Tag Archives: Metropolitan Life Insurance Company
Old New York In Postcards #27 – The 10 Tallest Buildings In 1939
Skyscraper Race – The 10 Tallest Buildings In New York City In 1939
When the Park Row Building was completed in 1899, the 31 story office building was the highest in New York and the world at 382 feet. Less than seven years later it was no longer the tallest, with the Singer Building soaring 211 feet higher than the Park Row.
Today the Park Row Building, converted to residences, is not even among the 100 tallest buildings in New York. And the Singer Building was demolished over 55 years ago.
The constant desire by developers to top one another has continued and accelerated in the past dozen years.
The skyline is being overtaken by mostly nondescript glass boxes dwarfing other buildings and eclipsing many of the classic New York skyscrapers.
As of 2022 the ten tallest buildings in New York are:
Rank Name Height Stories Year Completed Address
1 One World Trade Center 1,776 94 2014 285 Fulton Street
2 Central Park Tower 1,550 99 2021 225 West 57th Street
3 111 West 57th Street 1,428 85 2022 111 West 57th Street
4 One Vanderbilt 1,401 73 2020 1 Vanderbilt Avenue
5 432 Park Avenue 1,397 85 2015 432 Park Avenue
6 30 Hudson Yards 1,270 103 2019 500 West 33rd Street
7 Empire State Building 1,250 102 1931 350 Fifth Avenue
8 Bank of America Tower 1,200 55 2009 1101 Sixth Avenue
9 3 World Trade Center 1,079 69 2018 175 Greenwich Street
10 The Brooklyn Tower 1,073 73 2022 9 DeKalb Avenue (Brooklyn)
Recently looking at the 1939 World Almanac there was a list of the tallest buildings in New York.
Here are the top ten from that list-
All heights listed are the Almanac's figures which may differ from modern estimates.
1. The Empire State Building is located on the site of the original Continue reading →
This entry was posted in Commentary, History, New York, Old New York In Postcards and tagged 1930s, 34th Street, 42nd Street, Broadway, Chrysler Building, Empire State Building, Fifth Avenue, Metropolitan Life Building, Metropolitan Life Insurance Company, Postcards, Rockefeller Center, Singer Building, Waldorf-Astoria, Wall Street, Woolworth Building, World Almanac on October 18, 2022 by B.P..
Old New York In Photos #119 – View From The Roof Of The Flatiron Building c. 1910
The View From The Roof Of The Flatiron Building c. 1910
New York photographers around the turn-of-the-century were always looking for unique vantage points to shoot from.
Here the Keystone Co. photographer went up to the roof of the Flatiron Building and took this shot around 1910. The gentleman in the foreground could be the photographer's assistant. As the intrepid hatless man dangles his legs over the edge of the roof, we see the northeast cityscape.
A Good View Of The Buildings Along Lower Madison Avenue
In the foreground the trees of Madison Square Park can be seen. To the extreme right on Madison Avenue is the Metropolitan Life Building, the tallest building in the world from 1909-1913.
Next in our photo the building with the dome is the new Madison Square Presbyterian Church.
Metropolitan Life acquired the original Madison Square Presbyterian Church on the southeast corner of 24th Street in 1903 intending to build their new skyscraper Continue reading →
This entry was posted in New York, Old New York In Photos, Photography and tagged 1910s, 23rd Street, Flatiron Building, Madison Avenue, Madison Square Garden, McKim Mead & White, Metropolitan Life Building, Metropolitan Life Insurance Company, Stereoview, Turn-of-the-Century on October 15, 2020 by B.P..
New York City – Madison Square in 1903 and 1958
Two Views of New York's Historic Madison Square Taken From the Flatiron Building 1903 & 1958
The New York Daily News used to do a feature, where they showed an old photograph of New York and had a modern photograph of the same scene.
From the newly completed Flatiron Building, here is Madison Square from about 1903.
Madison Square Garden and its tower are in the center of the photo. Brownstones and mostly low-rise buildings surround the Madison Square neighborhood. There are so few tall buildings that you can see the East River off in the distance. The building with the columns at the bottom of the photo is the Appellate Division courthouse. A small corner of Madison Square Park can be seen in the lower left,
Fast forward about 55 years and the changes are dramatic.
Daily News photographer David McLane had access from a similar vantage point in the Flatiron Building to take this photograph circa 1958. Continue reading →
This entry was posted in New York, Photography and tagged 1900s, 1950s, Daily News, Flatiron Building, Madison Square Garden, Madison Square Park, Metropolitan Life Building, Metropolitan Life Insurance Company on February 8, 2017 by B.P..
Old New York in Postcards #3 – A Tale of Three Buildings: Franconi's Hippodrome, The Fifth Avenue Hotel & The Fifth Avenue Building
A Tale of Three Buildings: Franconi's Hippodrome, The Fifth Avenue Hotel & The Fifth Avenue Building a.k.a. The Toy Center
The west side of Fifth Avenue between 23rd and 24th streets had been country land well into the middle of the 19th century. The land for many years had been occupied by a quaint tavern and horse changing station.
Franconi's Hippodrome- Fifth Avenue 23rd -24th Streets (click to enlarge)
On this site in March 1853, Henri Franconi, a European from a long line of equestrian performers, arranged with investors to have an amphitheater built which was then called Franconi's Hippodrome. This precursor of the modern day circus with performers, animals and chariot races was housed in a large structure shaped like an ellipse and was 338 feet by 196 1/2 feet that could seat 10,000 people and was covered by a red, white and blue canvas supported by a center pole 70 feet in height and a circle of smaller poles 40 feet in height.
It opened on Monday, May 2, 1853, and The New York Daily Times was not impressed with the class of people attending the Hippodrome shows. Attendees they said "…were blacklegs, gamblers, rowdies, and the miscellanea of polite roguery and blackguardism." The reporter added "The Hippodrome is badly conducted and Continue reading →
This entry was posted in History, New York, Old New York In Postcards, Photography and tagged 23rd Street, Elevator, Fifth Avenue, Fifth Avenue Building, Fifth Avenue Hotel, Flatiron Building, Metropolitan Life Insurance Company, New York History, New York Times, Postcards on October 14, 2011 by Max.
One of the Strangest Deaths in New York's History
Girls Chase A Boy to Give Him Birthday Kisses… and He Dies
Woodlawn Cemetery Is The Final Resting Place of George Spencer Millet Who Had One Of The Strangest Deaths In New York's History
There is a book called Woodlawn Remembers: Cemetery of American History by Edward F. Bergman (North County Books, 1988.) The book is mostly comprised of beautiful full page color and black & white photographs of monuments, tombstones and mausoleums with one page of text describing each person profiled. The cemetery is located in the northern part of the Bronx and is on my shortlist of unusual places I recommend to visit in New York.
The book is fascinating to be sure. It covers many of the interesting and important historical figures at Woodlawn. But one story not mentioned, is the life and death of George Spencer Millet (misspelled as George Millitt by The New York Times in the story at the end of this article) who is interred at the cemetery.
Millet's story is briefly recounted in Permanent New Yorkers A Biographical Guide To The Cemeteries of New York by Judi Culbertson and Tom Randall (Chelsea Green 1987.) This book contains photographs too, but has more detailed biographies than Woodlawn Remembers. Permanent New Yorkers also covers the entire New York area, not just focusing on the two most famous New York City cemeteries, Woodlawn and Greenwood. I highly recommend both of these out-of-print books.
It was February 15, 1909 and Millet must have been a very good looking boy, because when the girls he worked with at The Metropolitan Life Insurance Company found out that it was his 15th birthday, they all insisted on giving him a kiss. Continue reading →
This entry was posted in Books, History, New York, Obituary, Strange Phenomena and tagged 1900s, Accident, Book Review, Books About New York City, Bronx, Cemetery, Epitaphs, Evening Sun, Metropolitan Life Insurance Company, New York History, New York Times, Tombstone, Woodlawn Cemetery on June 22, 2011 by Hannah K..