A stately survivor from the mid-nineteenth century, 55 Wall Street was the second Merchant’s Exchange on this site. Architect Isaiah Rogers designed a three-story structure that made a monumental statement on Wall Street with a colonnade of colossal ionic columns. The building served as an exchange for buying and selling commodities, and for the offices of many prominent shippers, merchants, auctioneers, and brokers. The interior was originally divided into a warren of offices and large meeting rooms. It also served as the meeting place of the precursor to the New York Stock Exchange.

In 1907, McKim Mead & White adapted the Exchange for use as a headquarters for the National City Bank, then the nation’s largest. To meet the needs of a modern bank, an additional four stories were added, masked by a second colonnade executed in the same granite as Roger’s original. The interior of Roger’s Merchant’s Exchange was opened up to form an impressive three-story banking hall.

McKim’s addition was a sympathetic reconfiguring of this structure of great historical and architectural significance. In the late 1990’s the Merchants Exchange was again adapted to suit the needs of a new use when it was converted into a hotel, dining, and events complex. McKim’s imperial-scaled banking hall is now the backdrop for some of the city’s most exclusive parties and fundraisers.