{"nrhp_refnum":"78001875","name":"National City Bank","other_names":["Merchant's Exchange","First National City Bank Building"],"category":"building","location":{"address":"55 Wall St.","address_restricted":false,"city":"New York","county":"Manhattan","state":"NY","lat":40.705913891500046,"lon":-74.0093444315936,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1978-06-02","is_nhl":true,"nhl_designated_date":"1978-06-02","areas_of_significance":["Commerce","Architecture"],"significance_levels":["national"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"An eight-story classical bank building at 55 Wall Street in Manhattan, built as the Merchant's Exchange with a first tier designed by Isaiah Rogers and a second tier added in 1904-1907 by McKim, Mead, and White. It was later occupied by City Bank, later First National City Bank.","why_significant":"The building housed City Bank, which under James Stillman rose to become the largest American bank and the first to reach $1 billion in assets. It also has a layered history as the Merchant's Exchange, an early home of the New York Stock Exchange, and a U.S. Custom House. Its Pantheon-inspired exchange room was one of the largest banking rooms in the country.","narrative":"Occupying a full block-front at 55 Wall Street in Manhattan, this eight-story classical building began as the Merchant's Exchange. Isaiah Rogers designed the four-story granite Greek Revival first tier, with a row of monolithic Ionic columns across the Wall Street front and a domed rotunda. The New York Stock Exchange used part of it, and the federal government later operated it as a Custom House. In 1899 banker James Stillman bought the building for National City Bank. Stanford White of McKim, Mead, and White then proposed adding a second four-story tier with Corinthian columns and remodeling the interior after the Pantheon in Rome. The firm finished the work in 1907. The great exchange room, with yellow Italian marble columns and a coffered ceiling and dome, served as one of the largest banking rooms in the United States. Its significance rests on its architecture and on the bank that grew here into a leading force in American finance.","period_of_significance":"1899-present","architect_builder":"Isaiah Rogers; McKim, Mead, and White","architectural_style":"Greek Revival (first tier) with classical additions","criteria":[],"status_note":"Occupied; used as legal and bank offices and described as meticulously maintained, with the exterior recently cleaned and the interior largely retaining its original appearance.","vacant_flag":false,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:50:38.696107-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/lz/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_NY/78001875_NHL.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/78001875/9987f163e1-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/78001875/9987f163e1-1600.webp","licence":"CC BY-SA 3.0","author":"Dmadeo","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:55-wall-street.jpg\" rel=\"noopener\">Dmadeo</a>, <a href=\"http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/\" rel=\"license noopener\">CC BY-SA 3.0</a>, via Wikimedia Commons","source_page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:55-wall-street.jpg"},"district":{"nrhp_refnum":"07000063","name":"Wall Street Historic District","url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/districts/new-york/wall-street-historic-district-07000063/"},"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/75315852","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/55_Wall_Street","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q1097619"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/new-york/manhattan/national-city-bank-78001875/"}