The Woolworth Building

I am relating the story of the Woolworth building as researched on that great site Wikipedia and as told to me by a fabulous fellow tour guide named Diallo.

Frank Winfield Woolworth revolutionized how we buy things.  Before he came along, if you wanted to buy things you needed the help of a salesman.  (Think Nellie Olson's family in "Little House on the Prairie.")  Woolworth decided to use a "self-service" system, where customer would examine what they wanted to buy without the help of a sale man.  His stores were technically discount stores, and he priced everything at 5 or 10 cents.  This relatively simple idea made him a fortune.

He wanted to celebrate his fortune with a building - the tallest building in the world.  (It would need ot overtake the Met Life Building which currently held that title.)  So in 1910, Woolworth commissioned Cass Gilbert - the celebrity architect of his day - to design this tower and paid him 13.5 MILLION DOLLARS CASH for it!

When the building was completed in 1913 it stood at 792 feet tall and held the title of tallest building in the world until 40 Wall Street was completed.  In the lobby of the building is a sculpture of Woolworth counting nickels.  The "prickly top" of the building echoes the Gothic Cathedrals of Europe. Because of Woolworth's role in revolutionizing commerce and the similiarities to a Gothic Church - the Woolworth building gained the nickname "The Cathedral of Commerce" during its opening ceremony.

Part of the building is now owned by NYU  - specifically NYU's "School of Continuing and Professional Studies Center for Global Affairs."

Despite its beauty and success as a skyscraper, Cass Gilbert had some regrets aboutbuilding it.  He wrote to a friend:

"I sometimes wish I had never built the Woolworth Building because I fear it may be regarded as my only work and you and I both know that whatever it may be in dimension and in certain lines it is after all only skyscraper."

Never the less it still stands strong today.  And if you look really closely,you can see where they did renovations on the tower.  The tower is made out of these BEAUTIFUL terra-cotta panels, but they used concrete in the renovations.  The areas where they used concrete are darker.