Founded in 1846 by a group of New York newspapers as a way to share the costs of covering the Mexican War, AP occupied various buildings in lower Manhattan for a total of 79 years before moving to midtown in 1925.
Director of AP Corporate Archives Valerie Komor and Archivist Francesca Pitaro explain:
Lower Manhattan was the center of commercial and maritime activity and therefore of newspapering. Organized in 1846 by Moses Yale Beach, AP first took rooms “in the modest apartments at the corner of Broadway and Liberty-street, up seventy-eight stairs,” according to Putnam’s Monthly Magazine. This was 83 Liberty St., AP headquarters through the mid-1880s.AP telegraphers were located outside the main office until the early 20th century. New York City directories show telegraphic news agencies at 24 Exchange Pl. (circa 1848-49); 3 Hanover St. (circa 1849-53); 58 Beaver St. (circa 1858-59); 7 Broad St. (circa 1860-61); 145 Broadway, the first home of Western Union (circa 1861-75), and 149 Broadway (circa 1874-75).In 1875, General Agent James W. Simonton moved to the eighth floor of the French Renaissance-style palace at 195 Broadway, designed by George B. Post as Western Union’s second home. When the AP of Illinois departed Chicago and incorporated under New York State law in May of 1900, it settled into 195 Broadway under the leadership of Melville E. Stone, the founder and former editor of the Chicago Daily News.AP remained here until 1914, when it moved to the Emigrant Industrial Savings Bank Building at 51 Chambers St., leasing 13,250 square feet. The move enabled Stone to organize operations under news, finance and traffic. Telegraphers who had once worked outside the main office were brought under the supervision of Kent Cooper, assistant general manager for traffic.As general manager, Cooper led the move north to midtown — 383 Madison Ave. — in March 1924. Telephones, teletypes and pneumatic tubes eliminated the need for AP to be near the newspapers on Park Row downtown. It proved more important to be accessible to AP member publishers by virtue of the office’s proximity to Grand Central Terminal and Penn Station and to numerous elegant hotels.In 1938, AP moved to its namesake landmark building at 50 Rockefeller Plaza, where it remained for 66 years until it could no longer afford the rising rents. In 2004, AP leased 290,000 square feet of space on three floors at 450 W. 33rd St., its current home. Architects designed an open floor plan, so that for the first time since leaving Madison Avenue, news staff occupied a single floor.But in less than a decade, the landscape along 10th Avenue has changed dramatically. The last vestiges of 19th-century brick have given way to soaring glass. Luxury retail stores are being constructed over the Hudson rail yards.Returning to downtown, AP will move into a 40-story César Pelli building, opened in 1985 and standing at some distance west of the original Broadway starting point.
AP President and CEO Gary Pruitt said the new lease will be for at least 21 years, anchoring the news cooperative downtown for the long term.
