Part 4 - World Building - The early years

Part 2 and 3 told us about the history and last days of the first World Building. Now it's time to go back to the corner at Park Row / Frankfort Street, where the second and famous World Building soon will appear.

This picture was taken around the year 1880. There is the City Hall Park in the foreground. One of the houses on the very left side belongs to the "New York Mail". The light six-stories-box on the street corner is the French's Hotel again, the side, where the "World Building" will appear a few years later. The dark building on the other side of the Frankfort Street belongs to "The Sun". The most impressive and the highest building at Newspaper Row in this days was the "Tribune Building" in the center of the picture. On the right side the building of the New York Times. Far away in the background you can also see a pylon of the Brooklyn Bridge. It's possible, that the bridge wasn't finished, when this picture had been taken, Brooklyn Bridge was opened in 1883.

The same buildings described in the last picture are shown on this picture. The date is unknown, but it must be the early 1880s too. On the left side you can see a part of the New York City Hall.

Winter 1888/1889 - from west to east. On the very left side the New York City Hall. For the last time the French's Hotel on the left side. It will be torn down in the year 1889 to get space for the new World Building. In the center of the picture two buildings. The right one is the Tribune Building, still the highest building at the City Hall Park with it's small tower on the roof. On the left side the building of "The Sun". If you only use a short view, it seems, that the Sun Building got a lot of new stories too to get it as high as the Tribune Building. It only seems. The Sun Building is still a 6-stories building. A higher building was erected on the lot behind the Sun Building. I don't know it's name.

We have reached the year 1891 now. And the face ot the Newspaper Row changed in the two years after the last picture. On the left side the new World Building has been finished now.

"Construction of the New York World Building began on October 10, 1889, at 53-63 Park Row, on the corner of Park Row and the now-closed Frankfort Street. The building was completed on December 10, 1890. The claimed height of the building was 20 stories, comparable to 16 or 18 stories by current standards. The New York World Building was also known as the Pulitzer Building after the paper's owner, Joseph Pulitzer, who commissioned it. Pulitzer's private office was on the second level of the dome and looked down on other buildings along the street. During the 19th century, many high-rise buildings were constructed by newspaper companies along Park Row, immediately east of the old New York City Hall. This developed into a competition and a race for the tallest. Other contenders included the Tribune Building designed by Richard Morris Hunt (1876), the Potter Building (1886), the Park Row Building (1899), and two other buildings by George Post, the St. Paul Building (1895–1898), and the old Times Building (1889). The New York World Building was the winner of this competition and the tallest building in New York City for about five years. It was the city's first building to surpass the 284-foot spire of Trinity Church which, at the time, dominated the city's skyline."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_York_World_Building

Back again to the 1891 picture. In the center of the picture the Tribune building on the right, the small Sun Building on the left and the higher structure in the background, maybe a part of the Tribune Building. On the very right another change. The old 6 stories Times Building has been torn down too and a new Times Building appeared on this side, a higher one like all the other buildings around. Architect of the new Times Building was George B. Post, also architect of the World Building.

Here is a map from 1891 showing the area on the picture.
http://www.davidrumsey.com/





Here is another early picture of the World Building, taken in 1891 too. Same buildings as seen on the first 1891 picture.

The famous "World Almanac" also was a product of the "New York World". The World Building appeared on the cover of the World Almanac from 1890 until 1934. Here is the World Almanac's cover from 1892:

Another Almanac front page, from the year 1894:

A picture postcard from the 1890s, showing the New York City Hall on the left and the World Building and Sun Building on the right:

The World Building was the highest office building on earth in the early years. So it was also interesting for photographers to catch panorama views from the top of the highrise building.

This picture is dated 1890. The photograph was looking in south direction. It's hard to identify buildings, but I think, the church tower on the right belongs to Trinity Church and the large building in front of it may be the old Equitable Building. The Statue of Liberty on Bedloe's Island appears on the very right side of the picture. Staten Island is in the background and Governors Island on the right.

The next three pictures show the view from World Building on Brooklyn Bridge.

(1894)

(1895)

(1898)

Now we leave the World Building and take place on the platform of the Brooklyn Bridge Railroad Station on Manhattan side. This backside view of the early World Building was taken in the 1890s.

Next picture is this stereo card from 1896: City Hall on the left, Tribune Building on the right and the New York World Building in the middle.



Last picture of this part was taken in 1897 and shows the wellknown "Newspaper Row" scenery again, 7 years after the appearance of the World Building. The new higher building behind the old Times Building is the "American Tract Society Building", erected from 1894-1896 and still there.

Sources:

Google, NYPL Digital Gallery and

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_York_World_Building
http://www.nyc-architecture.com/GON/GON007.htm
http://www.skyscraper.org/TALLEST_TOWERS/t_world.htm
http://www.emporis.com/application/?nav=building&id=worldbuilding-newyorkcity-ny-usa&lng=3

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Park_Row_(Manhattan
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_York_World
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/41_Park_Row
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_Almanac



Part 5

World Building at the edge of the gone centuries

http://theworldbuilding.blogspot.com/2011/05/part-5-world-building-at-edge-of-gone.html

Part 3 - The Park Row Fire 1882

Dramatic scenes in a cold winter night on 31th January 1882. You see the new Tribune Building on the left side in the background, on the total right a small stripe of the old City Park Post Office. The red building behind on the right may be the Temple Court and the higher brown structure in the right background the Vanderbilt Building. In the foreground on the middle left side the Times Building and on the middle right the burning World Building or Potter Building. There are also 5 steam engines hardly on fire to give enough pressure on the firemans water hoses. And many many people came to follow that spectacle and ignoring the bad weather outside this night.

Here is an old map from 1891 for you to watch the scenery from another point of view.
http://www.davidrumsey.com/

We are reaching the point of time now, where the story of the old World Building from 1857 ends.

My sources were wikipedia, nyc-architecture, epicharmus and google. The main work for my German chapter in March was to translate the texts of those websites into German language. It's not necessary to translate them back from German to English, because they still exist in English. I will let you know about the sources at the end of each part.

"The Potter Building is an iron-framed office building located at 35-38 Park Row in Manhattan,NY.

Commissioned by Orlando B. Potter and designed by Norris G. Starkweather, it was constructed from 1883 to 1886. It replaced one of the New York World's former buildings which burned down in 1882 doing more than $400,000 in damage. The facade was constructed of brick and terracotta, which was chosen by Potter due to its fire resistance and low cost. This soon led to terracotta becoming a popular element in other New York skyscrapers. It was a revolutionary structure in that it was virtually fireproof, made possible by the iron frame and the terracotta, and was the first use of fire-protected steel frame.

1882 Fire

The old Potter Building, or the World Building, was completed in 1857 and was the New York World's first headquarters. However, fire broke out in the building around 10:00 PM on January 31, 1882 and destroyed much of the block within a few hours."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Potter_Building

"This iron-framed, brick building is a riot of robust clay capitals and classical details. What was viewed as its greatest innovation at the time of its completion was its virtually fireproof construction, a strength advertised by its iron-clad lower stories and storefronts. The richly ornamented façade is anchored by dramatic eight-story vertical piers in brick with enormous terra-cotta capitals, and the colossal eleven-story embedded column that seem to hinge the corner of Nassau Street and Beekman Place. A builder's plate giving the name of the foundry responsible for the cast iron work remains at the building's southwest corner. The Potter Building is a masterpiece of architectural terra-cotta, and its construction played an important role in the development of terra cotta as a building material in New York. Terra cotta, a type of clay that is molded and fired, was chosen by the building’s owner, Orlando Potter, for its fire resistant properties and low price. At the time, no source of terra cotta existed in New York, and a Boston company was hired to provide the material. Soon after the building’s completion, Potter founded the New York Architectural Terra-Cotta Company, which would manufacture much of the terra-cotta ornament widely used in later skyscrapers.

The massive Victorian skyscrapers on Park Row were built by the city's nineteenth-century newspaper publishers, who found it advantageous to maintain proximity to City Hall and the financial district. From left to right are: the Pulitzer Building (G. B. Post, 1890); the Tribune Building (R. M. Hunt, 1876); the Times Building (G. B. Post, 1889); and the Potter Building (1883). At the turn of the century, the papers began to move uptown, leaving only the name "newspaper row" as their legacy."

http://www.nyc-architecture.com/SCC/SCC011.htm

"OLD POTTER BUILDING FIRE IN MANHATTAN January 31, 1882

JOHN J. HORAN, AND JAMES E. NOLAN
Privates, Hook and ladder Co. No. 10
At the Potter Building Fire, on the thirty-first of January, 1881,
especially distinguished themselves. Rooney, standing on a ladder raised
five feet from Beekman Street, saved Miss Ida Small. Murray and Horan saved
Alexander Roberts with a ladder resting on the sill of a third story window.
Two men were caught as they dropped from a signboard on the fourth story by
Nolan, who was on the top of a ladder, and Schwab joined in peril and
piloted to the street five men.

POTTER BUILDING FIRE 1882

January 31st, 1882, at 10:12 P. M. a destructive and fatal fire broke out in
the Potter or World Building, which faced On park Row, Beekman Street and
Nassau Street. It did more than $400,000 damage, and twelve persons were in
various ways killed. The fire directed attention to a source of peril to
life and property which had before created apprehension, and on the 3d of
February Commissioner Purroy offered the following resolution, which was
adopted:
Whereas, there have recently been constructed in this city a great number of
large flats and business houses, reaching in many cases to a height
exceeding one hundred feet; and whereas the extreme height to which it is
possible to stretch and mange extension ladders have been probably reached,
and does not exceed seventy feet, thus making futile the vest efforts of
this Department toward rescuing the occupants of the upper stories of the
buildings above mentioned whenever such occupants are cut off from escape
from below; there fore be it

Resolved, That the chief of Department be and is hereby instructed (keeping
in view the increased height of the buildings above mentioned) to report to
this board in writing his views in regard to what improvements in the
appliances and complements of the Department, what changes in regard to the
erection and construction of fire-escapes, and what regulation as to the
construction and maintenance of fire-proof shutters are necessary, together
with any suggestions in regard to the better protection of life and property
he may deem advisable.

Chief Bates' report favored the providing of each Hook and Ladder company
with scaling ladders, one of fifteen feet and one of twenty feet, and a
life-line, and the principal companies were thus equipped. Commissioner
Purroy's foresight was displayed in the resolution which resulted in the
"doubling up" of the most important companies."

http://www.nyc-architecture.com/SCC/SCC011.htm

Orlando B. Potter was a politician, a property man, a six-million-dollar-man at his death (meaning he'd be worth $140,000,000 today). The New York World Building (not the later 1890 one), at five stories, a relatively tall building for its day, was his baby. In late January 1882, some tenants, including Alfred Ely Beach (the Scientific American editor and inventor of the proto-subway Beach Pneumatic Transit system) complained to Potter of burning-wood smells and unnaturally hot walls, but Potter refused to contact the fire department. A fire gutted the place soon after, one of the worst New York fires of the time. At least six died, included two who jumped to escape flames.
http://www.epicharmus.com/masterpiece/2008/03/54b-fulton-nassau-historic-district.html



The New York Times, also threatened by the fire as direct neighbour of the World Building, reported a couple of times about the disaster:

1st February 1882
http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive-free/pdf?res=9902E5DF1E3CEE3ABC4953DFB4668389699FDE
5th February 1882
http://query.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=940CE3DE123BE033A25756C0A9649C94639FD7CF
9th February 1882
http://query.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=990DE1DE1E3CEE3ABC4153DFB4668389699FDE
12th Februar 1882
http://query.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=950DE4DD1E3CEE3ABC4952DFB4668389699FDE
16th Februar 1882
http://query.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=9801EFDE113EE433A25755C1A9649C94639FD7CF



This picture was taken a short time after the fire, maybe the day after, showing the whole disaster area. On the left side the Times Building and two buildings in the background on the east side of Nassau Street, not covered by the World Building anymore. The big one may be the Morse Building. By the way, here is the pictures description. Do you remember?

Part 4

World Building - The early years

http://theworldbuilding.blogspot.com/2010/10/part-4-world-building-early-years.html

Part 2 - First World Building and Potter Building

It was at the fantastic nyc-architecture website, when I first read about the New York World Building (1890). Such a amazing gone building! And because there were no other informations in the internet I always thought, the 1890s World Building was the first building in New York City with this name.

While collecting pictures in last February for a longer portrait of the World Building at my own German website I suddenly found a picture with this description:

Oh - there has been another earlier World Building! But where? The French's Hotel stood on the Park Row / Frankfort Streets lot, where the 1890s World Building was constructed. So the first World Building must have been on another place. After checking a lot of pictures, especially those of the Park Row Fire 1882, I found the place of the old World Building. Now I will lead you to this place, step by step.

We start with some stereo cards from the 1860s to get a feeling of the old times at the Park Row.

Remember the first picture of part one, the 1816 picture? The next photo must have been taken nearly from the same place while watching in the same direction.

1865 - from north to south. On the right side is the City Hall Park, topped by the tower of the St. Paul's Chapel. There is a new impressing building at the left center of the picture. The "Brick Presbyterian Church", before on that lot, was torn down in 1856.

The New York Times was founded in 1851, first newspapers were published in September 1851. After three years the Times took place in another building on Nassau Street.

Soon the Times needed more space again and decided to leave the Nassau Street and build a new house at the Park Row. The third Times Building appeared on the lot of the Brick Church in 1857.

The New York Songlines told me, that the first World Building, also named "Potter Building" had been the directly south neighbour of the Times Building:

"Potter's earlier building, completed in 1857, was known as the World Building, after the New York World which was based there. (This was before Joseph Pulitzer bought the paper.) It also housed the offices of Scientific American, where on December 7, 1877, Thomas Edison gave the first public demonstration of his phonograph. N.G. Starkweather extensively used terra cotta detail, helping to popularize the material for office buildings; Potter later launched the New York Press."

http://www.nysonglines.com/parkrow.htm

Before we start searching for pictures, I try to explain all the old and new houses again.

There is the lot at the corner Park Row / Frankfort Street.

Here stood the French's Hotel and after that the 1890's World Building.

There is the Park Row lot south of the second Times Building:

Here stood the old World Building (1857), also named "Potter Building".

After it burned down in 1882, there was erected a new building,

the better known present "Potter Building", covered in red terracotta.

Ok? Good, now we keep on searching for a better look on the old World Building.

I don't know the date of this picture, but it's possible to get a first impression of the early World Building. I don't know the name of the two buildings on the total left, the third one is the old building of the Tribune. In the middle left background the building of the Tract Society and in the middle the new building of the New York Times (1857). The next building, the south neighboor, is the old World Building. It had a flag pole and a flat roof. There are 5 stories, separeted by some kind of lighter ornaments ("white stripes") but nothing more memorable. The last house in the right background may be the building of the Evening Mail.

It seems, that the old World Building wasn't spectacular enough to get the photographers attention like the other buildings around. The picture above was taken 1875. We identify the old post office on the right side, which was opened in 1875 too. I' m not really sure about the building with the small tower shown in the middle background. I think, it's the Western Union Building on corner Broadway / Dey Street and also finished in 1875. The two buldings left on the "island" are the New York Times building in the foreground and the early World Building behind that (the one with the "white stripes").

Same problem on the next picture (date unknown): The New York Times Building detailed in the foreground, the old World Building at the borders of the picture, viewable only a small stripe, the rest cutted.

So I was really lucky after finding this picture from the 1870s, which gives an real impression of the old World / Potter Building for the first time:



On the total left the old Tribune Building, not as spectacular as the later versions. Next to it on the other side of the road the Building of the Tract Society. Next building left - we are on the "island" again now - is the New York Times Building and then on the right side of the picture the "World Building" (1857). On the total right a part of the "Evening Mail"-Building. That's why this area was nicknamed "Newspaper Row".





I would like to know, if the big WORLD sign on the roof was there in reality or only added by the one who made this scetch. The other signs on the house front tell you, that the "Scientific American" and the "Observer" also took place in the building. Since I finished my text in German language last March, there was no other picture of the first World Building. Until now. One of the visitors of my German blog send me this Stereo Card last week with a rare view, showing the complete old World Building. Thank you so much Andy Frieder.



A few hours after finishing the text of Part 2, I just found another really good picture of the first World Building, shot in the time of the years 1865-1870:

I think, the house on the total left is the French's Hotel, the later side of the famous second "World Building". Next house is the new building of "The Sun". Then - this time a small stripe - the Times Building. The structure in the middle is the old World Building again. Next building in right direction on the other side of the street is the Evening Mail Building. I dont't know the name of the house on the total right, but a sign tells about the "Real Estate Agency" beeing inside. 

Sources: Google and friends, NYPL Digital Gallery, NY Songlines, nyc-architecture, Andy Frieder

Part 3

The Park Row Fire

http://theworldbuilding.blogspot.com/2010/10/part-3-park-row-fire-1882.html

Part 1 - Long before the World Building

1816 - from north to south. The street on the left side may be Nassau Street, the Street on the right is Chatham Street, later Park Row. The church in the foreground on the left is the "Brick Presbyterian Church", shorter "Brick Church". The old New York Times Building was later constructed on this lot. The church in the background is the St. Pauls Chapel, it is still there, maybe the oldest building in Manhattan. The green on the right side belongs to the City Hall Park. Here is a present google street view for orientation, same place, same direction:

Still in the present and another google street view, showing you the next station, before we return to past. We are on the south top of the city hall park, on the left side you see the Broadway, on the right side Park Row.

1822 - from south to north. On the left side the Broadway, on the right side Chatham Street (Park Row), in the middle the City Hall Park with the New York City Hall, at this point of time about ten years old. The Tower on the right belongs to "Brick Church". The large building on the right side (the sixth or seventh from total left) was the "Park Theatre", an early Manhattan theatre.

1825 - nearly same direction as the picture before. On the left side City Hall Park again and above it the tower of the "Brick Church". The Street is Chatham Street (Park Row) again. The large white house on the right side is the "Park Theatre". It was opened in 1798 and was used use as a theatre about 50 years. Like many other buildings its history endet with a fire.The Park Theatre burned down on the 18th of December 1848.

Here is a rare inside view of the Park Theatre:

1831 - from north to south. You find the Park Theatre on the left side now. the street is Chatham Street (Park Row), In the background you can see St. Paul's Chapel, parts covered by plants from the City Hall Park on the right side.

1830s - from south to north. The next picture was sketched while standing on a higher level, maybe the tower or the roof of the St. Paul's Chapel. Broadway on the left, the New York City Hall inside the City Hall Park in the middle and Chatham Street (Park Row) on the right side. The tower of the "Brick Church" is on the right side too and a flag hanging down from the pole on the roof of the Park Theatre.

1830s - from south to north. Next picture was drawn in the 1830s too. The left side is showing the City Hall and the park, on the right side the Park Theatre in blue-grey for the last time. The cute small building on the right side of the Park Theatre (on the 4th and 5th picture) has gone, there is a new structure with three floors now. Have a look at the foreground, there are two groups of old fashioned firemen on their way with their equipment.

1850s - southwest to northeast. We are watching onto the City Hall Park from a higher level again, maybe the roof of the "Astor House" or another structure in the neighboorhood. In the foreground left the Broadway, on the right side the tower of the Brick Presbyterian Church.



1851 - from north to south, the place almost the same as on the first picture. In the center of the picture we meet the "Brick Church" for the last time, it will be demolished 5 years later in 1856. It has been used as church, hospital, prison and office in the 90 years of existence. On the right side under a City Hall Park tree St. Paul's Chapel again.

The important detail on this picture is the building on the very left side, named "French's Hotel". This seven floors structure was build on the lot at the corner Chatham Street and Frankfort Street, where the famous second World Building will appear nearly 40 years later in 1889-1890. Watch at the buildings front, there is a sign, that let you know, that the place in front of the hotel is named "City Hall Square". Two years after the picture was taken, a murder case happened  in the French's Hotel:

http://query.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=9802E2DB1131E13BBC4953DFB4678388649FDE

The next building in south direction was the "Tammany Hotel", headquarter of the Democratic Party, and behind it a couple of buildings used by newspapers: The Sunday Times, The New York Tribune and The Curier. So many newspapers on the same road caused the nickname "Newspaper Row".



1863 - another picture showing the Tammany Hotel, headquarter of the Democratic Party. It was torn down only a short time after the picture was made.

1860 - from west to east. This stereocard picture was taken on the 18th of June 1860 before the reception of the Japanese ambassadors by Mayor Wood and the Common Council of New York in the Governor's Room at City Hall.

http://www.ny.us.emb-japan.go.jp/150JapanNY/en/about.html



City Hall on the left, many people in the foreground and in front of the City Hall, in the center of the pictures the "French's Hotel" and on the right side next to the tree the "Tammany Hotel".



1874 - southwest to northeast. Last picture is a birdseyes view again. Most of the picture's space belongs to the New York City Hall again. The light building on the right side is the wellknown "French's Hotel". The "Tammany Hotel" isn't part of the scenery anymore, on it's lot appeared a new building: "The Sun" took place at the Newspaper Row.

Sources: Google and friends, NYPL Digital Gallery and

http://www.nysonglines.com/parkrow.htm#broadway

Sorry about my bad English, I'm German.



Part 2 - First World Building and Potter Building

http://theworldbuilding.blogspot.com/2010/10/part-2-first-world-building-and-potter.html