Mutual Reserve Building

The Mutual Reserve Building is in the Tribeca neighborhood of Manhattan, just west of the Civic Center. It has frontage along Broadway to the east and Duane Street to the south. Nearby buildings and locations include the David S. Brown Store to the northwest; 311 Broadway and 315 Broadway to the north; the Jacob K. Javits Federal Building to the east; and the Ted Weiss Federal Building and African Burial Ground National Monument to the southeast. The building spans the addresses 305–309 Broadway and 91–99 Duane Street. The lot measures , with the longer side being on Duane Street. == Architecture ==

The Mutual Reserve Building is 13 stories tall, with a roof height of . It was designed by William H. Hume in a variant of the Romanesque Revival style inspired by the work of Henry Hobson Richardson. Richard Deeves was also involved as the main builder, Frederick H. Kindl was the chief structural engineer, Carnegie Steel Company was the steel supplier, and Hanlein & Co. was the stone contractor. The building is split vertically into four bays on Broadway and six on Duane Street. The lowest five stories contain round-arched arcades supported by rusticated stone piers. The Mutual Reserve Building utilized steel in its beams and columns, which were riveted to each other and supported each floor's walls. In 1909, during a meeting of the Institution of Civil Engineers, Carnegie Steel engineer C. V. Childs stated that he had devised a wind bracing system, using gusset plates at the building's narrow end to reduce distortion; this system was first used in either the Mutual Reserve Building or the Savoy-Plaza Hotel. The developers of the American Surety Building, another early skyscraper with a full steel skeleton completed in 1896, intended to model their project after the Mutual Reserve Building's design. The steel frame was encased in brick and asbestos cement. The building was described in The New York Times as being "absolutely fireproof", with brick partitions and floors. The upper floors were mostly used as office space; the Mutual Reserve Association utilized three or four of the lowest office stories, while the other floors were rented to other tenants. As in other early skyscrapers of the time, the elevator doors on each door could be opened regardless of where the elevator physically was. a delicatessen dealer in 1909, and a cleaner in 1926. ==History==

Planning and construction William Fletcher Weld, who died in 1881, was described as one of the most successful merchant ship owners in the United States. He left a $21 million estate (equivalent to $ million in ), much of which went to his grandchildren William Fletcher Weld Jr., Charles Goddard Weld, Mary Bryant Pratt Sprague, and Isabel Weld Perkins. The Weld estate bought the northwest-corner lot at Broadway and Duane Street from the Hale estate in May 1888 for $350,000. At the time, the lot contained a three-story brick building with a restaurant on the ground floor and offices on the upper floors. Two years later, the estate acquired an interior lot adjacent to that property. Within eleven years, it had become the world's "purely mutual natural-premium" life insurance company. By the time the building was announced in January 1892, Mutual Reserve had agreed to lease space in the Weld estate's new building for its new headquarters. The lease would run 40 years from June 1, 1894, and was based on a percentage of the construction cost and the $500,000 land value. Mutual Reserve was recorded as having paid $408,297 for the lease, as well as construction and furnishings. Hume filed plans for the Mutual Reserve Building in June 1892, by which it was planned as a 13-story structure. Construction was also held up by strikes at the granite supplier's factory. The building, officially completed in September, ultimately cost $1.2 million in total. The building's contractor Richard Deeves & Son, as well as a bicycle showroom and architects, also took up space in the building. and reorganized as the Mutual Reserve Life Insurance Company in 1902, although further scrutiny led to the company's vice-president and president being indicted in 1906. In the wake of this controversy, the building's private executives' elevator was closed in June 1907. even though the company had just entered receivership. 305 Broadway had become known as the Langdon Building by 1909, when Hume filed plans for minor building modifications. The building was probably named after John Langdon Brandegee, a stock broker who was the son of the sole owner at the time, Mary Bryant Pratt Sprague. During the mid-1910s, the ground floor space was taken by the Standard Lunch Company and Emerson Shoe Company. The new owner planned to renovate the building for lawyers' use at a cost of $40,000 to $50,000, and planned to rename the structure as the Lawyers' Building. The purchase was due to the building's proximity to courthouses on Chambers Street and the lack of available space for lawyers in the Financial District. and a 1920s hub of the "personal injury underworld". Other tenants during that time included metal supplier Herman J. Heght Inc.; the Amalgamated Lithographers of America; architecture firm Marcus Contracting Company; architect George F. Hardy; and a temporary location of the Wall Street Synagogue. The building was sold in 1940 to the Downtown Renting Company, and it was refinanced for $300,000. At the time, 305 Broadway was entirely rented, with most of the tenants being lawyers. Five years later, the building was sold to Broaduane Corporation. The Jewish Forum Association, which published a journal called the Jewish Forum, operated in the building in the 1940s. During the next decade, many agencies of the New York state government started moving in. Through the 1960s, the city government's departments of Real Estate and Relocation also occupied space in 305 Broadway. The building also served as the first permanent headquarters of the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission (LPC) from 1967 to 1980. Reade Broadway Associates bought the building two years later. The building officially became a city landmark in 2011. It is one of several remaining life-insurance company headquarters on the southernmost section of Broadway, along with the Former New York Life Insurance Company Building and the Home Life Building. == Critical reception ==

Moses King, in his 1893 edition of ''King's Handbook of New York, referred to 305 Broadway as "one of the finest office buildings in the city", describing the building as "a masterpiece of architecture". The Tribune'', in 1898, described the building's design as being "perfectly" proportioned, and the facade arrangement as being "admirable". == References ==