Original Empire State Building

Where is the Empire State Building?

If you answered “350 5th Avenue,” you’re right. But what if you said “640 Broadway?”

You’re right too… Stroll over to Broadway and Bleecker, and let us explain.

Before the “Empire State Building” was the “Empire State Building,” there was a middling financial institution on Lower Broadway called the “Empire State Bank.” They occupied the ground floor of a building on Broadway and Bleecker Street. When the building burned (in what turned out to be an arson attack!) in 1895, the bank failed. The bank then dissolved in 1896.

The building’s owner, B. Lichtenstein, hired architects De Lemos and Cordes (who would later design “Macy’s at Herald Square”) to rebuild. When the structure was completed in 1897, Lichtenstein named the new building after his old tenant, calling it “The Empire State Building.” That name was then etched above the door.

As you can imagine, once the “other” Empire State Building hit the town in 1931, 640 Broadway couldn’t really pull off the name. But that doesn’t mean today’s owners don’t want to bring it back. In 2015, they received permission from the Landmarks Preservation Commission to re-etch the name “The Empire State Building” over the door.