The building was acquired by the International Mercantile Marine Company (IMM) in 1919 to serve as its corporate headquarters and extensively altered to its present Neoclassical style.

It was the headquarters of IMM and its successor company United States Lines until 1979, when the firm relocated to Cranford, New Jersey.

The International Mercantile Marine Company Building is in the Financial District of Manhattan in New York City.

The facade of the ground through 12th stories is composed of buff-colored Indiana Limestone,[8][14] which replaced the original cladding of red Milwaukee brick and sandstone.

[14] The southwestern and southeastern corners of the building, facing Battery Park, are chamfered and formerly contained entrance doorways at the base.

[8] The 11th and 12th stories comprise the copper mansard roof; the 11th floor is set back slightly and surrounded by a balustrade.

The former booking room was modeled on an 18th-century ballroom, with columns and elaborate railings at either end, along with four imposing chandeliers and marble walls.

[22] Dutch settler William Isaacsen Vredenburgh lived at the site until 1673, when the building was scheduled to be demolished because it interfered with Fort Amsterdam's defenses.

[25] The house was a symmetrical two-story mansion with materials imported from the Netherlands;[28][30] its features included two stone string courses and a slightly projecting center portion with a Palladian window.

[20] Sometime in the mid-19th century, the building was expanded: a drawing in the 1859 Norton's Handbook of New York City shows the hotel as being four stories tall.

[28] Adjoining the hotel was the residence of John Watts, built in 1750 on the site of the current IMM Building.

It was connected to the Washington Hotel by a temporary bridge that was installed whenever the Watts family held large events.

[22] In mid-1881, Cyrus West Field paid $167,500 for the Washington Hotel and $70,000 for Caroline W. Astor's adjoining house at Battery Place and Greenwich Street.

[15] Edward H. Kendall won the commission and prepared plans for a Queen Anne style building on the site.

[4] Tenants included the Statue of Liberty construction committee,[42] the Manhattan Hay and Produce Exchange,[43][44] the Postal Telegraph-Cable Company, and the United-States National Bank.

[12] Either way, following the expansion, the top story consisted of a mansard roof containing protruding dormers on its south face.

[22][30][f] The Washington Building Company hired Harry E. Donnell in 1908 to perform unspecified "internal improvements" on the structure.

[47][48] Because of its large size and abundant competition in the steamship industry, its operations ran with a "thin margin of safety".

[49] IMM's finances were negatively affected after the 1912 sinking of the RMS Titanic, operated by its subsidiary White Star Line, but the company made significant profits from freight traffic during and after World War I.

[7] The renovation was performed in phases to minimize disruption to existing tenants, who were moved between offices as work proceeded.

[14][13] The IMM competed with the Cunard Line, which had erected its own nearby building in a similar way two years before.

The Cunard, Bowling Green, and International Mercantile Marine Company buildings and several others on the southernmost section on Broadway, formed a "steamship row".

[9] USL was also one of the largest shipping lines of its time, but faced numerous financial problems after World War II.

[55] USL also proposed replacing 1 Broadway with a 50-story skyscraper in 1970, which would have entailed taking air rights from the nearby Alexander Hamilton U.S.

[56] Shipping entrepreneur Malcom McLean bought USL in 1977,[9] and the following December, United States Lines announced that it would move to Cranford, New Jersey.

[55] Several entities expressed interest in purchasing 1 Broadway, including one prospective buyer who considered converting it into a hotel.

[58] Ultimately, the structure was acquired by the Muna Realty Development Corporation,[55][59] a Dutch Antillean company who paid $9.75 million for the building and $250,000 for USL's remaining rent.

[1] The building's owners were facing financial difficulties by 1992, when the insurance company Allstate acquired 1 Broadway through foreclosure.

[5] A Times article in 1919, prior to the Washington Building's renovation, called the planned remodel "a great white stone structure of classic dignity and proportion".

[51] After the project was completed, the Real Estate Record and Guide called it "a beautiful, harmonious structure, which few would recognize as the old Washington Building, known for two generations as the first skyscraper of lower Manhattan.