User:Nouveauelevator/sandbox
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| Company type | Private company |
|---|---|
| Industry | Elevator Service, |
| Founded | Brooklyn, New York, United States |
| Headquarters | Long Island City, New York, New York, U.S. |
Key people | Donald Speranza Sr. ( CEO)Cite error: A <ref> tag is missing the closing </ref> (see the help page). |
 US$ 7.888 billion (2013)[1] | |
| US$ 5.359 billion (2013)[1] | |
| Total assets | |
| Total equity | US$ 19.496 billion (2013)[1] |
Number of employees | 374 (2014) |
| Website | nouvauelevator.com |
The company's logo, adopted in 1958, is a Centurion[3] whose image appears on the company's travelers' cheques, charge cards and credit cards.
Early history[edit]
American Express was started as an express mail business in Buffalo, New York, in 1850.[4] It was founded as a joint stock corporation by the merger of the express companies owned by Henry Wells (Wells & Company), William G. Fargo (Livingston, Fargo & Company), and John Warren Butterfield (Wells, Butterfield & Company, the successor earlier in 1850 of Butterfield, Wasson & Company).[5][6] Wells and Fargo also started Wells Fargo & Co. in 1852 when Butterfield and other directors objected to the proposal that American Express extend its operations to California.
American Express first established its headquarters in a building at the intersection of Jay Street and Hudson Street in what was later called the Tribeca section of Manhattan. For years it enjoyed a virtual monopoly on the movement of express shipments (goods, securities, currency, etc.) throughout New York State. In 1874, American Express moved its headquarters to 65 Broadway in what was becoming the Financial District of Manhattan, a location it was to retain through two buildings.[7]
American Express buildings[edit]
In 1854, the American Express Co. purchased a lot on Vesey Street in New York City as the site for its stables. The company's first New York headquarters was an 1858 marble Italianate palazzo at 55–61 Hudson Street, which had a busy freight depot on the ground story with a spur line from the Hudson River Railroad. A stable was constructed in 1867, five blocks north at 4–8 Hubert Street.
The company prospered sufficiently that headquarters were moved in 1874 from the wholesale shipping district to the budding Financial District, and into rented offices in two five-story brownstone commercial buildings at 63 and 65 Broadway that were owned by the Harmony family.[8]
In 1880, American Express built a new warehouse behind the Broadway Building at 46 Trinity Place. The designer is unknown, but it has a façade of brick arches that are redolent of pre-skyscraper New York. American Express has long been out of this building, but it still bears a terracotta seal with the American Express Eagle.[9] In 1890–91 the company constructed a new ten-story building by Edward H. Kendall on the site of its former headquarters on Hudson Street.
By 1903, the company had assets of some $28 million, second only to the National City Bank of New York among financial institutions in the city. To reflect this, the company purchased the Broadway buildings and site.[8]
At the end of the Wells-Fargo reign in 1914, an aggressive new president, George Chadbourne Taylor (1868–1923), who had worked his way up through the company over the previous thirty years, decided to build a new headquarters. The old buildings, dubbed by the New York Times as "among the ancient landmarks" of lower Broadway, were inadequate for such a rapidly expanding concern. After some delays due to the war in Europe, the 21-story neo-classical American Express Co. Building was constructed in 1916–17 to the design of James L. Aspinwall, of the firm of Renwick, Aspinwall & Tucker, the successor to the architectural practice of the eminent James Renwick, Jr.. The building consolidated the two lots of the former buildings with a single address: 65 Broadway. This building was part of the "Express Row" section of lower Broadway at the time. The building completed the continuous masonry wall of its block-front and assisted in transforming Broadway into the "canyon" of neo-classical masonry office towers familiar to this day[10]
American Express sold this building in 1975, but retained travel services here. The building was also the headquarters over the years of other prominent firms, including investment bankers J.& W. Seligman & Co. (1940–74), the American Bureau of Shipping, a maritime concern (1977–86), and currently J.J. Kenny, and Standard & Poor's, who has renamed the building for itself.[8][10]
Nationwide expansion[edit]
American Express extended its reach nationwide by arranging affiliations with other express companies (including Wells Fargo – the replacement for the two former companies that merged to form American Express), railroads, and steamship companies.[7]
- ^ a b c Cite error: The named reference
American-Express-Feb-2013-10-Kwas invoked but never defined (see the help page). - ^ a b "Annual Report Form 10-K". United States Securities and Exchange Commission. February 25, 2014.
- ^ "American Express Logo Review". Company Logos. 2008. Retrieved June 25, 2011.
The initial trademark of 1958 described the gladiator in the American Express logo as a gladiator on a shield whereas the current American Express website lists the logo character as a Gladiator Head Design. However, there are many who believe that the gladiator is a centurion ...
- ^ "Recognizing Responsibility: American Express Company 2007/2008 Corporate Citizenship Report" (PDF). American Express Co. p. 8. Retrieved 2012-07-25.
In 1850, three men — Henry Wells, William G. Fargo and John Butterfield — founded an express company in Buffalo, New York to forward freight and valuables across the united States.
- ^ Cite error: The named reference
PZGwas invoked but never defined (see the help page). - ^ Cite error: The named reference
NMLwas invoked but never defined (see the help page). - ^ a b Kenneth T. Jackson. The Encyclopedia of New York City. The New York Historical Society: Yale University Press, 1995. P. 23.
- ^ a b c New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission; December 12, 1995, Designation List 269; LP-1932
- ^ White, Norval & Willensky, Elliot; AIA Guide to New York City, 4th Edition; New York Chapter, American Institute of Architects; Crown Publishers/Random House. 2000. ISBN 0-8129-3106-8; ISBN 0-8129-3107-6. p.23.
- ^ a b White, Norval & Willensky, Elliot; AIA Guide to New York City, 4th Edition; New York Chapter, American Institute of Architects; Crown Publishers/Random House. 2000. ISBN 0-8129-3106-8; ISBN 0-8129-3107-6. p.22.