​Built in 1929 and designed for the New Jersey Bell Telephone Company by famed architect Ralph Thomas Walker, the Art Deco building is known for its majestic lobby and brick-and-sandstone exterior, which were added to the U.S. National Register of Historic Places in 2005. The building has been home to the regional offices of Verizon, which will continue to occupy the building’s fourth floor.

Ralph T. Walker [1889-1973] was hailed in 1957 by the American Institute of Architects as “the architect of the century,” was an American architect, president of the American Institute of Architects and partner of the firm McKenzie, Voorhees, Gmelin; and its successor firms Voorhees, Gmelin & Walker, Voorhees, Walker, Foley & Smith; Voorhees, Walker, Smith & Smith; and Voorhees, Walker, Smith, Smith & Haines. Walker is best known for his designsfor the Barclay-Vesey Telephone Building (1922–26) and the Irving Trust Building (1928–31). After the completion of the Barclay-Vesey Building, Walker designed several other buildings using its combination of asymmetrical setbacks and towers with Art Deco ornament, including the Salvation Army Headquarters (1929–30) on West 14th Street and several other telephone buildings throughout New York City and the state, including those in Syracuse and Rochester as well as the New Jersey Bell Headquarters Building in Newark.

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