81 Willoughby Street

Brooklyn, United States

Exterior only

Visible from the street; the inside is private.

Find out more

Further readingAtlas Obscura↗

Built between 1896 and 1898 at the northeast corner of Willoughby and Lawrence Streets in Downtown Brooklyn, 81 Willoughby Street is an eight-story commercial structure designed by Rudolphe L. Daus in a fusion of Beaux-Arts and Renaissance Revival styles. Originally the headquarters for the New York and New Jersey Telephone and Telegraph Company, the building features a steel frame supporting a limestone-clad base of four stories, with brick and terracotta finishing the upper four. The Willoughby and Lawrence Street façades are organized into three vertical bays and feature an ornamental entrance arch on Willoughby Street at the southeast corner, a curved bay with an oculus window, and deep cornice detailing. A telephone exchange occupied the top floor when the building opened in response to the company's expanding operations. After New York Telephone sold the property in 1943, it has served various commercial tenants including offices, laboratories, and educational institutions. The building was designated a New York City landmark in 2004.