The short, forgotten life of New York City’s first skyscraper

In 1889, a slender building was unveiled on a commercial stretch of Lower Broadway, snugly situated between two older structures.

Rising 11 stories, it wasn’t the tallest tower in the city. Nor did it win praise for how it made the most of its 21.5-foot frontage with a graceful Romanesque arched entrance. And it wasn’t financed by a Gilded Age business that planned to move in and make it company headquarters.

But the Tower Building, steps away from Bowling Green at 50 Broadway, has a singular distinction: it’s considered by many historians to be New York’s first skyscraper—defined as a building of 10 or more stories supported not by exterior masonry walls but by metal cage construction, according to the Skyscraper Museum.

Technically, the Tower Building’s iron skeleton went up only seven stories; the top four floors were constructed out of the more traditional masonry, which was used to build almost all of the city’s buildings up until the 1880s.

But the city was growing not just northward but skyward as well, with the addition of the Brooklyn Bridge and elevated trains rumbling up and down major avenues. The new technology of creating an iron and later steel skeleton allowed a building to support many floors while also being fireproof. Using it in an expanding city short on space made sense, particularly to architect Bradford Lee Gilbert.

Gilbert (above, in 1904) made a noteworthy career for himself building railroad depots, houses, stables, and office buildings. In New York City, his work included the still-standing YMCA building at 222 Bowery, completed in 1885, and a remodeling of the original 1871 Grand Central Terminal, which lasted until 1913.

In 1887, he was tapped to design an office building for a silk importer, but the importer was only able to purchase the 21.5-foot lot at 50 Broadway. Gilbert struggled to figure out how he could create a structure wide enough for office space, plus room for elevators and staircases.

His experience working on rail depots gave him the answer.

“In 1905, [Gilbert] told The New York Times that after he wrestled with the problem for months, the solution came to him ‘like a flash’: He could support both the floors and the exterior walls on a concealed iron skeleton, like an iron bridge standing on end,” wrote Christopher Gray in the New York Times in 1996.

“The skeleton principle meant that the exterior walls, which were supported independently at each floor, did not have to increase in width in relation to the building’s height. The exterior walls thus became mere curtains, resting on the beams of each floor.” The iron skeleton allowed for more floor space and windows.

As the Tower Building joined the cityscape, skeptical New Yorkers predicted it wouldn’t stand.

“When high winds blew during construction, crowds of onlookers gathered (at a safe distance) waiting for the radical new structure to fall over,” according to a PBS/American Experience article.

“It was only when the architect himself climbed to the peak of the building and declared it perfectly safe that they were convinced otherwise.”

Though metal cage construction had been used to create Chicago’s Home Insurance Building in 1885, Bradford brought the technology to New York, paving the way for the first generation of skyscrapers: “It was this small beginning that made possible such giants as the Woolworth, Singer, and Metropolitan Towers and the coming Pan Am building,” wrote The Sun in January 1914.

The Sun article took a wistful look at the Tower Building (headline above), which was being dismantled the day the article appeared. Part of the Lower Broadway commerce canyon for a mere 25 years, it was replaced by a 37-story 1920s office tower (above in 2017).

“The story of the old Tower Building is one of the best illustrations that can be given of the rapidity with which New York City has moved during the last quarter century,” stated The Sun. “It came as an experiment, gained success in spite of general ridicule, and finally formed a beginning for all high buildings of recent times.”

“Now it has outlived its usefulness. It cannot compete with the giants of its own family and, like all ancestors, it is to be laid away in its grave, which in this case is the second hand material man’s yard.”

[First image: New-York Historical Society; second image: New-York Historical Society Robert L. Bracklow Photograph Collection; third image: Dickinson College Archives and Special Collections via New York Times; fourth image: New York Sun, 1914; fifth image: Commercial Property Executive; sixth image: New-York Historical Society]

Tags: 50 Broadway Tower Building, Bradford Lee Gilbert Architect New York City, First Skyscraper in New York City, First Skyscraper NYC 50 Broadway, Oldest Skyscraper in New York City, Skyscraper History of New York City, Tower Building First Skyscraper NYC