If you look at the green cornice at the top of the building, you'll see the numbers 1902 (the year the building was built), and the initials A.M.

Adolf Mandel (A.M.), was a New York financier who built 155 Rivington Street to serve as his bank.

In 1912, nearly a thousand people waited on Rivington Street to access their deposits as rumors of a broken safe sparked a run on the bank. Mandel claimed in the New York Times that he believed "the run was started by a gang of robbers and pickpockets for the purpose of victimizing the depositors." However, it was unclear how much Mandel was to be trusted. One of his own tellers testified in 1915 that he had allowed customers to deposit money knowing the bank was insolvent. The same teller ended up dying on the witness stand as if to emphasize his point.

The failure of Mandel's bank was not the end of 155 Rivington's involvement in drama. In 1915, the bank was replaced by the United Knish Factory, which was owned by M. London. The new knish shop on Rivington Street had a problem; they weren't the only knishery on the block. Right across the street at 150 Rivington was Max Green’s eating house. A rivalry quickly started between the two that was dubbed "the Knish Wars.” Both began slashing prices, handing out coupons, and hiring bands and cabarets to attract customers.

The great Knish War eventually ended and, by 1925, Max Green's knishery had been replaced by Streit's Matzoh factory. Soon the United Knish Factory was replaced by a children's pajama manufacturer, and like much of New York, 155 entered into a period of neglect. Decades later the graffiti-covered building, which was serving as the rehearsal space for a number of local punk bands would make its television debut in the music video for the song "Time Bomb" by Rancid. The graffitied cover walls of the 4th floor serve as the backdrop to most of the video.

A little bit of graffiti has never kept New Yorkers from appreciating a good building. In 2009, the technology company Kickstarter moved into the top 3 floors while Lady Gaga frequented her beloved ground floor bar, St. Jerome's. After 5 years, Kickstarter moved to Brooklyn and the building continued its technology ways under the name Orbital (a studio for building networks). The Urban Archive team has called this home since its inception. The building where deposits were taken, knishes were peddled, and children's pajamas were sold is now in the process of being sold once more. Soon 155 Rivington Street will take on a new face.