, New York, N. Y.|url=https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=iau.31858055199065&view=1up&seq=617|journal=American Architect and Building News|volume=19|issue=548|pages=305–306}} The underlying ground contained several layers of quicksand, requiring the structure to be built upon over 15,000 pilings made of spruce and pine.{{harvnb|Landau|Condit|1996|ps=.|p=118}}{{harvnb|Wheatly|1886|ps=.|p=189}} The pilings extended to the layer of hardpan, which was likely {{Convert|35|ft}} feet deep, and their tops were cut off at a depth of {{Convert|16.5|ft}}, slightly lower than tide level. The basement contained its own coal plant and water pumps, connected by a narrow-gauge railroad track.{{cite news|last=Berger|first=Meyer|author-link=Meyer Berger|date=November 13, 1953|title=About New York; Produce Exchange's Solemn Decor of Yesterday Soon to Give Way to the Motifs of Today|work=The New York Times|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1953/11/13/archives/about-new-york-produce-exchanges-solemn-decor-of-yesterday-soon-to.html|issn=0362-4331}}

The Bowling Green headquarters was the world's first building with a superstructure combining wrought iron and masonry.{{Cite New York 1900|page=146}} The superstructure contained a grid of evenly spaced cast-iron columns, which rested on wrought-iron girders weighing {{Convert|12|ST|LT t}} each. The beams, arch ribs, and trusses were also made of metal.{{harvnb|Landau|Condit|1996|ps=.|p=119}} The interior light court used a metal skeleton for its walls, which Post stated was the first "adopting a metal cage for exterior wall construction".{{harvnb|Landau|Condit|1996|p=120}}; {{harvnb|Stern|Mellins|Fishman|1999|ps=.|p=461}}{{cite magazine|date=June 15, 1895|title=Steel-Frame Building Construction|url=https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=mdp.39015084677528&view=1up&seq=62&size=125|journal=Engineering Record|volume=32|pages=44}} Each of the light court's columns and girders were carried by Pratt trusses down to the columns surrounding the third-story exchange floor.{{harvnb|Landau|Condit|1996|ps=.|p=122}}

The superstructure was close to being a full metal skeleton, except the exterior columns were embedded within masonry piers.{{harvnb|Weisman|1972|ps=.|pp=188–189}} Winston Weisman, in an essay about Post's architecture, wrote that this might have been because Post mistrusted skeleton framing.{{harvnb|Stern|Mellins|Fishman|1999|ps=.|p=461}} The outer walls were made of load-bearing masonry, consisting of piers that were outwardly clad with granite on the lower stories and brick above. The piers were comparatively thick at the base, being {{Convert|11|ft}} thick at the basement but tapered above ground level to a thickness of {{Convert|4|ft}} at the seventh story, the lowest office level.{{harvnb|Landau|Condit|1996|ps=.|pp=119–120}}

{{Multiple image

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| image1 = (King1893NYC) pg802 PRODUCE EXCHANGE, INTERIOR OF MAIN FLOOR (cropped).jpg

| image2 = Interior, Produce Exchange, New York (NYPL b11708051-G91F197 021F) (cropped).jpg

| footer = Opposite-direction views of the exchange floor at the second building

| alt1 = One part of the main floor, with a higher ceiling and a skylight

| alt2 = One room on the main floor with seats

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There were ten stories in the main section of the Produce Exchange Building, plus four additional stories in the clock tower. The main section had six full stories: the ground floor; the third story, containing the exchange floor; and the seventh through tenth stories, containing offices. The second, fourth, fifth, and sixth stories were considered intermediate levels. There were nine elevators in total: four near the south end at Stone Street and five near the north end at Beaver Street. Two staircases, one at each end of the building, also connected the floors.{{harvnb|Wheatly|1886|ps=.|p=191}} The staircase and elevators at the Stone Street end extended into the tower. There was a terrace atop the flat roof adjacent to the clock tower.

The third-story exchange floor measured approximately {{Convert|220|by|144|ft}}. The stained-glass skylight above the middle of the exchange floor was about {{convert|60|ft}} high{{efn|According to Landau and Condit (cited by Stern), the exchange floor was {{convert|215|by|134|ft}}, with a ceiling of {{convert|64|ft}}.}} and was supported by Warren trusses. The remainder of the ceiling was about {{Convert|47.5|ft}} above the floor. The exchange floor was lit by the 23 large windows on the Bowling Green and Stone Street facades. Hallways leading off the exchange floor were finished in multicolored tile. Overlooking the northern end of the exchange floor were three stories, which contained executive offices, a call room, and a library for exchange members.{{harvnb|Wheatly|1886|ps=.|pp=194–195}} The Produce Exchange's various departments, such as the board room, arbitration chamber, and board of managers' room were lavishly decorated. The Produce Exchange Building's design also provided for private offices at ground level, as well as 190 offices on the seventh through tenth floors.

{{Multiple image

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| image1 = Dripps Manhattan Sheet 03 publ. 1867 (crop 2).jpg

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| footer = Left, map published in 1867, showing the old headquarters. Right, map published in 1897, showing the new headquarters, the street changes, and the U.S. Army Building

| alt1 = map published in 1867, showing the old headquarters

| alt2 = map published in 1897, showing the new headquarters, the street changes, and the U.S. Army Building

}}

Work on the Bowling Green headquarters officially began on May 1, 1881, with the first foundation pile being driven that July. The exchange's board of managers allotted an additional $300,000 toward the building's construction in June 1881. At the time, the Pennsylvania Railroad and the New York Maritime Exchange had rented portions of the planned Produce Exchange building. Numerous engineers and contractors were hired for the building's construction.{{harvnb|Landau|Condit|1996|ps=.|p=413}}{{efn|The contractors included:

• William H. Hazzard, foundation supervisor
• Moran and Armstrong, masons
• J.B. and J.M. Cornell, ironworkers
• Henry Maurer & Son, fireproof material
• Baker, Smith & Co., steam heating
• Meeker & Hedden, interior wood finishes and wooden furniture}} The exchange also appointed a special committee to investigate expenses related to the building. The committee reported in November 1881 that the structure would cost $2.1 million and that the cost of excavation had raised total costs by $200,000.{{Cite news|date=November 11, 1881|title=The Produce Exchange Building|language=en-US|page=5|work=The New York Times|url-access=limited|url=http://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1881/11/11/102770367.pdf|access-date=March 2, 2021|issn=0362-4331}}{{Cite news|date=November 11, 1881|title=Local Miscellany|pages=8|work=New-York Tribune|via=newspapers.com {{open access}}|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/72497839/local-miscellany/|access-date=March 2, 2021}}

The cornerstone-laying ceremony was held on June 6, 1882. For the ceremony, a row of flags from other nations was hung from the framework, which at that point had been completed to the first floor.{{Cite news|date=June 7, 1882|title=Produce Men Jubilant; Laying the Corner-stone of the New Exchange|language=en-US|page=8|work=The New York Times|url-access=limited|url=http://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1882/06/07/96862793.pdf|access-date=March 2, 2021|issn=0362-4331}}{{Cite news|date=June 7, 1882|title=Laying a Corner-stone|pages=8|work=New-York Tribune|via=newspapers.com {{open access}}|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/72500298/laying-a-corner-stone/|access-date=March 2, 2021}} At the exchange's annual meeting during May 1883, exchange president Lyman F. Holman announced that the new headquarters had already been enclosed and was expected to be opened in ten months.{{Cite news|date=May 30, 1883|title=Produce Exchange Progress.; President Holman Tells What Has Been Done and What Is the Near Future|language=en-US|page=2|work=The New York Times|url-access=limited|url=http://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1883/05/30/102825243.pdf|access-date=March 2, 2021|issn=0362-4331}} That December, the exchange held an auction for the leases of 178 offices on the building's top floors.{{Cite news|date=December 21, 1883|title=Auction Sale of Office Leases|language=en-US|page=8|work=The New York Times|url-access=limited|url=http://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1883/12/21/106269973.pdf|access-date=March 2, 2021|issn=0362-4331}} Almost all offices on the top floors had been rented by the first week of May 1884, when tenants started moving in. The structure officially opened on May 6, 1884,{{harvnb|King|1893|p=794}}; {{harvnb|Wheatly|1886|ps=.|p=200}} with a set of speeches attended by 4,000 guests.{{Cite news|date=May 7, 1884|title=Merchants in a New Home: Formal Opening of the Produce Exchange.|language=en-US|page=8|work=The New York Times|url-access=limited|url=http://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1884/05/07/106278172.pdf|access-date=March 2, 2021|issn=0362-4331}}{{cite news|date=May 7, 1884|title=The Produce Exchange: Formal Opening of the New Building|page=2|work=New-York Tribune|id={{ProQuest|573078503}}}} Unofficially, the building had been opened the preceding day with a ladies' reception.

The completed design received mixed criticism from historians and architectural critics.{{harvnb|Landau|Condit|1996|ps=.|p=124}} After the building's completion, German diplomat Karl Hinckeldeyn wrote that he believed the Produce Exchange to be comparable to the Roman Palazzo Farnese.{{harvnb|Landau|Condit|1996|ps=.|pp=124, 413}}{{harvnb|Stern|Mellins|Fishman|1999|ps=.|pp=463–464}}{{cite magazine|date=May 25, 1889|title=A Foreigner's View of American Architecture|url=https://archive.org/details/americanarchitec25newyuoft/page/244/mode/2up|journal=American Architect|volume=25|pages=244}} Christopher Gray, writing for The New York Times, called the structure "the most impressive exchange structure ever seen in Manhattan". However, some observers raised objections to the proportions of the designs. Montgomery Schuyler criticized the facade as "merely an envelope...devoid of an interest property architectural". An unnamed critic for the Real Estate Record and Guide called the tower was "purely monumental" and inappropriately placed at the rear of the building, "as if one were to lavish all the decoration of his house upon the kitchen door".{{harvnb|Stern|Mellins|Fishman|1999|ps=.|pp=462–463}} Another writer, Mariana Van Rennselaer, had a mixed opinion of the structure, calling the tower "utterly superfluous and disturbing"{{harvnb|Stern|Mellins|Fishman|1999|ps=.|p=463}}{{cite magazine|last=Van Rensselaer|first=Mariana Griswold|date=August 1884|title=Recent Architecture in America, III: Commercial Buildings|url=https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=mdp.39015028163734&view=1up&seq=542|journal=The Century Illustrated Monthly Magazine|volume=28|pages=520}} but describing the design beneath the cornice as "very fine in general proportion".

The Produce Exchange dealt in commodities futures. The different trades, such as flour, grain, cotton oil, and steamship trades, operated separately from each other but were moderated by a trade committee.{{harvnb|Wheatly|1886|ps=.|p=206}}{{harvnb|King|1893|ps=.|p=797}}{{harvnb|Carhart|1911|ps=.|p=220}} Generally, the exchange operated between 9 a.m. and 4 p.m. on weekdays and from 9 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. on Saturdays. A five-member arbitration committee was selected to hear any disputes.{{harvnb|King|1893|ps=.|p=796}}{{harvnb|Wheatly|1886|ps=.|pp=204–205}} Absent or sick members could select substitutes to fulfill contracts for them, although both member and substitute could be restricted from the floor if they failed to fulfill a contract. While membership was capped at three thousand, membership certificates could be sold off.{{harvnb|Wheatly|1886|ps=.|p=200}} Whenever a member died, their families received $10,000, with $3 coming from each surviving member and the balance from the exchange's surplus fund.{{harvnb|King|1893|ps=.|pp=797–798}}{{harvnb|Wheatly|1886|ps=.|p=218}} Harper's New Monthly Magazine, describing the business of the Produce Exchange in 1886, characterized the trading as "callithumpian discord" with "fiendish screeches".{{harvnb|Wheatly|1886|ps=.|p=213}}

File:New Year's Eve concert, New York 1886.jpg of January 15, 1887|alt=Promenade Concert on New Year's Eve at the Produce Exchange, New York from Harper's Weekly of January 15, 1887]]

According to the exchange's president in 1911, the exchange floor handled commodities such as "wheat, corn, rye, oats, barley and other grains, flour, meal, hops, hay, straw, seeds, pork, lard, all sorts of meat food products, tallow, greases, cotton-seed oil and various other animal and vegetable oils, naval stores of all kinds, butter, [and] cheese". Warehouse receipts of provisions at the Produce Exchange were typically executed in groups of 250 barrels, each weighing {{Convert|200|lb}}. Grains were bought and sold in increments of 8,000 bushels.{{cite news|date=September 22, 1901|title=The New York Produce Exchange.; Wide Scope of Its Operations and History of Its Growth.|work=The New York Times|url-access=limited|url=http://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1901/09/22/119081364.pdf|page=21|access-date=March 3, 2021|issn=0362-4331}} Many different grades of commodities such as corn, oats, rye, and barley were traded on the Produce Exchange.{{harvnb|Wheatly|1886|ps=.|pp=208–209}} The commodities were sampled extensively for quality before being traded on the exchange.{{cite news|date=April 29, 1934|title=Produce Exchange Celebrating 50 Years in Its Present Home, 3 Centuries' Activity on Site: History of Trading Dates Back to Beginnings of Commerce in New Amsterdam, Typified by Flour Barrels and Vanes of Grist Mill in City's Coat of Arms; Business Expanded to Securities|page=A4|work=New York Herald Tribune|id={{ProQuest|1114818015}}}} The Produce Exchange had a clearinghouse that was incorporated separately, one of the first exchanges ever to do so.{{cite book|last=Markham|first=Jerry W.|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=YRjmQLOscGoC&pg=PA106|title=A Financial History of the United States: From Christopher Columbus to the Robber Barons (1492-1900)|publisher=M.E. Sharpe|year=2002|isbn=978-0-7656-0730-0|page=106}}

One author wrote of the exchange itself in 1884, "From comparatively small beginnings it has reached a position of prominence, power, and usefulness in the community little dreamt of twenty years ago."{{harvnb|Edwards|1884|ps=.|p=66}} The New York Produce Exchange, with its three thousand members, had the largest membership of any exchange in the United States at that time.{{cite book |title=The Consolidated Stock Exchange of New York: Its History, Organization, Machinery and Methods |year=1907|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=VhopAAAAYAAJ|last1=Nelson|first1=Samuel Armstrong}} In addition to its business activities, some members formed leisurely clubs, such as a glee club{{Cite news|date=May 7, 1884|title=The Produce Exchange Glee Club|language=en-US|page=2|work=The New York Times|url-access=limited|url=http://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1884/05/07/106278048.pdf|access-date=March 2, 2021|issn=0362-4331}} and a baseball team. Another activity popularized by the exchange's members in the 1880s was the informal practice of throwing dough balls, which stemmed from the practice of rolling balls of grain for sampling,{{Cite news|date=October 26, 1889|title=Frolicking Brokers.; Dough Throwing and Baseball in the Produce Exchange.|language=en-US|page=8|work=The New York Times|url-access=limited|url=http://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1889/10/26/100977177.pdf|access-date=March 2, 2021|issn=0362-4331}} although that practice was banned in 1893.{{Cite news|date=July 16, 1893|title=Must Not Throw Dough Balls.; Members of the Produce Exchange to Be Restrained From That Edifying Pastime|language=en-US|page=16|work=The New York Times|url-access=limited|url=http://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1893/07/16/109726082.pdf|access-date=March 2, 2021|issn=0362-4331}} The office space was renting for about $180,000 per year in 1886, a six percent return on the entire investment of $2 million.{{harvnb|New York Produce Exchange|1886|ps=.|p=49}} Seven years later, the annual rental income exceeded $260,000.

The exchange had become large enough that, in 1892, members voted to build an eastward extension of the structure, though no action was taken at the time.{{Cite news|date=September 21, 1892|title=Produce Exchange Building Extension|language=en-US|page=8|work=The New York Times|url-access=limited|url=http://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1881/10/27/98571381.pdf|access-date=March 2, 2021|issn=0362-4331}} After New York City saw a decline in commodities trade during the 1890s, the Produce Exchange filed complaints with the Interstate Commerce Commission, alleging that freight operators were diverting trade to other cities such as Philadelphia and Baltimore.{{Cite news|date=May 12, 1897|title=The Tonnage of New York: Freight Differential Case Before the Inter-state Commerce Commission|language=en-US|page=5|work=The New York Times|url-access=limited|url=http://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1897/05/12/102401506.pdf|access-date=March 2, 2021|issn=0362-4331}} At its peak in 1900, the exchange was performing $15 million worth of transactions daily. The exchange was described the next year as one of the city's busiest exchanges, behind only the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) and the Consolidated Stock Exchange. In subsequent years, New York City's inadequate freight facilities led to a decrease in business on the Produce Exchange, as new railroads made other cities such as Boston, Philadelphia, Baltimore, and Chicago more competitive.{{cite news|date=August 26, 1912|title=New York: Loses Its Prestige as Great Shipping Point for Food Stuffs. Produce Exchange Business Continues to Dwindle. Better Railway Facilities Elsewhere Is the Reason. The Scattering of Commerce Is Beneficial to the Entire Country, According to Holland.|page=6|work=Cincinnati Enquirer|id={{ProQuest|897586227}}}}

The Produce Exchange started trading cottonseed oil in 1902. When the New York Stock Exchange Building was being constructed in the first decade of the 20th century, the Produce Exchange Building served as the NYSE's temporary headquarters.{{Cite news|date=February 16, 1901|title=Stock Exchange to Move.; Part of Produce Exchange Floor Being Prepared for Temporary Occupancy|language=en-US|page=11|work=The New York Times|url-access=limited|url=http://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1901/02/16/102439488.pdf|access-date=March 3, 2021|issn=0362-4331}} An eastern annex to the Produce Exchange was built on Stone Street around that time,{{Cite news|date=May 5, 1909|title=Set Price at $6,000,000: Produce Exchange Operators Would Sell Main Building|pages=14|work=New-York Tribune|via=newspapers.com {{open access}}|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/72504006/set-price-at-6000000-produce/|access-date=March 3, 2021}} and the Produce Exchange purchased an adjacent building on 76 Broad Street at the end of the decade.{{Cite news|date=May 27, 1908|title=For New Produce Exchange Home|pages=4|work=New-York Tribune|via=newspapers.com {{open access}}|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/72504555/for-new-produce-exchange-home/|access-date=March 3, 2021}} After the Panic of 1907, the exchange stopped hosting extravagant New Year's Eve dinners and started distributing dinners for the poor.{{Cite news|date=December 30, 1908|title=Produce Exchange Dinners for Poor|language=en-US|page=14|work=The New York Times|url-access=limited|url=http://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1908/12/30/104776981.pdf|access-date=March 3, 2021|issn=0362-4331}} By then, the Produce Exchange had come to see its headquarters as excessively large, considering the NYSE was easily able to fit within the space.{{Cite news|date=January 21, 1906|title=Produce Exchange Sale Urged by a Committee; but Many Obstacles Intervene to Prevent Making It|language=en-US|work=The New York Times|url-access=limited|url=http://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1906/01/21/101832128.pdf|page=12|access-date=March 3, 2021|issn=0362-4331}} A special committee recommended selling the Produce Exchange Building in 1909 for $6 million.{{Cite news|date=May 5, 1909|title=May Sell Produce Exchange; Committee Says $6,000,000 May Be Obtained -- Favor Smaller Exchange|language=en-US|page=20|work=The New York Times|url-access=limited|url=http://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1909/05/05/101035651.pdf|access-date=March 3, 2021|issn=0362-4331}} The Produce Exchange retained ownership of the building but continued to decline in stature compared to other cities. The exchange stopped trading grain futures in 1907, but the exchange remained influential in other respects since the primary steamship companies and brokerage houses were all members of the exchange.{{cite news|last=Burns|first=Robert S.|date=May 20, 1956|title=Landmark for Shippers Is Facing Wrecking Ball: $50,000,000 Trans-Pacific Liner Planned|page=A12|work=New York Herald Tribune|id={{ProQuest|1323201604}}}}File:Custom House statue- in rear of N.Y. Produce Exchange Building, 2 Broadway, Manhattan (NYPL b13668355-482769).jpg sculptures in foreground|alt=The New York Produce Exchange building seen in 1936, with Four Continents sculptures in foreground]]

The exchange opened a grain futures market in August 1926{{cite news|date=October 15, 1926|title=An Old Friend in the Sky|page=3|work=The Wall Street Journal|issn=0099-9660|id={{ProQuest|130348682}}}}{{Cite news|date=August 2, 1926|title=Wheat Pit Opens Here This Morning: Trading in New Futures Market Will Be Extended to Other Grains Soon.|language=en-US|page=28|work=The New York Times|url-access=subscription|url=http://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1926/08/02/98851304.pdf|access-date=March 3, 2021|issn=0362-4331}} and started trading in oats futures several months later.{{cite news|date=December 18, 1926|title=Produce Exchange Votes To Sell Present Building: Board of, Managers Authorize Oats Futures Trading to Begin January 3|page=24|work=New York Herald Tribune|id={{ProQuest|1112675205}}}} At the time, the Produce Exchange had around 1,500 members. The exchange's members voted to sell off the building that December.{{Cite news|date=December 18, 1926|title=Produce Exchange Votes to Sell Realty; Brokers Pass Referendum by 618 to 58 -- New Office Building Is Proposed|language=en-US|page=28|work=The New York Times|url-access=subscription|url=http://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1926/12/18/98856097.pdf|access-date=March 3, 2021|issn=0362-4331}} The exchange had difficulty selling its building due to a lack of suitable alternate sites, and the wheat futures market suffered from a lack of speculative interest, although cotton oil futures trading was active.{{cite news|date=June 3, 1927|title=Produce Exchange Plans Erection of New Home: Dearth of Satisfactory Offers for Old Site Presents Obstacle, However Cotton Oil Futures Trading Grows|page=14|work=The Wall Street Journal|issn=0099-9660|id={{ProQuest|130443719}}}} One failed proposal for the site was for a skyscraper of over 100 stories, proposed in 1928.{{cite news|date=September 24, 1930|title=Produce Exchange Site May Be Site of Highest Building: Committee Considers Proper Development of Block; 100 Stories Once Planned|page=36|work=New York Herald Tribune|id={{ProQuest|1113710510}}}} The Produce Exchange started trading securities that December. Two years later, the Produce Exchange appointed a committee to study the possibility of demolishing its headquarters, although nothing occurred at that time.{{Cite news|date=September 23, 1930|title=New Building Planned by Produce Exchange; Demolition of Ten-story Landmark in the Financial District Under Consideration.|language=en-US|page=43|work=The New York Times|url-access=subscription|url=http://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1930/09/23/102165953.pdf|access-date=March 3, 2021|issn=0362-4331}}

By the early 1930s, the Produce Exchange was one of the largest securities trading exchanges in the United States, with over a thousand securities being traded on the exchange. The office and commercial space continued to be rented out for profit, such as in 1934, when part of the ground floor was converted into a restaurant.{{Cite news|date=March 16, 1934|title=Cafeteria Planned in Beaver Street; Chain Leases 12,000 Sq. Ft. In Produce Exchange Building|language=en-US|page=41|work=The New York Times|url-access=subscription|url=http://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1934/03/16/95037974.pdf|access-date=March 2, 2021|issn=0362-4331}} The Produce Exchange suspended securities trading in 1935 following the implementation of government regulations.{{cite news|date=September 12, 1937|title=Produce Board Plan to Revive Stocks Is Hailed: First Skepticism at Move Disappears as Exchange Hires Plain to Study Idea|page=C5|work=New York Herald Tribune|id={{ProQuest|1223326901}}}} With the onset of World War II, business at the Produce Exchange declined because the United States government controlled all cargo, making it unnecessary for steamship lines to have representatives at the exchange. The Produce Exchange started trading refined soybean oil futures in 1946.{{cite news|date=November 27, 1946|title=Futures Trading Begun In Refined Soybean Oil|page=10|work=The Wall Street Journal|issn=0099-9660|id={{ProQuest|13162005}}}} Around the same time, the Produce Exchange again contemplated redeveloping its building.{{Cite news|date=September 17, 1947|title=Produce Exchange Sale Planned|language=en-US|page=41|work=The New York Times|url-access=subscription|url=http://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1947/09/17/87816925.pdf|access-date=March 3, 2021|issn=0362-4331}} The Produce Exchange had approximately five hundred members in the 1950s, one-sixth the membership at its 19th-century peak.

The site was leased in October 1953 to developers Jack D. Weiler and Benjamin H. Swig for up to 100 years.{{cite news|title=Tenants Take Title|work=New York Herald Tribune|date=October 6, 1953|page=29|id={{ProQuest|1319948244}}}}{{cite news|date=October 2, 1953|title=Skyscraper to Replace Old Produce Exchange Building in New York: Property Is Leased to Two Realty Investors Who Plan $25 Million Structure on Site|page=11|work=The Wall Street Journal|issn=0099-9660|id={{ProQuest|132057868}}}}{{cite news|date=October 2, 1953|title=Skyscraper Planned for 2 Broadway|page=6|work=New York Herald Tribune|id={{ProQuest|1322354737}}}} The developers planned to construct a 30-story building at 2 Broadway, on the Produce Exchange Building's site.{{Cite news|date=October 2, 1953|title=A New Skyscraper to Rise Downtown; First in 20 Years Will Have 30 Stories on Bowling Green Site of Old Produce Exchange|language=en-US|work=The New York Times|url-access=subscription|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1953/10/02/archives/a-new-skyscraper-to-rise-downtown-first-in-20-years-will-have-30.html|access-date=February 28, 2021|issn=0362-4331}}{{Cite news|last=Timoner|first=Vic|date=November 20, 1953|title=Harbor Lights|pages=6|work=Brooklyn Daily Eagle|via=newspapers.com {{open access}}|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/72252733/harbor-lights/|access-date=February 28, 2021}} The exchange would lease about {{Convert|21000|ft2}} at the building with a trading floor at the ground story and executive offices on the second story.{{Cite news|date=November 19, 1953|title=Produce Exchange Rents New Quarters|language=en-US|page=56|work=The New York Times|url-access=subscription|url=http://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1953/11/19/83863803.pdf|access-date=February 28, 2021|issn=0362-4331}} At the time, Talbot Hamlin wrote: "There seems thus something peculiarly unfortunate in the proposed unnecessary destruction of this building".{{cite magazine|date=October 1953|title=Wall St. area cheered by plans for new skyscraper|url=https://usmodernist.org/AF/AF-1953-10.pdf|journal=Architectural Forum|volume=99|pages=74}} After the original plan failed, the Produce Exchange negotiated with the Charles F. Noyes Company, which took over the development project in 1956.{{cite news|date=May 8, 1956|title=Produce Exchange's Building To Be Razed|page=18|work=New York Herald Tribune|id={{ProQuest|1325259064}}}} As part of an agreement with the Noyes Company, the exchange was allowed to retain ownership of the land under the new building.{{Cite news|date=May 29, 1956|title=Land Deal Made by Produce Mart; Contract Signed on Lease of Exchange's Ground for New Office Building|language=en-US|page=42|work=The New York Times|url-access=subscription|url=http://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1956/05/29/86596132.pdf|access-date=March 1, 2021|issn=0362-4331}} When the Uris Buildings Corporation subsequently took over the development, the Produce Exchange's land ownership was preserved.{{cite New York 1960|page=173}}

File:2 Broadway (65167323).jpeg

In January 1957, the Produce Exchange sold the furnishings inside its Bowling Green headquarters{{Cite news|date=January 22, 1957|title=Produce Exchange Sale Stirs Echoes Of Its Past as It Makes Ready to Move|language=en-US|page=24|work=The New York Times|url-access=subscription|url=http://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1957/01/22/87212071.pdf|access-date=February 28, 2021|issn=0362-4331}} and moved to temporary quarters at 42 Broadway.{{Cite news|date=January 28, 1957|title=Produce Mart Moves|pages=130|work=New York Daily News|via=newspapers.com {{open access}}|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/72251933/produce-mart-moves/|access-date=February 28, 2021}}{{Cite news|last=Asbury|first=Edith Evans|author-link=Edith Evans Asbury|date=January 28, 1957|title=Exchange Moved in Week-end Push: Shift of Produce Trading to 42 Broadway Is Speeded to Permit Reopening Today 6,000 Miles of Wire Moved Market for All Grains|language=en-US|page=47|work=The New York Times|url=http://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1957/01/28/84948600.pdf|issn=0362-4331}} The Produce Exchange Building at Bowling Green was demolished starting the following month.{{Cite news|date=February 14, 1957|title=Displacing Produce Exchange|language=en-US|page=37|work=The New York Times|url-access=subscription|url=http://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1957/02/14/84907714.pdf|access-date=February 28, 2021|issn=0362-4331}}{{cite news|title=Uris Project Begun|work=New York Herald Tribune|date=February 19, 1957|id={{ProQuest|1326291729}}|page=B6}} Produce Exchange officials retrieved the old cornerstone that June and found its contents still intact, including coins, jars of commodities, books, and a newspaper.{{cite news|date=1957-06-02|title=Produce Exchange Cornerstone Yields a Bonanza of Curiosities|page=A2|work=New York Herald Tribune|id={{ProQuest|1327110901}}}}{{Cite news|date=1957-06-20|title=Cornerstone Yields a '57-like View of' 82|language=en-US|page=31|work=The New York Times|url-access=subscription|url=http://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1957/06/20/84732484.pdf|access-date=2021-03-04|issn=0362-4331}} None of the decorative terracotta ornament was preserved, a circumstance characterized by authors Sarah Landau and Carl W. Condit as seemingly "unforgivably venal". The Produce Exchange moved to 2 Broadway on November 23, 1959, following the skyscraper's completion.{{Cite news|last=Auerbach|first=George|date=November 22, 1959|title=Old Produce Market Was Never Like This; Exchange Is Moving to New Quarters at Familiar Site|language=en-US|page=1|work=The New York Times|url-access=subscription|url=http://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1959/11/22/89303077.pdf|access-date=March 2, 2021|issn=0362-4331}} Although the Produce Exchange had to pay $100,000 in annual rent for leasing the ground story from the building's owners, it earned $275,000 per year from leasing the underlying land to the building's owners.{{Cite news|last=Maidenberg|first=H. j|date=March 21, 1965|title=Produce Exchange: A Grand Lady With Few Suitors; Dressed Up Produce Exchange Now Ponders Where It Can Go|language=en-US|pages=178, 214|work=The New York Times|url-access=subscription|url=http://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1965/03/21/96700940.pdf|access-date=February 28, 2021|issn=0362-4331}}

The Produce Exchange explored the feasibility of merging with the New York Cotton Exchange in 1962.{{Cite news|date=January 10, 1962|title=Two Exchanges Explore Merger; Negotiating Panel Is Named by Cotton and Produce Futures Boards Here|language=en-US|page=82|work=The New York Times|url-access=subscription|url=http://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1962/01/10/91664814.pdf|access-date=February 28, 2021|issn=0362-4331}} These plans were dropped after the salad oil scandal of 1963, which resulted in the bankruptcy of the Allied Crude Vegetable Oil company, which traded on the Produce Exchange.{{Cite news|date=March 25, 1964|title=Exchange Expels Food-oil Trader; Partner of Deangelis Loses Produce Membership|language=en-US|page=1|work=The New York Times|url-access=subscription|url=http://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1965/03/21/96700940.pdf|access-date=February 28, 2021|issn=0362-4331}}{{cite book|author=United States. Congress|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=4_EISRpOYKwC&pg=PA10488|title=Congressional Record: Proceedings and Debates of the ... Congress|publisher=U.S. Government Printing Office|year=1964|page=10488|access-date=February 28, 2021|issue=v. 110, pt. 8}} As a result of the scandal, traders had been reluctant to do business with the exchange for some time. The Produce Exchange started trading soybean futures in 1966{{Cite news|last=Fowler|first=Elizabeth N.|date=September 8, 1966|title=New York Gets Taste of Soybean Trading|language=en-US|page=85|work=The New York Times|url-access=subscription|url=http://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1966/09/08/95820700.pdf|access-date=February 28, 2021|issn=0362-4331}} and fish meal futures the next year.{{Cite news|last=Fowler|first=Elizabeth M.|date=March 2, 1967|title=Trading in Fish Meal Futures Is Begun With Little Fanfare|language=en-US|page=47|work=The New York Times|url-access=subscription|url=http://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1967/03/02/89662542.pdf|access-date=February 28, 2021|issn=0362-4331}} The Produce Exchange formed the International Commercial Exchange Inc. in 1969 to assume the exchange's contract markets. By the early 1970s, the Commercial Exchange was only dealing in currency futures, and the Produce Exchange no longer dealt in commodities futures.{{cite news|last=Josefik|first=Stephen|date=January 11, 1973|title=Produce Exchange To Vote on Becoming A Real Estate Trust: N.Y. Firm Would Try to Get Nontaxable Standing, Issue Stock, Cash to 473 Members|page=18|work=The Wall Street Journal|issn=0099-9660|id={{ProQuest|133870166}}}}

In January 1973, the remaining members of the Produce Exchange voted overwhelmingly to convert the exchange into a non-taxable real estate investment trust called the Produce Exchange Realty Trust (PERT).{{cite news|date=January 24, 1973|title=Produce Exchange Switch To Realty Trust Is Voted|page=10|work=The Wall Street Journal|issn=0099-9660|id={{ProQuest|133809342}}}} The trust's main property was the land ownership of 2 Broadway. The move allowed the Produce Exchange to issue 1,000 shares in the PERT and $1,900 in cash to each of its 473 members. The Produce Exchange became the PERT on May 22, 1973.{{cite news|date=May 29, 1973|title=Produce Exchange Dissolved Into Realty Business Trust|page=31|work=The Wall Street Journal|issn=0099-9660|id={{ProQuest|133822190}}}} The PERT's trustees agreed to sell off its ownership in 2 Broadway in 1983 for $26 million, liquidating all its assets.{{Cite news|last=Metz|first=Robert|date=December 14, 1983|title=Patience is a virtue that can pay off handsomely|pages=106|work=New York Daily News|via=newspapers.com {{open access}}|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/72721397/patience-is-a-virtue-that-can-pay-off/|access-date=March 5, 2021}}{{cite news|date=November 28, 1983|title=Produce Exchange Liquidation|page=10|work=The Wall Street Journal|issn=0099-9660|id={{ProQuest|134774077}}}} The liquidation came following a dispute between the PERT and Olympia and York, which owned 2 Broadway and objected to a proposed raise of the land lease.{{cite news|last=Lush|first=Patricia|date=May 17, 1983|title=Olympia and York unit faces huge rent increase in Manhattan|page=B7|work=The Globe and Mail|id={{ProQuest|386496957}}}}

{{portal|Business and economics|New York City}}

• List of commodities exchanges
• List of stock exchanges
• Economy of New York City
• Produce Exchange Building, produce market in Springfield, Massachusetts

Informational notes

{{notelist}}

Citations

{{reflist}}

Bibliography

• {{cite journal|last=Carhart|first=E. R.|date=1911|title=The New York Produce Exchange|url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/1011641|journal=The Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science|volume=38|issue=2|pages=206–221|doi=10.1177/000271621103800210|jstor=1011641|s2cid=140840709|issn=0002-7162}}
• {{cite book|last=Edwards|first=Richard|chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=d6ieSXFM2kIC&pg=PA65|title=New York's Great Industries: Exchange and Commercial Review, Embracing Also Historical and Descriptive Sketch of the City, Its Leading Merchants and Manufacturers ...|publisher=Historical Publishing Company|year=1884|chapter=New York Produce Exchange}}
• {{Cite book|url=https://archive.org/details/kingshandbookofn00king_0/page/540/mode/2up|title=King's Handbook of New York City|publisher=Moses King|year=1893|editor-last=King|editor-first=Moses|edition=2nd|location=Boston}}
• {{cite nysky}}
• {{cite book|author=New York Produce Exchange|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=KTkaAQAAIAAJ&pg=PA17|title=Report of the New York Produce Exchange|year=1873}}
• {{cite book|author=New York Produce Exchange|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ZsMpAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA110|title=Report of the New York Produce Exchange|year=1886}}
• {{Cite NY1880}}
• {{cite journal|last=Weisman|first=Winston|date=September 1, 1972|title=The Commercial Architecture of George B. Post|journal=Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians|publisher=University of California Press|volume=31|issue=3|pages=176–203|doi=10.2307/988764|jstor=988764|issn=0037-9808}}
• {{cite magazine|last=Wheatly|first=Richard|date=July 1886|title=The New York Produce Exchange|url=https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=uc1.31175023709887&view=1up&seq=207|journal=Harper's New Monthly Magazine|volume=73|pages=189–218}}

{{commonscat|New York Produce Exchange}}

• [http://dlib.nyu.edu/findingaids/html/nyhs/ms449_produce_exchange/ New York Produce Exchange Records (1850-1955)] at [https://www.nyhistory.org/library New-York Historical Society]

{{Broadway (Manhattan)}}

{{Financial District, Manhattan}}

Category:1861 establishments in New York (state)

Category:1884 establishments in New York (state)

Category:1957 disestablishments in New York (state)

Category:1973 disestablishments in New York (state)

Category:Bowling Green (New York City)

Category:Broadway (Manhattan)

Category:Buildings and structures completed in 1884

Category:Buildings and structures demolished in 1957

Category:Commercial buildings in Manhattan

Category:Companies based in New York City

Category:Demolished buildings and structures in Manhattan

Category:Economy of New York City

Category:Financial District, Manhattan

Category:Former stock exchanges in the United States