Located at Wall and Broad streets, the Drexel Building, headquarters to financier J.P. Morgan, became the first office building in the world illuminated by electric lights. On September 4, 1882, Thomas Edison and the Directors of the Edison Electric Illuminating Company of New York switched on lights powered by the Pearl Street generating station. - "Drexel Building: J. Pierpont Morgan & Co." --King's Views of NYSE 1897-1898, pg. 42. -The Skyscraper Museum.
The Drexel Building at 23 Wall Street in New York, the six-story tower that Anthony Drexel had erected for J.P. Morgan in 1876.
The building was the home to Drexel, Morgan & Co with the powerful J.P. Morgan as chief executive after the death of Anthony Drexel. When Drexel passed away in 1894 the company’s name was changed to J.P. Morgan & Co.
It was sold by the Drexel family to the 'House of Morgan' in 1912 and torn down the following year to make way for the marble palace that stands there today.
When Anthony Drexel bought the land in 1876, which was only 771 square feet, he paid $248,958 or an astounding $348 a square foot. By 1913 the land without the building was assessed for tax purposes at $2.5 million.