209broadway

John Jacob Astor had it built, in 1836. Abraham Lincoln slept there, in 1860. The south part was demolished in 1913, a victim of subway construction, and the rest was torn down in 1926. Wikipedia: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Astor_House

A similar Bain/LOC photo, with misspelled caption:

Wystan: Thanks for the additional details on the Astor house. We will add a bit more to the record when we update.

A Chicago millionaire, trader in wheat, horseman. There's a bit on him over at Find A Grave. Frank Norris's The Pit was apparently based on Leiter's life trying to control the wheat market; a century later, his legacy lives on.

Leiter appeared at the hearing on the fixing of bread prices. See NYT of Feb 20, 1915 select.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=F30F12FC395C1373...

See note under

His wife is pictured in

The date on the negative is May, 1917, but it appears to be taken at the same time as the group of 1915 Bread Inquiry pictures. Leiter was in the news again in May 12, 1917 in connection with a public dispute with Thedore Roosevelt, and the date probably represents a re-use of a 1915 picture: query.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=9E07EEDE123AE433A... "Roosevelt Resigns From Army League; Leiter Calls Him Unfit to Lead Volunteers" Here is an account of Leiter's testimony on 2/26/15 before the New York State bread inquiry: query.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=9E02E0DC1238E633A...

I think an educated guess on this one is that he is Alfred L. Russell of A.L. Russell, Inc. which published the reports of the New York Produce Exchange, a commodities market that traded, among many other things, in grain. In a 1918 Columbia U. publication, he is also identified has having been a member of the Exchange since 1883. By 1918 he was working for the Federal Food Administration Grain Corporation, which was in charge of wartime wheat and grain distribution.
He is probably photographed here at the New York Attorney General's offices, where the inquiry into grain and bread prices, speculation and price-fixing had begun on February 16th, 1915. The Exchange's Chief Statistician, Henry Heinzer testified at the inquiry.
books.google.com/books?id=n44hAQAAMAAJ&pg=PA384&d...