The Panic of 1907, 2nd Edition

Chapter 9Knickerbocker

Outwardly and according to its balance sheet, the [Knickerbocker] Trust Company was flourishing.

—Herbert L. Satterlee, J. P. Morgan’s son‐in‐law and biographer¹

An Imposing Edifice

The Knickerbocker Trust Company once stood at the northwest corner of Fifth Avenue and 34th Street, in a transitional neighborhood between New York’s downtown business district and its uptown residential grandeur.^2,3 On the opposite corner from the Knickerbocker towered the red sandstone palace of the Waldorf‐Astoria, New York’s most fashionable and grand hotel, placing the Knickerbocker literally in the shadow of the city’s social, business, and political hub. As such, the Knickerbocker’s designers hoped the building itself would be commensurate with its genteel surroundings. Covered in Vermont marble and fronted by four 17‐ton Corinthian columns, the Knickerbocker presented, according to a contemporary reviewer, “a beautiful example of Grecian architecture, treated in the most refined way with every provision known to modern building construction for meeting the demands of the company and the service of its patrons. The structure must be considered a distinct addition to the architectural features of that part of the city.”⁴

The Knickerbocker’s architects, McKim, Mead & White, had designed an elegant and functional four‐story structure that was intended to convey the institution’s strength and sobriety. Inside its main gates, white Norwegian marble contrasted brilliantly ...