As the auto industry expanded at the start of the twentieth century, the carriage-and-harness shops that occupied Longacre Square gave way to new car dealerships. Longacre Square later became Times Square and the area evolved into the New York’s theater center; the value on the Broadway frontages that these car dealers occupied increased. Car dealers migrated north, and thus, Automobile Row was born. By World War I, the area from the West 50s up to 66th Street was home to over seventy-five automobile businesses.

In order to establish its presence on Automobile Row, in 1911 the U.S. Rubber Company acquired a plot of land on the southeast corner of 58th and Broadway and commissioned architects Carrere & Hastings—who were then just finishing the New York Public Library--to build their headquarters. From its inception, 1790 Broadway has been unique: rather than the brick, limestone, or terracotta that were commonplace for commercial buildings in this era, the architects used Vermont marble; rather than the Italian Renaissance or Gothic styles typically seen on New York’s taller buildings, 1790 Broadway was designed in the French modern style.

Today, 1790 Broadway is once again anomalous. Though now thoroughly modernized as 5 Columbus Circle, it stands amongst steel and glass sky scrapers as a beacon of the past.