for $1.6 million (equal to about $ million in ). The site had been the former location of a building occupied by the American Bank Note Company. Though the site was abutted by noisy elevated railways—the Ninth Avenue Line on Greenwich Street and the Sixth Avenue Line on Trinity Place—this was not considered significant, as subway stations had just opened nearby, which would later directly replace the elevated railways. Furthermore, the Trinity Place side was located across from the cemetery of Trinity Church, making it unlikely that any large development would be built there. The Curb paid out some of the land acquisition cost in January 1920, but temporarily halted planning that July due to a lack of funds or a suitable financing stream. The financial situation had improved by October 1920, when the New York Title & Mortgage Company promised $800,000 to finance the construction of the new structure. Blueprints for the Curb Market structure were filed with the city government in November 1920. The original building was situated on Greenwich Street, with a passageway from Trinity Street to the main entrance; the rest of the Trinity Street side contained a small landscaped forecourt, which could accommodate a future building expansion or be sold off to pay the building's mortgage. Construction started within the month, with the Thompson–Starrett Co. as contractor. At the time, the structure was slated to cost $1.3 million. The Curb Market's brokers anxiously awaited the building's completion: historian Robert Sobel states anecdotally that one Curb member considered the new structure's completion more important over "the building of his own home", another equated it to "waiting out the birth of a new child", and a third compared it to a child "counting the days till Christmas". The restaurant space was leased out to Tankoos, Smith Co. in April 1921. The building opened on June 27, 1921, at which point the New York Curb Exchange was the second largest in the U.S., behind the NYSE. After moving indoors, the Curb Market grew to include a wide selection of issues, including "high-class industrial, public utilities, oils and domestic and foreign bonds", and within ten years, the Curb Market had 2,300 stocks on its list. Stock exchange operation By 1929, the Curb Market had outgrown the operations of the original building. That year, the Curb's building committee proposed adding eight office floors above the board room, as well as