Morgan's Back Door

The announcement that the historic Mills Building on Broad Street, lower Manhattan, abutting the Morgan office building, will be torn down, has caused more widespread interest than usually attends such an operation.

The leasehold on the property, acquired by J. P. Morgan & Co. in 1920, runs until A.D. 2004. Across the street, the New York Stock Exchange, centre of the Wall Street securities market, recently completed a 22-story addition--at peak construction prices. Up the street, the New York Federal Reserve Bank, centre of the Wall Street money market, at about the same time finished its magnificent new headquarters--also at practically peak building prices. But until recently, J. P. Morgan & Co. merely put some inexpensive iron fire-escapes on the Mills Building and waited for lower building costs. Evidently those have come into sight, for J. P. Morgan & Co. have now transferred the leasehold to the Equitable Trust Co., which intends to erect on the Mills Building site a 34-story office building. Construction will start in the spring of 1926, and should be completed by the spring of 1928.

When the Mills Building is torn down, the operation will be watched with interest. A Wall Street rumor widely believed, is to the effect that there is a secret entrance into the Morgan offices through the Mills Building, of great usefulness in balking overcurious reporters. Partners in the firm, and famed customers, too, are said to have been seen leaving the Morgan threshold , but not entering it, and vice versa. When the present Morgan building , was erected, the firm was for a time housed in the Mills Building. Wall Street will spare some hours from speculating in securities, to speculate on the truth of this "secret passage story" when the Mills Building comes down.