Show A A NILI d W YORK BROKERS 0 HOUSED aw M N 4 ly IL IN MA MARBLE T ai faa PALACE E i 1 rr I 1 1 I if 1 W 0 m JK WY 4 Z vy Y r A k YN 9 III f 1 I I 1 all in the month of april 1792 the istock stock brokers of new york city met I 1 daily under a spreading buttonwood attree tree in front of 70 wall street and their peaceful transactions were watched curiously by the silke silk clad lad beauties and bewigged beaux whose homes lined the street on april 22 the present generation of brokers met for the first time in the veritable pal ace which has been built as a fitting home for the thousand odd securities valued in billions of dollars depre benting the material wealth of a na tion which has leaped from the nar row confines of a strip along the at lantic alantic to the coast of the pacific and beyond the new exchange is built of white marble and is nine stories high its outward claim to distinction is in its dignified simplicity the broad street 7 front the real show front is note worthy for its si sl magnificent eilt corinth lan ian columns 52 feet in height and 66 inches in diameter surmounted by a pediment for the tympanum of which J Q A ward has designed a series of sculptures whose main theme is in represented by a central fe male figure to whom the arts and in destries dust dus rles trIes bear their fruits for adjust ment mont the wall street end of the structure which occupies an irregular quadrilateral having frontages of feet on broad street and feet on new street with a depth of f feet foot Is less ornate but equally appropriate e the main effort was to provide a suit able board room where the active trading Is done and to this end the architecture has yielded the entrance to the exchange from the main broad street doors reveals flights of marble steps to right and left leading to the floor of the board room directly ahead are corridors running through the basement this Is devoted to the members coat rooms to the offices of the cable and telegraph companies and to offices for use as barber shops news stands and so on in the aub basement subbasement are the rooms for employed emp loyes the vaults for securities and much of the costly ma chinery which serves to light heat and ventilate the structure the apparatus for the latter purposes cost more than in the telegraph and cable offices are the outlets of the pneumatic tube system which with its branches taps every room in the building following the marble steps to the floor of the board room immensity is the first impression given it Is a hall resplendent in gold leaf and pure white marble feet long from broad to new street and feet wide from the wall street to the south end with its ceiling 72 feet above the floor in the center of the ceiling Is a colored glass skylight SO 20 leet square the broad and new street ends of the room are simply great windows sustained by iron mul lions through which are seen the cor anthian pillars of each facade there are 15 square feet of floor space and this expanse is broken only by the trading posts fifteen in number scattered about it and by the parallel rows of telephone booths on the new street end which extend some eight een feet into the room proper on the seventh floor in the broad dread street front Is the bond room which is in itself a great hall built like an amphitheater two stories high and lighted by a sl alight it is finely decorated in gold with green and brown wall panels this will be used for members meetings gs and by the governing committee also the new street side of this floor Is given over to the handsome offices of the president of the exchange to the clerks workroom and with a part ol 01 the wall street end to the secre secretary s offices all finely decorated and corn com iodious rooms from the machineries machine ried mazes of its depth to its lofty dome resplendent with light the structure is perfect in its purpose to be the pulsing heart to which lead the financial arteries of the nation and in the not far future of the whole world new york sun |