This is 120 Wall Street in New York's financial district. It is the last building on the iconic thoroughfare, standing by the FDR Drive and East River. (They say that Wall Street begins in a graveyard and ends in a river. It's literally true.) The photo was taken from the Brooklyn Bridge.
My father, John Crowe, spent most of his career working in this building. He was not in securities or banking, but rather commodities. Sugar, specifically. The company was a brokerage, middlemen between refiners and food products companies. He was the sales manager. Pepsi-Cola, for example, bought all its sugar from him. He wrote the weekly sugar column for the Journal of Commerce, a business newspaper that once rivaled the Wall Street Journal.
His office was on the side of the building seen here, facing the East River. When I was a child I loved to go with him on Saturdays. While he caught up on paperwork, I would play with the office equipment, including an old-fashioned switchboard, and watch the boats chug up and down the river.
My father, John Crowe, spent most of his career working in this building. He was not in securities or banking, but rather commodities. Sugar, specifically. The company was a brokerage, middlemen between refiners and food products companies. He was the sales manager. Pepsi-Cola, for example, bought all its sugar from him. He wrote the weekly sugar column for the Journal of Commerce, a business newspaper that once rivaled the Wall Street Journal.
His office was on the side of the building seen here, facing the East River. When I was a child I loved to go with him on Saturdays. While he caught up on paperwork, I would play with the office equipment, including an old-fashioned switchboard, and watch the boats chug up and down the river.
souvenir souvenir, la vue devait etre magnifique.
ReplyDeleteDans son architecture le 120 wall street fait penser a l'hotel New-Yorker
Memories, memories and what a lot we can know of so little of all the facts of life.
ReplyDeleteOh la! This image to me is so Gothic NY! The architecture is fabulous, I imagine the view from your dad's office spectacularly memorable! Brilliant choice to use B & W for this image. Happy times in NYC!
ReplyDeleteVery nice post Bob!
ReplyDeleteTerrific shot, Bob! Now you have inspired me to take a photo of the building where my father worked, the Bank of London & South America at downtown Lisbon. Thanks! :-)
ReplyDeleteIt makes me think of the old Daily Planet building the 1950s Superman TV series.
ReplyDeleteBob, your post today is particularly wonderful. Such a photo! Such a story about your memories. Thank you so much for sharing.
ReplyDeleteAlways like it whew you take us back to your old haunts in NYC.
ReplyDeleteThe building stands out so well, Bob.
ReplyDeleteThis is a splendid image, Bob. It needs to be printed large and installed within the building.
ReplyDeleteAn intersting insight into your father and his work. Unfortunately, my father's business was in our home and after he died, my mother had to sell the property to pay the bills, so there is no real place for me to go to reflect on him. So, I support a bench in Elizabeth Park in my parents' honor and visit it on my rounds through the park.