55 Wall Street
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55 Wall Street, also formerly known as the National City Bank Building, is an eight-story building on Wall Street between William and Hanover streets in the Financial District of Lower Manhattan in New York City. The lowest three stories were built in 1836–1841 as the four-story Merchants' Exchange and designed by Isaiah Rogers in the Greek Revival style. Between 1907 and 1910, McKim, Mead & White removed the original fourth story and added five floors to create the present exterior.
55 Wall Street's facade is made of granite, with two stacked colonnades of twelve columns facing Wall Street. Inside is a cruciform banking hall with a 60-foot (18 m) vaulted ceiling, Corinthian columns, marble floors and walls, and an entablature around the interior. The banking hall was among the largest in the United States when it was completed. The offices of National City Bank, predecessor bank of Citibank, were located in the corners of the banking hall, and the fourth through eighth floors were used as office space.
The Merchants' Exchange building was erected to replace an older structure that had burned down in the Great New York City Fire of 1835. 55 Wall Street subsequently hosted the New York Stock Exchange and the United States Custom House until a new Custom House building was developed on Bowling Green. After the building's expansion by McKim, Mead & White, it served as the headquarters of National City Bank from 1908 to 1961. Citibank retained ownership of the building until 1992. The upper portion of the building was turned into a hotel in 1998–1999, and after the hotel's closure in 2003, the upper floors were renovated again and converted into condominiums in 2006. The original banking room became a ballroom.
The exterior of 55 Wall Street was designated a city landmark by the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission in 1965, and part of the interior was similarly designated in 1999. The building was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1972 and was named a National Historic Landmark in 1978. It is also a contributing property to the Wall Street Historic District, a NRHP district created in 2007.
