Lower Manhattan is home to quite a few beautiful buildings, but the Woolworth Building (233 Broadway), one of America’s earliest and greatest skyscrapers, is something special. Rising nearly 800 feet above City Hall Park, the Woolworth Building was the world’s tallest building when it opened in 1913. It held that title until 40 Wall Street’s brief tenure ahead of the opening of the Chrysler Building in 1930. As part of a generation of new buildings that altered the New York City skyline in the early twentieth century, this Gothic-inspired and most romantic of skyscrapers was designed by Cass Gilbert and built — and paid for in cash — by Frank Woolworth, the inventor of the bygone American institution, the five-and-dime store. Like other skyscrapers of its time, the Woolworth’s profile and image became an indelible part of its client’s corporate identity.
It’s not just the Woolworth Building’s exterior that elicits gasps; the lobby, which isn’t open to the general public, is a magnificent work of art. The building is sometimes called the “Cathedral of Commerce,” and the lobby features an arcade of marble walls, bronze Gothic filigree and unrivaled mosaics. Gothic details range from elaborately finished mailboxes to sculpted caricatures by Thomas (Tom) Johnson featuring Gilbert and Woolworth, along with structural engineer Gunwald Aus.
We got an inside look at the grand lobby ahead of our January 28 event at the Woolworth Building with Untapped Cities; take a peek at the gallery below.
