Designated 11/21/1995
The Bennett Building is a major monument to the art of cast-iron architecture. This ten-story building with three fully designed cast-iron facades has been described by historians of cast iron architecture as the tallest habitable building with cast-iron facades ever erected. It was constructed as a six-story Second Empire style office building during the post-Civil War period when such structures flourished in Lower Manhattan and is one of the two remaining cast-iron-fronted office buildings south of Canal Street.