Key Home Offices Through Our 150 Years
For some employees, the memories of their move into the Great American Insurance Group Tower headquarters in Cincinnati are still vivid. At the time, the company proudly shared with the community the innovation and beauty of the new, LEED-certified building which has become an important landmark in our hometown’s skyline. The Great American Tower is the 10th home office address for Great American. During its 150 year history, the company has called three cities home: New York, Los Angeles and Cincinnati.
In its first two years, our predecessor company, German American Insurance Company, worked out of a handful of office buildings along Broadway in New York. The first picture our Corporate Archive team has is a photo of the 179 Broadway location. Leadership leased the basement and first floor of this building from 1874-1879.
With business growing, German American found a new home in 1879 when it moved onto the main floor of the Boreel Building at 115 Broadway. The building was considered to be one of the finest office buildings in the city. Company records indicate that German American paid “$10,500 per annum to include the heating, lighting and a fire proof vault.”
In 1899, the company moved to a new location in the same area of Manhattan. Most marketing materials at the time simply list the address as the “Corner of Nassau and Liberty Street, New York.”
They remained there until 1908 when construction was completed on a new home office at 1 Liberty Street. The new headquarters would house the growing company while staking a more prominent position within New York’s insurance district. The west wall of the building, from the 18th to 20th floors, contained a 3-story sign in white tile with “German American Insurance” in black letters. Architects Hill & Stout copied the wedge-shaped design made famous by the still-standing Flatiron Building at 5th Avenue and 23rd Street. This style allowed buildings to be constructed on narrow city plots, and with this unique structure, German American made a statement in the city. A New York Times article of the time described the building as an “ideal layout” but insights captured from employees show that the shape made office planning difficult with numerous slivers of hard-to-use space.
In 1955, Great American Insurance bought the 99 John Street building from the Insurance Company of North America. The architects who designed the Empire State Building, Shreve, Lamb & Harmon, built this 28-story, Art Deco style building in 1933. While architectural critics derided it as the “stump Empire State building,” it was considered one of the best-known addresses in the insurance district. After renovations were complete in 1957, the company moved two blocks north from 1 Liberty to their new address on John Street. Great American’s occupancy was almost entirely concentrated in the lower 12 floors.
In the spring of 1969, a few months after the National General Corporation acquired Great American, a plan was put in motion to move the home office to California. National General was headquartered at One Carthay Plaza on San Vincente in Los Angeles. The decision was made to construct a mirror image tower for Great American. Employees moved in 1970.
American Financial acquired National General in 1973, and by the spring of 1974, management announced that the home office would move to Cincinnati in a new building at 580 Walnut Street. The move began throughout that summer. Individual departments moved into 580 as the building was being completed. The move was complete on January 2, 1975.
In 2011, Great American moved to its present location at Queen City Square and became the lead tenant in the tallest building in Cincinnati.
Interested in seeing how Great American grew into the company it is today? Visit our Company Story to see why our yesterdays tell an important story about our tomorrow.
