Farther up Park Row, facing City Hall Park, stands the Municipal Building, in which are the offices for city departments. It is the largest structure of the sort in the world, housing 6,000 city employees. It is 34 stories high. Going north on Broadway we get into the wholesale dry good district, then into the millinery district, and then we reach Wanamaker's great store on Eighth Street and the beginning of the retail district. The Wanamaker store is a fascinating place from bargain counters in the basement to the spacious sales rooms above where there is everything to be found that a homemaker could want. Whole suites of rooms are beautifully furnished to illustrate combinations and styles in home furnishings. There is an auditorium seating several hundred, with a fine pipe organ where free concerts are given during the day. There is also a restaurant where splendid meals are served at moderate cost.
Park Row passes to the right of the Federal Building, housing the district and circuit courts and the old post office. Opposite the Federal Building on Broadway is the Woolworth Building. It is 55 stories high, or 792 feet and occupies a plot of ground 152 by 197 feet. The land cost $4,500,000 and the building about $8,000,000 and was built by Mr. Woolworth of Woolworth store fame. There is a splendid view from the observation tower.
Now we come to Park Row and Printing House Square, where several of the large New York newspapers are located--The World, The Sun, and The Tribune. This has been a newspaper center for 70 years. Several other newspapers--The Press, Commercial, American, Evening Mail and Evening Post are nearby. The old Times Building was at No. 41 Park Row.
One gets a decided mental jolt to come form the Tavern with its colonial atmosphere and memories to present day affairs as they display themselves on the Stock Exchange. Just a short distance form the Tavern on Broad Street there used to be the curb market where buying of stocks was done in the open by the use of finger signs from one dealer to another and to buyers and sellers stationed in the offices surrounding the market. Bright colored and queer looking caps were worn so that their wearers might easily be distinguished even at some distance. Much of the buying and selling is done with the fingers so that the market looks like a deaf and dumb rooters gang to the uninitiated. The full price of the stocks on the market are supposed to be known, so that only the fraction in the price up or down is indicated. Hand turned down means offered, turned up means bid. If a stock is selling at 89 1/8 all that will be indicated by the hands will be the 1/8. The index finger pointing up means 1/8 bid, two fingers 1/4, three fingers 3/4, etc. Pointing down the fingers indicate the points offered. Points bid is what somebody is willing to pay and points offered is what some one is willing to sell it for. On a day when stock prices are breaking or there is a panic, the stock markets are pandemonium.
Along the street one finds such well known financial concerns as the First National Bank, J. P. Morgan & Co., Equitable Trust Co., Bank of Manhattan founded in 1799, National City Bank founded in 1812, and many other old and famous financial organizations. Wall Street is a little street with a great reputation. Less than a half mile long and little more than 30 feet wide, it contains skyscrapers to the value of $2,500,000,000, which house an office population larger than the whole people of Portland, and as many people going to and fro each day as are to be found in the State of Oregon plus all the people of Seattle, Washington.
Trinity Church stands at the head of Wall Street. It is the wealthiest parish in America and is of fine Gothic architecture. The present building is the third one erected on this site. The Churchyard has a 391 1/2 foot front on Broadway, and an average depth of 243 feet. The land is worth $40,000,000 making an average of about $420 a square foot. If you will have the good fortune to be buried in Trinity Churchyard, you will occupy a plot of ground worth the modest sum of $11,760. Burials still take place in the family vaults built beneath the surface. The church owns $10,000,000 worth of productive real estate in the lower part of the city which brings in an annual income of $750,000. Much of this income is used in missions and philanthropic enterprises. The church has several beautiful bronze doors and a wonderful marble altar, the gift of the Astor family. Services are held regularly. Alexander Hamilton and Robert Fulton are buried in this Churchyard. In an early day, Trinity Church spire was a dominating landmark in the city. Now it is lost among the lofty surrounding skyscrapers. It is about one half the height of buildings immediately around it and one third the height of the Woolworth Building a few blocks to the north of it on Broadway.
Opposite the Trinity Building stands the Equitable Building. It is 38 stories high, occupies 45 acres of floor space and contains rooms for 15,000 workers. There are 48 elevators, and it was built at the cost of $29,000,000.
Going on up Broadway we reach the Singer Building and the City Investing Building. Here Cortlandt Street, on the left, leads to the Hudson Terminals and West Street, while Maiden Lane, on the right, is the heart of the jewelry district.
