{"nrhp_refnum":"82003375","name":"Former Emigrant Industrial Savings Bank","other_names":[],"category":"building","location":{"address":"51 Chambers St.","address_restricted":false,"city":"New York","county":"Manhattan","state":"NY","lat":40.713980734000074,"lon":-74.00487676299997,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1982-02-25","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Architecture"],"significance_levels":["local"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"A fourteen-story Beaux-Arts office tower and former bank at 51 Chambers Street in downtown Manhattan, built in 1912-13 to designs by Raymond F. Almirall for the Emigrant Industrial Savings Bank.","why_significant":"The nomination presents the building as an impressive, well-designed Beaux-Arts office tower with fine sculptural work inside and out. It was praised for its H-plan, described as the first used on a large office building. Its opulent pre-World War I banking hall is one of the few intact banking halls remaining in New York City.","narrative":"Rising fourteen stories above its neighbors near City Hall and the Tweed Courthouse, this former bank headquarters at 51 Chambers Street was built in 1912-13 to designs by Paris-trained architect Raymond F. Almirall. The Emigrant Industrial Savings Bank was organized in 1850 under Bishop John Hughes and the Irish Emigrant Society to protect the savings of newly arrived immigrants, and it had occupied two smaller buildings on this site before the tower was built. The building's H-shaped plan brings light and air to every office and creates the look of twin towers above a rusticated base. Sculptural groups, a beehive symbolizing industriousness, and a copper-trimmed mansard roof mark the exterior. Inside, the main floor holds a banking hall faced in Italian white marble, with marble and iron tellers' cages and five stained-glass skylights. The H-plan was reported to be the first used on a large office building, and the hall is one of few intact examples in the city. The building now houses city offices.","period_of_significance":"1912-13","architect_builder":"Raymond F. Almirall","architectural_style":"Beaux-Arts","criteria":[],"status_note":"Owned by the City of New York and houses various city offices; the banking room serves the Parking Violations Bureau.","vacant_flag":false,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:50:41.385888-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/lz/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_NY/82003375.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/82003375/91e3295295-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/82003375/91e3295295-1600.webp","licence":"CC BY-SA 3.0","author":"Gryffindor derivative work: Fpo (talk)","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Emigrant_Industrial_Savings_Bank_001_002_003_combined.JPG\" rel=\"noopener\">Gryffindor derivative work: Fpo (talk)</a>, <a href=\"https://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:Emigrant_Industrial_Savings_Bank_001_002_003_combined.JPG"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/75319507","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/49_Chambers","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q1335726"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/new-york/manhattan/former-emigrant-industrial-savings-bank-82003375/"}