thecorner

Another Bain/LOC photo of the YMCA fundraising clock was posted on Flickr on March 19, 2010: And another on April 23, 2010: And this one on May 28, 2010:

wystan, you're a busy beaver!!!

see

for a picture of the building he tore down, before building this one.

And here are Bain Agency photos of the construction site of Morgan's new HQ:

far too valuable, this lot is no longer the YMCA. Perhaps Wall St values have suffered because of the loss of what the Y stood for.

In 1912 J. P. Morgan decided to demolish his offices at 23 Wall Street. Demolition started on 30 April, 1913. New offices for the same firm were to be constructed upon the site, shown in the photograph above. From this photograph it appears that the Y.M.C.A. appeal billboard was put up on this prominent position between demolition of the old building and construction of the new. Flickr user TVL1970 has tagged the photograph as 25 Broad Street, so perhaps it also bears that address. See a related photograph "Tearing down Morgan Offices" here: www.flickr.com/photos/library_of_congress/3160168344/ and related photograph "Tearing down Morgan Offices" here: www.flickr.com/photos/library_of_congress/3159334005/

@Bob Meade: TVL 1970 in his tag (now withdrawn) evidently mistook the Wall Street site in the photo for 25 Broad Street, which was then the headquarters of the YMCA (and of the fundraising campaign). [The address "25 Broad Street" appears on the clock dial.] The four million dollar "whirlwind" campaign, for a joint YMCA/YWCA, was the largest fundraiser in world history up to that time. Campaign "clocks" like the one shown here were erected at various strategic locations to keep the project in the public eye. This story in the "New York Times," November 13, 1913, mentions another one: query.nytimes.com/mem/archive-free/pdf?res=9501E0D71E3EE2...

you can google earth this intersection and see its distinctive shape

Story of the demolition and new building here: www.nytimes.com/2003/04/20/realestate/streetscapes-j-p-mo... Here's the building when it was new: www.flickr.com/photos/40045986@N00/3096828333/ And more recently: www.flickr.com/photos/dreher21/4041923322/ I was hoping to find a recent photo that would show the same street scene but came up empty.

LOC -- Bain's original caption is incorrect. Close scrutiny of the sign shows that the fundraising drive is for both the YMCA -- AND the YWCA. There is an M perched directly above the W on the sign. It should properly be rendered YM/YWCA, or YMCA/YWCA.

The fundraising "clock" sign was positioned on a prominent corner, but this was the Wall Street construction site for the new headquarters of J. P. Morgan -- not the site of the future YM/YWCA. The address on the sign, 25 Broad Street, was the location of the existing YMCA headquarters, not of the J. P. Morgan erection. New York's four-million-dollar whirlwind campaign for a new YM/YWCA was the largest fundraising project in world history up to that time. Campaign "clocks" like the one shown here were erected at various strategic locations to keep the project in the public eye. This story in the "New York Times," November 13, 1913, mentions another one: query.nytimes.com/mem/archive-free/pdf?_r=1&res=9501E...

Bain's photographer overdid his coverage of this spectacle, but that probably was all for the best, since half of his shots were grievously underexposed: