New York Life Insurance Building.

One day I will fully appreciate the genius that is Cass Gilbert - the architect responsible for the U.S. Customs House, the Woolworth Building, and our current blog subject - the New York Life Insurance Building.  I feel like Cass Gilbert deserves an entire entry and has many secrets for me to unlock.

New York Life Insurance is one of the largest mutual life insurance companies in the U.S. of A.  With assets of just $17,000, the company was founded in 1845 under the name Nautilus Insurance Company.  It was renamed four year later "New York Life Insurance."

It moved into it's fancy Cass Gilbert designed building in 1928 after 2 years of construction at the cost of $21 million!  It's design is actually based on Salisbury Cathedral in England.  The gold pyramid on top of the NYLife building is made out of  25,000 gold leaf panels which contributed to the buildings high cost.  New York Life Insurance still occupies this building.

It stands today at 51 Madison Avenue between 26th and 27th streets - and you can see it's shiny gold top from both the Hudson and East Rivers.  I suppose that's what standing at 615 feet tall will do to you.

There is another story about the New York Life Building that musical theatre audiences might be particularly interested in! It is where Standford White, the famous architect and former lover of Evelyn Nesbit, was shot.  Well, this is not entirely true - but ALMOST true.  The New York Life Insurance is build on the site where the original Madison Square Garden was.  (New York is on its FOURTH Madison Square Garden.)  Standford White was attending a performance on the rooftop of this first Madison Square Garden.  During the show's finale - a song called "I Could Love a Million Girls" - Harry K. Thaw walked up to Stanford White, and standing two feet away shot Stanford White three times and killed him in what would become known as "The Crime of the Century."  (cue the Ragtime musical song here.)

You can read all about the murder here.