Originally constructed in 1894 by architect and builder John T. Williams, the “Knickerbocker Telephone Co. Building” is located at 200 Lafayette Street in New York City’s SoHo-Cast Iron Historic District Extension, an area that gained prominence in the late-nineteenth century as one of the city’s prime manufacturing districts. The buildings of this district display a variety of architectural styles including Italianate, Second Empire, Queen Anne, Romanesque, and Revival styles, which were adapted to meet the needs of American commercial interests. The Knickerbocker Telephone Co. Building is designed in the Renaissance Revival-style, characterized by its rusticated base, multi-story brick piers topped by molded capitals, elaborate cartouches, and pressed-metal cornices decorated with dentils and scrolled brackets.

Over the years, the building was occupied by a variety of tenants, including the National Wall Paper Co. (1896); the Knickerbocker Telephone Co. (1900); the Fairbanks Scales Co. (1902-20); the Woodcrafts Equipment Co. (1932); Toepfer-Anderson Promotions Service, direct mail service (1951); the Miller-Charles Co., automatic screw machines (1962); LCY Sportswear, clothing manufacturers (1977); Laura Whitcomb, clothing boutique (1996); and the North Fork Bank, branch (2006). 

Acknowledging its historic significance, General Growth Properties retained Scott Henson Architect and Stephen B Jacobs Group for the exterior and interior restoration in 2012 to address the decades of deterioration, which had left the sheet metal cornice, the brownstone water tables, sills and lintels; the cast-iron bands and storefront bays, and the fire escapes in a state of critical disrepair. With a cost of 36 million dollars, the meticulous restoration of critical portions of both the Broome and Lafayette Street facades.