This nautically-detailed building was used as a booking hall for Cunard's ocean liners.
The Cunard Line played an important role in 19th-century Irish migration by providing faster, safer steamship travel from Liverpool (often via Cork) to Boston and New York. During and after the Great Famine, these routes carried many Irish immigrants, supporting large Irish communities in U.S. cities. Over time, competition pushed Cunard to transport emigrants more actively, improving conditions and enabling chain migration through prepaid tickets.
The Manhattan Project-Edgar Sengier, a Belgian immigrant and director of Union Minière du Haut Katanga, kept his office inside the Cunard Building at 25 Broadway. He stored uranium ore from the Congo at a Staten Island warehouse (2351 Richmond Terrace) fearing Axis powers would seize it. The Manhattan Project later purchased the ore, and the warehouse was demolished. In 1980, the site was found to be contaminated, but it wasn't until 2020 that it entered the Department of Energy's remediation program. This was due in part to the efforts of Beryl Thurman of the North Shore Waterfront Conservancy.