American Insurance Company Building | |
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General information | |
Coordinates | 40°44′41″N74°10′14″W / 40.74459°N 74.17067°W Coordinates: 40°44′41″N74°10′14″W / 40.74459°N 74.17067°W |
Completed | 1930 |
Owner | Rutgers University -Newark |
Height | |
Roof | 326 ft (99 m) |
Technical details | |
Floor count | 16 |
Lifts/elevators | 9 |
Design and construction | |
Architect(s) | John H. & Wilson C. Ely |
References | |
[1] [2] | |
James Street Commons Historic District | |
Coordinates | 40°44′41″N74°10′14″W / 40.74459°N 74.17067°W |
NRHP reference No. | 78001758 [3] |
NJRHP No. | 1275 [4] |
Significant dates | |
Added to NRHP | January 9, 1978 |
Designated NJRHP | February 10, 1977 |
The American Insurance Company Building is one of the oldest and tallest skyscrapers in Newark, Essex County, New Jersey, United States. Located at 15 Washington Street on Washington Park it was once headquarters for the American Insurance Company and is now part of Rutgers University. The neo-classical tower is a contributing property to the James Street Commons Historic District which also encompasses Washington Park, Newark Museum, and Newark Public Library. It re-opened in November 2015 as student dorms, event space, and chancellor's apartment. [5]
Newark has been a center for the insurance industry since the early 19th century [6] and has been home to Firemen's Insurance Company and Mutual Benefit Life. The Prudential Insurance headquarters are prominent buildings within the Four Corners Historic District.
The American Insurance Company was incorporated February 20, 1846, and commenced business on April 1, 1846. [7] The company maintained offices downtown on Broad Street and later Park Place. [8] A new home office was completed in 1930. The sixteen story neo-classical tower is 326 ft (99 m) tall. [1] [2] A main interior feature is a "great hall" with 20 ft (6.1 m) ceilings and 15 ft (4.6 m) windows. [9] The building was designed by the father and son architectural firm, John H. & Wilson C. Ely, which also designed the National Newark Building and Newark City Hall. [10]
The American Insurance Company later became the American Insurance Group. [11] The company was acquired by the Fireman's Fund Insurance Company in 1963 [12] the combined company for a time known as the Fireman's Fund American Insurance Group. [13]
In 1977 the Fireman's Fund Insurance Company announced it would be moving its corporate headquarters from downtown Newark to a new campus in suburban Morris Plains, N.J. The company donated its soon to be vacated building to Rutgers University.
After outgrowing facilities in several buildings in downtown the Rutgers School of Law in Newark consolidated into the skyscraper located near the main campus. It was named it in honor of Samuel Irving Newhouse, Sr., a 1916 graduate of the New Jersey Law School (a forerunner of the law school) and founder of Advance Publications [14] and housed the SI Newhouse Center for Law and Justice from 1979 to 1999. [15] [16] after which time the building remained empty. [9]
This section needs to be updated. The reason given is: remodel is complete.(September 2022) |
Rutgers originally intended to develop the building as a hotel, but the project fell through after September 11, 2001. In February 2012, the university announced that it planned to renovate the vacant structure for graduate student housing, citing the growing need and prime location near the campus and the Newark Broad Street Station. The project calls for a conversion into a mixed-use complex with furnished studio apartments and one- to four-bedroom units for 350 students. It is expected to cost $71 million and be a catalyst for continued renaissance of downtown as a residential as well as commercial community. [9] The project is financed through grants, tax credits, and bond issues. Renovations are expected to begin in 2014 and completed in 2015. [17] and will include public performance spaces and a penthouse for the school's chancellor. [18]
Newark is the most populous city in the U.S. state of New Jersey and the seat of Essex County. As of the 2020 census, the city's population was 311,549, an increase of 34,409 (+12.4%) from the 2010 census count of 277,140, which in turn reflected an increase of 3,594 (+1.3%) from the 273,546 counted at the 2000 census. The Population Estimates Program calculated a population of 307,220 for 2021, making it the 66th-most populous municipality in the nation.
Samuel Irving Newhouse Sr. was an American broadcasting businessman, as well as a magazine and newspaper publisher. He was the founder of Advance Publications.
University Heights is a neighborhood in Newark in Essex County, New Jersey. It is so named because of the four academic institutions located within its boundaries: Rutgers University, New Jersey Institute of Technology (NJIT), New Jersey Medical School (Rutgers) and Essex County College. In total, the schools enroll approximately 32,000 degree-seeking students.
Prudential may refer to:
Downtown Newark is the central business district of Newark in Essex County, New Jersey.
Newark has long been the largest city in New Jersey. Founded in 1666, it greatly expanded during the Industrial Revolution, becoming the commercial and cultural hub of the region. Its population grew with various waves of migration in the mid 19th century, peaking in 1950. It suffered greatly during the era of urban decline and suburbanization in the late 20th century. Since the millennium it has benefited from interest and re-investment in America's cities, recording population growth in the 2010 and 2020 censuses.
The Mutual Benefit Life Insurance Company was a life insurance company that was chartered in 1845 and based in Newark in Essex County, New Jersey, United States. The company was headed by Frederick Frelinghuysen (1848–1924). The company was known as the "Tiffany" of insurance companies, a reference to its reputation as the life insurance company to the upper classes.
Rutgers Law School is the law school of Rutgers University, with classrooms in Newark and Camden, New Jersey. It is the largest public law school and the 10th largest law school, overall, in the United States. Each class in the three-year J.D. program enrolls approximately 350 law students. Although Rutgers University dates from 1766, its law school was founded in Newark in 1908. Today, Rutgers offers the J.D. and a foreign-lawyer J.D., as well as joint-degree programs that combine a J.D. with a graduate degree from another Rutgers graduate program. Rutgers has law alumni who practice in every U.S. state and in foreign jurisdictions throughout the world. Current well-known alumni include U.S. Senators Elizabeth Warren (MA) and Robert Menendez (NJ) and three of seven sitting justices on the New Jersey Supreme Court. The late United States Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg was a member of the Rutgers law faculty early in her career. Rutgers serves a unique role in New Jersey's legal landscape: the current Constitution of New Jersey was adopted in 1947 pursuant to a convention at Rutgers University, and the Rutgers Law Library serves as a repository of New Jersey's key legal documents from the colonial era through current legislation and case law.
The National Newark Building is a neo-classical office skyscraper in Newark, New Jersey. It has been the tallest building in Newark since 1931 and was tallest in New Jersey until 1989. At thirty-five stories, it has a height of 466 ft (142 m). It is located in the heart of Downtown Newark at 744 Broad Street, just north of Four Corners.
Grad Associates formerly Grad Partnership and Frank Grad & Sons, was an architectural firm based in Newark, New Jersey. Founded in 1906 by Frank Grad (1882–1968), the company was later run by his sons, Bernard and Howard. The company closed its doors on February 19, 2010.
The Home Office Building is located adjacent to Military Park at 10 Park Place in Newark, Essex County, New Jersey, United States. The building was built in 1928 and was added to the National Register of Historic Places on June 17, 1982.
The Gateway Center is a commercial complex in Newark, New Jersey. Located downtown just west of Newark Penn Station between Raymond Boulevard and Market Street; McCarter Highway runs through the complex. Skyways and pedestrian malls interconnect all of the office towers, a Hilton Hotel, the train station, and the Newark Legal Center. Built in phases in the late 20th century the complex comprises some of the tallest buildings in the city, two designed by Victor Gruen Associates and two by Grad Associates.
The Four Corners Historic District is the intersection of Broad and Market Streets in Newark, New Jersey. It is the site of the city's earliest settlement and the heart of Downtown Newark that at one time was considered the busiest intersection in the United States. The area that radiates twenty-two square blocks from the crossroads is a state and federal historic district. Today, no vehicle traffic is allowed to turn at Broad and Market. Traffic heading from near the County Courthouse towards the intersection trying to head southbound on Broad Street should turn right on University Avenue, then left on Branford Place. Traffic trying to go northbound on Broad Street should make a left on Washington Street, then a right on Raymond. All Broad Street traffic heading from around Broad Street Station trying to access Market Street's eastbound traffic should take a left on Park Place, then a right on Mulberry Street down to Market Street. The same goes with westbound traffic, as well as taking a right on Raymond Avenue, then a left on University.
Prudential Financial is based in Newark, New Jersey. It began as The Widows and Orphans Friendly Society in 1875, and for a short time it was called the Prudential Friendly Society. For many years after 1877 it was known as the Prudential Insurance Company of America, a name still widely in use. The company has constructed a number of buildings to house its offices in downtown in the Four Corners district. In addition to its own offices, the corporation has financed large projects in the city, including Gateway Center and Prudential Center. Prudential has over 5,000 employees in the city.
John H. & Wilson C. Ely was a father and son architectural firm based in Newark, New Jersey responsible for some of the more prominent buildings built in the city in the early 20th century, many in the Classical Revival style.
One Washington Park is a high rise office building located on Harriet Tubman Square at 1 Washington Street in Newark, New Jersey. Among the tallest buildings in the city, it is best known as the home of Rutgers Business School, Amazon's Audible.com, and Newark Venture Partners.
Rutgers Business School – Newark and New Brunswick is the graduate and undergraduate business school located on the Newark and New Brunswick campuses of Rutgers University. It was founded in 1929. It operated under several different names before consolidating into Rutgers Business School.
Sports in Newark, New Jersey, the second largest city in New York metropolitan area, are part of the regional professional sports and media markets. The city has hosted many teams and events, though much of its history is without an MLB, NBA, NHL, or NFL team in the city proper. Two venues in the northeastern New Jersey metro region, Prudential Center and Riverfront Stadium (closed), are in Downtown Newark. Red Bull Arena is just across the Passaic River in Harrison. The Meadowlands Sports Complex is less than 10 miles away from Downtown and reached with the Meadowlands Rail Line via Newark Penn Station or Broad Street Station.
50 Rector Park is an apartment building in Newark, New Jersey, the first market rate residential high-rise to be newly built in the city since 1962. Originally called One Riverview and later 1 Rector Street, there was a groundbreaking in 2013, but construction did not begin at the site until the spring of 2017. It was topped out in April 2018 and opened June 2019.
In 1804, the Newark Banking and Insurance Company opened, followed by the Newark Mutual Assurance Company (The Newark Fire Insurance Company) in 1810, and the Mutual Benefit Life Insurance Company in 1845. John F. Dryden founded the Prudential Insurance Company in Newark in 1875.
The American Insurance Group, comprising the American Insurance Company, parent organization, the Bankers Indemnity Insurance Company, casualty affiliate and the Columbia Fire Insurance Company, last year wrote insurance premiums totaling $64,582,591, compared with $61,760,031 in 1949.
In 1957 Fireman's Fund moved to a new headquarters.....The company also made several profitable additions to its business during the early 1960s, including the Fireman's Fund Insurance Company of Texas, incorporated in 1962, and the American Insurance Company plus its two subsidiaries, American Automobile Insurance Company and The Associated Indemnity Company, acquired in 1963.
Bruno C. Vitt, a leader in fire insurance who had been president and chairman of The American Insurance Company, now part of the Fireman's Fund American Insurance Companies group, died Wednesday in Pinehurst, N.C.