Behind the neo-Gothic facade of the Day & Meyer, Murray & Young building is a system of steel vaults once used by New York’s social elite.

Day & Meyer’s client list goes way back to the Jazz Age, with names like Vanderbilt, Guggenheim, William Randolph Hearst, and, more recently, Whoopi Goldberg keeping items in its “storied” halls.

But it’s not only the firm’s clients that are famous. Numerous celebrated impressionist works of art from public and private collections around the city have been inside the vaults of the “Day & Meyer” building on the behalf of famous art dealer Joseph Duveen and Georges Wildenstein. Other notable valuables include writer Norman Mailer’s archive, among other things. 

Day & Meyer, Murray & Young’s unique storage system is a fascinating relic from the turn of the previous century, now having more in common with a Steampunk story than a high-tech security system. The structure consists of a system of rails and freight elevators that enables the employees of the storage warehouse to move one-ton steel shipping containers around the building quickly and easily.

Despite being home to important works of art, and the extraneous items of the rich and famous, the cost for a Portovault storage unit in the building is only $300 a month. Practically worth the price just to see the containers moved around on their rails.