[1] The financial services company American Express had been located at the site of 65 Broadway since 1874, and purchased the lot in 1903.

[10] An entrance to the elevated Rector Street station on the Sixth Avenue Line also existed from the back of the first floor.

[14][a] 65 Broadway is certified with green building standards outlined in the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design.

By contrast, a C-shaped layout, as used on earlier buildings, would have only allowed the placement of the light court on one side.

[22] The entablature, located above the second floor, contains an inscription that initially said "American Express Company" but was later changed to "J.J. Kenny Co., Inc.".

[11] Above it, the first and second stories contain large windows separated into smaller panels, forming patterns similar to a grid.

The center portion is significantly recessed, while the outer sections rise straight up from the base, creating an H-shaped layout for these floors.

[25] The first American Express building was erected at Vesey Street, on the northern border of the Financial District, in 1854; it was used by the company's stables.

[25][26] Nearby, on Hudson Street in Tribeca, the company built a palazzo-type, Italianate-style headquarters in 1857–1858,[25][26] which at the time was said to be New York City's largest building.

[19] Another stable was built on Hubert Street in 1866–1867, in the vicinity of the freight railroad depot at St. John's Park.

[25][27] In 1874, American Express's headquarters relocated to a pair of five-story brownstone buildings at 63-65 Broadway.

[25] The structures were built for (and still owned by) the Harmony family, which erected the buildings in the early 19th century for use as sugar warehouses.

[5][28] The building would house the entire operations of the American Express Company, which at the time was scattered between four locations.

[5] Further, American Express vice president Francis F. Flagg denied claims that the company would erect a building in the near future, with "so many unrented offices" in the surrounding area.

[5] The revised plans, announced in February 1916, called for a 15-story structure that would be occupied entirely by American Express.

[38] As originally laid out, the sub-basement (below the Trinity Place basement) contained power generation plants for the building.

[12] In February 1930, American Express's banking division announced plans to expand into the first floor of 65 Broadway.

[11] American Express announced in early 1974 that it would move to nearby 2 New York Plaza, a skyscraper which was then mostly unoccupied.

[19] The American Bureau of Shipping bought the building in 1977, moving from a smaller location at 45 Broad Street.

[14] The modifications included the installation of a bronze rendering of a bald eagle that was then hoisted to the top of the building.

[11] The law firm of Cadwalader, Wickersham & Taft briefly considered buying 65 Broadway in the 1980s but ultimately deemed it to be too expensive.

The same year, McGraw-Hill invoked a clause that allowed it to challenge a third-party offer to buy the building, and purchased 65 Broadway.

[1] After Standard & Poor's announced its intention to move out of the building in 1998, its owner Jeff Wasserman began planning to renovate it, adding telephone service to attract tenants.

[58][59] The American Express Building was revalued at $104 million that June,[60] and Chetrit had paid back the outstanding debt on the loan by that month.