Potter Building

The Potter Building is a building in the Financial District of Manhattan in New York City. The building occupies a full block along Beekman Street with the addresses 38 Park Row to its west and 145 Nassau Street to its east. It was designed by Norris G. Starkweather in a combination of the Queen Anne and neo-Grec styles, as an iron-framed structure.

Not to be confused with the South Yuba Canal Office, formerly called the "Potter Building".

Potter Building
Seen from across Park Row (2012)
General information
LocationFinancial District, Manhattan, New York
Address35–38 Park Row or 145 Nassau Street, New York, NY 10038
Coordinates40°42′42″N 74°00′24″W
Construction started1883
Completed1886
Technical details
Floor count11
Design and construction
ArchitectNorris Garshom Starkweather
New York City Landmark
DesignatedSeptember 17, 1996
Reference no.1948

The Potter Building was built from 1883 to 1886 to replace a former headquarters of the New York World, which was built in 1857 and burned down in January 1882. It was developed by politician and real estate developer Orlando B. Potter. The building employed the most advanced fireproofing methods then available, including rolled iron beams, cast iron columns, brick exterior walls, tile arches, and terracotta. The Potter Building was also one of the first iron-framed buildings, and among the first to have a "C"-shaped floor plan, with an exterior light courtyard facing Beekman Street. The original design remains largely intact.

The Potter Building was converted into apartments from 1979 to 1981 and was designated a New York City landmark in 1996.

Site

The Potter Building is in the Financial District of Manhattan, just east of New York City Hall, City Hall Park, and the Civic Center. The building abuts Park Row for 96 feet (29 m) to the west, Beekman Street for 144 feet (44 m) to the south, and Nassau Street for 89 feet (27 m) to the east.[1] The Morse Building and 150 Nassau Street are across Nassau Street; 5 Beekman Street is across Beekman Street; and 41 Park Row is directly north of the Potter Building, on the same block.[2] The corner of Park Row and Beekman Street is at an acute angle.[3] The Potter Building's addresses include 35–38 Park Row, 2–8 Beekman Street, and 138–145 Nassau Street.[4]

Design

The 11-story Potter Building is arranged in a mixture of styles, including the Queen Anne, neo-Grec, Renaissance Revival, and Colonial Revival styles. As a result, it stands out from the surrounding buildings.[5] The Potter Building's architect, Norris Garshom Starkweather (1818–1885), was known for designing churches and villas in the mid-Atlantic states. Between 1881 and 1884, he formed a partnership with architect Charles E. Gibbs, which was headquartered in the New York World building.[6] The original design remains mostly intact.[4]

Form

The Potter Building is C-shaped, with a "light court" within the two arms of the "C", facing outward toward Beekman Street. The building is one of the city's oldest extant structures with a light court.[3] The Real Estate Record and Guide said that "the rooms on each side are made symmetrical in spite of the irregularity of the lot; the irregularity, of course, appearing in the court itself".[7] A writer for the Fireman's Herald stated that the court split the facade so that "it looks almost like two buildings".[8] There is a fire escape in the middle of the light court.[9]

Facade

At the time of the Potter Building's construction, the facades of many 19th-century early skyscrapers consisted of three horizontal sections similar to the components of a column, namely a base, midsection, and capital. The base comprised the bottom two stories, the midsection included the middle seven stories, and the capital was composed of the top two floors.[9] The base has an iron facade and the remaining stories have a red brick and terracotta facade.[10][11]

Each facade has similar ornamentation, containing column capitals, pediments, corbels, panels, and segmental arches made of terracotta.[3] The exterior columns are made of iron.[8] Vertical piers divide the facades into multiple bays, with two windows in each bay on each floor.[5] Because of the presence of elevator lobbies at the northern end of the building, the northernmost bays on Park Row and Nassau Street are wider. At Park Row and Beekman Street, a 270-degree-wide column rounds out the corner.[3]

The Potter Building is among the oldest remaining buildings in New York City to retain architectural terracotta. The terracotta was sculpted by the Boston Terra Cotta Company and was more highly detailed than in other contemporary buildings.[12][13] Four other firms competed for the commission.[14][15] The structure ultimately included 540 short tons (480 long tons; 490 t) of terracotta. An 1888 brochure for the New York Architectural Terra Cotta Company, which the building's developer Orlando B. Potter founded with his son-in-law Walter Geer,[6] stated that the Potter Building was "an example of the best use of terra-cotta, both for constructive and ornamental purposes".[12] Boston Terra Cotta Company superintendent James Taylor supervised the placement of the terracotta.[12][16] The fourth and eighth floors contain windows ornamented with terracotta segmental arches; the third, fifth, sixth, seventh, and tenth-story windows contain terracotta corbels; and the eleventh-story windows have terracotta hoods.[9]

Features

Potter's original plans for the building were for the first floor to contain bank offices and for the upper floors to be used by other businesses. He wished for the Potter Building to be "an ornament to the neighborhood".[17] Inside were originally 351 suites that could be used by up to 1,800 people at a time.[18] The ceilings of each story are 11 feet (3.4 m) high. The building's upper floors were later converted into apartments of 1,700 square feet (160 m2) each, though the apartments retained the 18.5-inch-thick (47 cm) walls.[19]

The Potter Building employed the most advanced fireproofing methods available at the time of construction, due to its predecessor having burned down.[20] This included the use of rolled iron beams, cast iron columns, brick exterior walls – its walls are 40 inches (100 cm) thick at ground level – as well as tile arches and terracotta.[8][20] All of the above-ground floors were built on girders made of rolled iron.[11] Five iron companies provided the material.[5][21] The fireproofing is insulated by the brick-and-terracotta facade.[22]

History

Context
1893 depiction of the Potter Building

The Potter Building lot, and the adjoining lot immediately to its north (which is occupied by 41 Park Row), was the site of the Old Brick Church of the Brick Presbyterian Church, built in 1767-1768 by John McComb Sr.[23][24] Starting in the early 19th century and continuing through the 1920s, the surrounding area grew into the city's "Newspaper Row"; several newspaper headquarters were built on Park Row, including the New York Times Building, the Park Row Building, the New York Tribune Building, and the New York World Building.[24][25] Meanwhile, printing was centered around Beekman Street.[24][26] When the Brick Presbyterian Church congregation moved uptown to Murray Hill in 1857,[27][28] Orlando B. Potter purchased the southern half of the Old Brick Church lot.[29][24] Potter erected a five-story Italianate stone building on the lot for $350,000 (equivalent to $10 million in 2019[lower-alpha 1]); it became the first headquarters of the New York World, which was established in 1860. Potter purchased the building outright in 1867.[24][30]

A fire broke out in the World building around 10:00 p.m. on January 31, 1882,[31][32] supposedly because of a draft of wind from the nearby Temple Court Building.[8][33] The fire destroyed much of the block within a few hours, killing six people[34] and causing more than $400,000 in damage (equivalent to $11 million in 2019[lower-alpha 1]);[31][32] The World building was said to have "made itself notorious the country over for burning up in the shortest time on record",[8][24] and it took a week to examine the wreckage,[34] Several days after the fire, the Real Estate Record and Guide said that "the ground is so valuable that it will no doubt be immediately built upon".[32][35]

Construction

Potter sought to replace the burned-down edifice with a fireproof structure,[5] having incurred more than $200,000 of losses (equivalent to $5 million in 2019[lower-alpha 1]) in addition to loss of income.[36][37] By mid-February 1882, Potter was planning to construct an 11-story building at the site of the old World building, which he specified should be fireproof.[17] In 1883, Starkweather presented plans for the structure, of which the first two stories would have an iron facade and the remainder would have a brick facade.[10] Potter decided to defer construction for one year due to the high cost of acquiring materials.[17]

Construction of the foundation started in April 1883.[38] To test the relative strength of iron versus wooden floor beams, Potter built two small, nearly-identical structures, one with each material. After setting them on fire for two to three days, Potter determined that the iron structure was more suitable for use, since the iron floor suffered little damage compared to the totally-burned wooden floor.[8][37] Plans for the Potter Building were filed with the New York City Department of Buildings in July 1883, at which point it was supposed to cost $700,000 (equivalent to $19 million in 2019[lower-alpha 1]).[11] Construction was underway by mid-1884.[39] Workers were hired by the day, rather than contracted for the entire project.[8] Since the World building fire had occurred during the construction of Potter's 750 Broadway building in NoHo, further uptown, workers from the 750 Broadway project were also contracted to work on the Potter Building. Construction was delayed in May 1884 due to a bricklayers' strike, and the costs increased to $1.2 million (equivalent to $34 million in 2019[lower-alpha 1]).[5] Work was also delayed by a painters' and carpenters' strike in 1885.[40] The building was finally completed in June 1886.[5]

Use
Detail of the facade

At the time of its completion, the Potter Building was among the tallest in the area, towering above every other structure except the New York Tribune Building.[22] The Boston Globe called the Potter Building "the tallest straight-wall building in the world".[18] The 1892 King's Handbook of New York City stated that newspapers, magazines, insurance companies, and lawyers occupied 200 offices within the building.[41][42] The newspaper tenants included The Press, a Republican Party-affiliated penny paper, as well as The New York Observer. The Potter Building was also occupied by paper manufacturers Peter Adams Company and Adams & Bishop Company, the Mutual Reserve Fund Life Association insurance company, and the Otis Elevator Company. In addition, Potter occupied the top floor, and his New York Architectural Terra Cotta Company also had offices in the building.[42]

Potter died in 1894,[43] and the building was given over to his estate.[42][44] O.B. Potter Properties acquired the building from Potter's estate in 1913.[42] The Potter Building, along with some of the Potter estate's other properties (such as the Empire Building), was sold in 1919 to the Aronson Investing Company.[22][45][42] The building's ownership was then transferred several times within a decade: the Parbee Realty Corporation acquired the structure in 1923,[42] followed by A.M. Bing & Son in 1929,[1] and the 38 Park Row Corporation in 1931, before Parbee re-acquired the Potter Building the following year.[42] The Seaman's Bank for Savings acquired the structure at a foreclosure auction in 1941,[46] and four years later, sold it to Beepark Estates.[42] Tenants throughout this time included the United States Housing Authority, accountants, and lawyers.[42][47] The 38 Park Row Corporation purchased the building in 1954.[42]

The New York World and Tribune buildings immediately to the north were demolished in the 1950s and 1960s, and Pace College (later Pace University) built 1 Pace Plaza on the site of the latter.[48] The university also acquired the Potter Building and other nearby buildings in 1973, with plans to destroy them and build an office tower. These plans did not proceed and Pace sold the building in 1979 to a joint venture named 38 Park Row Associates,[42] composed of Martin Raynes and the East River Savings Bank.[49] 38 Park Row Associates converted the building into residential cooperatives and gave it to the 38 Park Row Residence Corporation in 1981.[42]

Following the residential conversion, a structural engineer noted that the facade had "significant deterioration particularly in the mortar jointings". The Potter Building's co-op board subsequently arranged for a renovation of the facade in 1992-1993, to be carried out by Siri + Marsik and Henry Restoration.[19] The Potter Building, along with the Manhasset Apartments and 110 East 42nd Street, was designated an official New York City landmark in 1996.[50] A controversy ensued in 1999 when the Blimpie restaurant at the Potter Building's ground level decided to place outdoor seating on Nassau Street, which had recently been converted from a weekday-only pedestrian zone into a full-time pedestrian plaza. Residents of the Potter Building complained that the seating violated a city ordinance on sidewalk cafes.[51]

Critical reception

Lower Manhattan's late-19th century skyscrapers generally received mixed reception.[3] A Real Estate Record and Guide writer remarked in 1885 that "there is not an interesting or refined piece of detail in the whole building". The critic also said that the building's design focused too much on its vertical aspect,[7] though this contrasted with the opinions of many other contemporary critics, who generally saw vertical emphasis favorably.[3] In 1889, a writer for the same magazine compared the Potter Building with the Times Building at 41 Park Row, saying that the Potter Building's architect "contrived to make [it] appear at once monotonous and uneasy".[52]

There were also positive reviews of the design. An 1885 Carpentry and Building article stated that the building was "one of the most conspicuous new buildings in the lower part of New York City", because of its juxtaposition of iron with brick and terracotta.[8] The King's Handbook described the Potter Building as being among the city's "great and illustrious monuments of commercial success",[41] while an 1899 architecture guidebook said that the Potter Building's "design is unusual and perhaps excessive in detail, but has great interest in the disposition of its masses."[53] Later, in 1991, New York Times writer David W. Dunlap described the Potter Building as "almost hallucinatory in its Victorian encrustation".[54]

References

Informational notes

  1. Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis. "Consumer Price Index (estimate) 1800–". Retrieved January 1, 2020.

Citations

  1. "A.M. Bing & Son Buy the Potter Building; Operators Acquire Eleven-Story Offices at 38 Park Row-- Former Wallack's Theatre Sold". The New York Times. April 18, 1929. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved March 24, 2020.
  2. "NYCityMap". NYC.gov. New York City Department of Information Technology and Telecommunications. Retrieved March 20, 2020.
  3. Landmarks Preservation Commission 1996, p. 5.
  4. Landmarks Preservation Commission 1996, p. 1.
  5. Landmarks Preservation Commission 1996, p. 4.
  6. Landmarks Preservation Commission 1996, p. 2.
  7. "The Potter Building" (PDF). The Real Estate Record: Real estate record and builders' guide. 35 (901): 701–702. June 20, 1885 – via columbia.edu.
  8. "The New Potter Building". Fireman's Herald. Building. 1–3. William T. Comstock. 1883. p. 89. Retrieved March 24, 2020.
  9. Landmarks Preservation Commission 1996, p. 8.
  10. "Out Among the Builders" (PDF). The Real Estate Record: Real estate record and builders' guide. 32 (800): 501. July 14, 1883 – via columbia.edu.
  11. "A New Building in Park-Row". The New York Times. July 20, 1883. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved March 24, 2020.
  12. Landmarks Preservation Commission 1996, p. 6.
  13. Geer 1920, p. 66.
  14. Landmarks Preservation Commission 1996, p. 12.
  15. Geer 1920, p. 84.
  16. Geer 1920, pp. 87–88.
  17. "Out Among the Builders" (PDF). The Real Estate Record: Real estate record and builders' guide. 29 (727): 142. February 18, 1882 – via columbia.edu.
  18. "Heaven-Kissing Roofs". The Boston Globe. March 7, 1887. p. 3. Retrieved June 29, 2020 – via newspapers.com .
  19. "POSTINGS: $1 Million Facelift; Preserving the Terra Cotta". The New York Times. March 8, 1992. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved March 24, 2020.
  20. New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission; Dolkart, Andrew S.; Postal, Matthew A. (2009). Postal, Matthew A. (ed.). Guide to New York City Landmarks (4th ed.). New York: John Wiley & Sons. p. 27. ISBN 978-0-470-28963-1.
  21. Building Age. David Willaims Company. 1885. pp. 161–162. Retrieved March 24, 2020.
  22. "Potter Building, Opposite City Hall, is Sold". New-York Tribune. December 5, 1919. p. 21. Retrieved March 24, 2020 – via newspapers.com .
  23. Geer 1920, p. 76.
  24. Landmarks Preservation Commission 1996, p. 3.
  25. Jackson, Kenneth T., ed. (2010). The Encyclopedia of New York City (2nd ed.). New Haven: Yale University Press. p. 893. ISBN 978-0-300-11465-2.
  26. "Paternoster Row of New-York". New York Mirror. 13: 363. May 14, 1836.
  27. "City Items. The New "Brick Church"". The New York Times. September 30, 1858. p. 4. Retrieved July 31, 2013.
  28. Knapp, Shepherd (1909). A history of the Brick Presbyterian church in the city of New York. New York: Trustees of the Brick Presbyterian church. pp. 277–292.
  29. Geer 1920, p. 77.
  30. Potter 1923, p. 40.
  31. "Flames in a Death-Trap; the Potter Building Completely Destroyed. Loss of at Least Five Lives and $700,000 in Property". The New York Times. February 1, 1882. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved March 24, 2020.
  32. "That Fire" (PDF). The Real Estate Record: Real estate record and builders' guide. 29 (725): 95. February 4, 1882 – via columbia.edu.
  33. "History of architecture and the building trades of greater New York". Union History Co. 1899. p. 317 – via HathiTrust.
  34. "No More Bodies Found.; the Work of Excavation in the Ruins of the Potter Building". The New York Times. February 6, 1882. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved March 24, 2020.
  35. Landmarks Preservation Commission 1996, pp. 3–4.
  36. Potter 1923, p. 129.
  37. Landmarks Preservation Commission 1996, p. 11.
  38. "Out Among the Builders" (PDF). The Real Estate Record: Real estate record and builders' guide. 31 (788): 163. April 21, 1883 – via columbia.edu.
  39. "Prominent Buildings Underway" (PDF). The Real Estate Record: Real estate record and builders' guide. 33 (836): 289. March 12, 1884 – via columbia.edu.
  40. "Strikers Gain a Victory.; They Make a Stubborn Contractor Yield Every Point". The New York Times. August 20, 1885. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved March 24, 2020.
  41. King, M. (1892). King's Handbook of New York City: An Outline History and Description of the American Metropolis. Moses King. p. 778. Retrieved March 24, 2020.
  42. Landmarks Preservation Commission 1996, p. 7.
  43. "Orlando B. Potter Dead; Fell in Fifth Avenue and Expired Immediately". The New York Times. January 3, 1894. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved March 25, 2020.
  44. "Transfer of the Potter Estate". The New York Times. February 1, 1894. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved March 25, 2020.
  45. Potter 1923, p. 240.
  46. "Old Potter Building is Bid in by Bank; 'Newspaper Row' Structure Goes to Seamen's Savings". The New York Times. April 9, 1941. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved March 24, 2020.
  47. "Fpha Gets Space for New Offices; Leases in 38 Park Row in Consolidation Plan -- Hatters Rent Broadway Store". The New York Times. September 14, 1944. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved March 25, 2020.
  48. Porterfield, Byron (May 20, 1966). "'Newspaper Row' Shrinking Again; The Old Tribune Building on Nassau Is Giving Way to Pace College Center". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved March 23, 2020.
  49. Horsley, Carter B. (July 29, 1979). "Wall St. Image Facing Change As Apartments Replace Offices". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved July 11, 2020.
  50. "Three Buildings Join City's Landmarks List". The New York Times. September 22, 1996. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved October 29, 2019.
  51. Stamler, Bernard (May 16, 1999). "Sidewalk Cafes Up Close; Outdoor Seats Outrage Some On Nassau St". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved March 25, 2020.
  52. "The 'Times' Building" (PDF). The Real Estate Record: Real estate record and builders' guide. 43 (1087): 32. January 12, 1889 – via columbia.edu.
  53. New York Union History Company (1899). History of Architecture and the Building Trades of Greater New York. History of Architecture and the Building Trades of Greater New York. Union History Company. p. 100. Retrieved March 24, 2020.
  54. Dunlap, David W. (September 15, 1991). "Hidden Corners of Lower Manhattan". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved March 24, 2020.

Bibliography

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