Charles F Noyes 2

Charles Floyd Noyes: Dean of Real Estate

Above: Noyes in his first office
Below: Sheepshead Bay Racetrack,used by permission, Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division

Upon completing Norwich Free Academy, Charles envisioned creating a niche in New York City real and entered into a partnership with his football acquaintance, Irving P. Lovejoy, in 1898 at 61 Beekman Street. Primarily Mr. Noyes wore out shoe leather as he went after properties that others didn’t want to broker and used his ingenuity and creativity to close deals. Five years later, Mr. Noyes married his first wife, Eleanora Halsted, and a year later became father to a daughter, named after her mother but called Lorna.

Described as a “husky six-footer with an amusing personality,” Mr. Noyes became the sole owner of his real estate company, naming it the Charles F. Noyes Co., in 1905. He conceived of a burgeoning industry in New York when there was barely a real estate market there. He believed that well-selected New York real estate was a prime investment long before that phenomenon revealed its truth.

Sadly, his wife contracted pneumonia in 1920 and died.

Several years later, Mr. Noyes brokered a deal in which he convinced a millionaire friend to purchase Sheepshead Bay Race Track property and sell lots to individuals to build homes. Mr. Noyes’s business team made films that showcased the property and enlisted none other than Irving Berlin to pen a song, “Down at Sheepshead Bay,” to promote the sale. As a result, more than 4,500 bidders sought Sheepshead Bay property; after two days all 1,100 lots were sold.

In another historic move, Mr. Noyes is credited for developing New York’s insurance district by enticing some of the largest companies of the day, Aetna Life and Traveler’s, to move north of the overcrowded area bounded by South William Street and Maiden Lane. Afterward, John and William Streets became the center of the insurance world.