United Nations Headquarters

Before this site became a global center for diplomacy, it was a gritty industrial waterfront defined by slaughterhouses and power plants. When the United Nations searched for a permanent home in the nineteen forties, the land was purchased from a real estate developer in a frantic, high-stakes deal. Nelson Rockefeller was instrumental in securing the property, eventually convincing his father, John D. Rockefeller Junior, to donate eight and a half million dollars to buy the land and gift it to the world body. This intervention permanently anchored the organization in New York City, ending intense competition from other cities that had vied to host the new headquarters.