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Charles F. Noyes

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For the American botanist, see Charles Noyes Forbes.

Charles Floyd Noyes (July 19, 1878 – September 2, 1969) was an American real estate broker.

Early life

Noyes was born on July 19, 1878, in Norwich, Connecticut. He was the son of Carrie Parthenia (née Crane) Noyes (1857–1933) and Charles Denison Noyes (1850–1940), the co-publisher of the Norwich Bulletin. He had two younger brothers, Frederick Kinney Noyes and Harrison Crane Noyes.

His paternal grandparents were Cyrus Noyes and Bridget Gallup (née Denison) Noyes. His maternal grandparents were Stephen Crane and Mary Elizabeth (née Starr) Crane.

Charles graduated from the Norwich Free Academy in 1898.

Career

Known to many on Wall Street as "the greatest of real estate brokers," at one time or another he bought or sold almost every commercial property in lower Manhattan.

Noyes' Obituary, September 4, 1969, The New York Times

In 1898, while in his twenties, Noyes started a small real estate brokerage business in New York City known as Charles F. Noyes Inc. By the onset of the Great Depression, his firm employed 200 around the country and abroad. By the mid-1920s, the firm was closing c. 700 sales or leases a year totaling almost $300 million. In 1926, he was insured for $2,400,000 in what was then one of the largest single life insurance policies ever written.

In 1951, the Charles F. Noyes Co. brokered what was then the single largest real estate deal in the world when it sold the Empire State Building for $51.5 million, netting his firm a million dollars in brokerage and management fees. In 1959, he retired and turned over all of the stock in his company to its employees. The firm traded a number of important buildings, including 2 Broadway, 56 Beaver Street, 108 Leonard, 280 Broadway, 400 Madison Avenue, 525 Lexington Avenue, the New York Produce Exchange, the Candler Building, and the Crown Building. The company was sold to Harry B. Helmsley, investor and president of Helmsley‐Spear Inc., in 1964 but continued to be operated by David M. Baldwin.

In 1947, in honor of his late second wife, he organized the Jessie Smith Noyes Foundation to provide grants promoting equal access to quality education.

Personal life

On September 16, 1903, in Brooklyn, New York, Noyes was married to Eleanora Seward Halsted (1880–1921), a daughter of David Frost Halsted and Catherine Ann (née Chamberlain) Halstead. Before her death in 1921, they were the parents of two children, including:

  • Eleanora "Lorna" Adele Noyes (1904–1977), who married Duncan M. Findlay in 1932. They divorced and he later married Mary Adelaide (née Harding) Simmonds, widow of Albert C. Simmonds Jr. in 1964.

In 1926, Noyes married Jessie Patterson (née) Cooke) Smith (1885–1936) and became stepfather to Dorothy (née) Smith) Bedell, Alfred Smith, and Edith (née) Smith) Muma. Jessie, the widow of Rowland Holbrook Smith and daughter of Benjamin Cooke, was a "champion for racial equality and an advocate for religious tolerance".

Noyes died on September 2, 1969, at a nursing home in Greenwich, Connecticut and was buried at Yantic Cemetery in Norwich.

References

  1. ^ Osborn, Norris Galpin (1910). Men of Mark in Connecticut: Ideals of American Life Told in Biographies and Autobiographies of Eminent Living Americans. W.R. Goodspeed. pp. 488–492. Retrieved 2 January 2025.
  2. Crane, Ellery Bicknell (1 January 1895). Genealogy of the Crane family. Dalcassian Publishing Company. p. 571. Retrieved 2 January 2025.
  3. ^ "Charles F. Noyes, 91, Is Dead, Founded Real Estate Concern Built a Fortune on His Belief it Skyscrapers, Including Empire State Building". The New York Times. September 4, 1969. Retrieved 2 January 2025.
  4. "Charles F. Noyes Insured For $2,400,000 by Aetna Co". The New York Times. May 1, 1926. Retrieved 2 January 2025.
  5. ^ "H. B. HELMSLEY BUYS CHARLES F. NOYES CO". The New York Times. October 15, 1964. Retrieved 2 January 2025.
  6. ^ "Legacy". noyes.org. Jessie Smith Noyes Foundation. Retrieved 2 January 2025.
  7. Who's who in New York City and State. L.R. Hamersly Company. 1907. p. 990. Retrieved 2 January 2025.
  8. "Duncan Findlay, 87, Ex-Insurance Executive". The New York Times. Nov 19, 1987. Retrieved 2 January 2025.
  9. "Mrs. Simmonds Married". The New York Times. June 26, 1964. Retrieved 2 January 2025.
  10. "MRS. CHARLES F. NOYES. Wife of Real Estate Executive Was Active in Civic Affairs". The New York Times. January 22, 1936. Retrieved 2 January 2025.
  11. "INJURIES FATAL TO STUDENT Son of Mrs. C.F. Noyes, Hamilton Student, and Auto Companion Die". The New York Times. May 31, 1932. Retrieved 2 January 2025.
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