New-York tribune., 1920-05-30
Marble Building of Nine
Stories To Be Built for
S. W. Straus & Co. ON
Well Known Property
$4,OOO,OOO is Involved
Site Leased From Robert
". Coelet Has 100 Feet
Front on Fifth Avenue

The Windsor Arcade. at the north
east corner of Fifth Avenue and
Forty sixth Street, which was erected
on the site OF the Windsor Hotel, de-
stroyed by fire, and for the last
eighteen years landmark of Fifth
Avenue, is to be removed to make way
for banking building. S. w.
Straus e. Co., investment brokers,
now in the old williamsburg Fire
Insurance building, at the northeast
corner of Broadway and Liberty
Street, have arranged for long lease
of the property with Robert W. Goe-
let as a site for building for their
business.
About S4,0Oo,ooo will be spent in
erecting the structure, which will be
OF marble, nine stories high. AS the
building must be ready by May next
year. early possession of the we'll
dent. 1t is understood that the prop
erty is not entailed by long leases, as
the structure was erected originally to
carry the realty until plans matured
for more substantial improvement.
The merits of this plan were illus
trated nine years ago, when w. & j.
Sloane were seeking a location on
Fifth Avenue and had selected the
upper corner of the Windsor block.
The site taken by S. w. Straus &
Co. under lease measures 100 feet on
Fifth Avenue and 180 feet on Forty
sixth Street, extending east to the
ballroom of the Ritz Carlton Hotel.
The Arcade, which has not produced
for the Goelets more than the cost of
carrying the property, is three
stories high. 1t originally covered the
entire block front on Fifth Avenue,
from Forty-sixth to Forty seventh
Street, and had the reputation of be-
ing the finest store building in the
city. 1t was often referred to as the
most costly Improvement in New York
because of the high value of the land
and the limited possibilities of the
building.
Once Occupied by Windsor Hotel
The Arcade was erected in 1902,
three years after the destruction of
the Windsor Hotel by fire. which
started during ST. Patrick's Day
parade. Many lives were lost The
fire holds a place in New York history
S. w. Straus e. Co. will occupy three
banking floors, in addition to the base
ment, which will be used for safe de-
floor will be divided into shops for re-
tailers. There will be a broad marble
stairway leading to the main banking
room from the Fifth Avenue entrance.
The main counting room will be of an
especially imposing design, with a Al
foot ceiling. The main floor of the
bank will be 100X180 feet, in addition
to which there will be two mezzanines.
The roof of the building will be used
IL
and recreation quarters for Straus &
Co. employees.
The Straus company's present quar-
ters are in building which the Guar
anty Trust Company leased some
months ago from the Wendell estate.
1t is part of a plot which includes the
Uaight Building, at 1856 Broadway, and
the building at 1872 Broadway, in
which, it is said, the late President
Chester A. Arthur was born. The Guar
anty Trust plans the improvement Of
these sites with a tall structure for
its own use The Improvement was
slated for this year, but had to be
postponed, it was said, because the
trust company could not get the Straus
premises.
Prefers little Wall Street"
The Forty-second Street district has
come to be known as uptown Wall
Street" because of the number of large
financial institutions which have To-
Gated there in the last five or six
years.
S. w. Straus said that Fifth Avenue
or the Little Wall Street" had been
selected 'because the big Wall Street
is the nations wholesale section, and
we are retailers, so to speak. There
fore, vixen it came time for US to plan
permanent home for our New York
house there was 10 reason apparent
why we should follow the usual prece-
dent and remain in the crowded tnan-
cial section. We are moving to a part
of the city, therefore, that is more
easily accessible for our clients and
customers, where tho environment is
more attractive and where a structure
such rs we plan to erect will have the
advantage of being located on broad,
imposing thoroughfares rather than on
the narrow streets of the downtown
district"
Plaus for the building are being pre-
pared by Warren & Wetmore, and the
construction work will be done by the
Thompson Stawett Company.