280 Broadway

About

280 Broadway (also known as A.T. Stewart Dry Goods Store, the Marble Palace, the Stewart Building, and the Sun Building) is a seven-story office building on Broadway in the Civic Center neighborhood of Lower Manhattan in New York City, New York, US. Built from 1845 to 1846 for Alexander Turney Stewart, the building was New York City's first Italianate commercial building and the country's first department store. The building also housed the original Sun newspaper from 1919 to 1950 and has housed the central offices for the New York City Department of Buildings since 2002. It is a National Historic Landmark and a New York City designated landmark.

Trench & Snook had designed the original store at the corner of Broadway and Reade Street, as well as two annexes in the early 1850s. Further additions south to Chambers Street were designed by "Schmidt" in 1872 and Edward D. Harris in 1884. The facade is made of Tuckahoe marble and is divided into multiple sections, allowing the various expansions to be designed in a similar style. The ground level contains pilasters and columns, which originally framed plate-glass walls. The facade also contains a four-sided clock and a two-sided thermometer, which were added when the Sun occupied 280 Broadway. When the building was completed, the wholesale and retail departments of Stewart's store were arranged around a central rotunda. The current interior dates to 1884, when the rotunda was destroyed and the building was converted into offices.