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Vol. LXXXVII
JUNE 24, 1911
No. 2258
HAS THE NEW YORK SKYSCRAPER REACHED ITS LIMIT?
Prospective Effects of the Removal of the Post Office — Manhattan's
"Billion-Dollar Mile" and Its Relation to Commercial Migration Uptown.
SINCE the plan to remove the city's
main Post Ollice uptown to "West 33d
street was announced real estate men
have been wondering wlielher lower Man¬
hattan will retain its supremacy in the
matter of tall buildings. Wil! there not
be eventually an uptown counterpart of
the famous "billion dollar mile" of sky¬
scrapers adjacent to- the existing Post
Office? To malce "up one's mind on this
point one must first consider why the sky¬
scrapers of New York are practically all
centered within the southernmost mil6 of
IVIanhattan.
It is natural to suppose that the tallest
and most imposing structures of the city
would be erected in its oldest section.
By ALLEN E. BEALS.
could have before posting their letters for
abroad or for tlie West. Wilh the Post
OfHce at City Hall Park it was only a
matter of ten minutes to get the mail in
before closing time.
So the hanking- interests kept to Wall
street and they also kept a jealous eye
upon the Post Office, lest the populace of
a growing city demand that it move with
them uptown. Many attempts to change
its site were made, especially in later
years when the Post Office became too
si-nall for the business it had to handle,
but Ihey were stifled in their incipiency
by flnancial interests.
In the meantime Wall street property
was each year assessed at a higher flgure
is an advertisement to the world that here
in New York there is a premium upon
light, air and quiet. These elements are
costly to-day, even for those seeking liv¬
ing Quarters in this great cily. Capital¬
ists found a solution in buildings so high
above their neighbors that they would he
beyond the roar of the street and the
shadow of other buildings, and so they
builded business towers. The American
Surety Building was one of the first, but
olhers soon followed unlil to-day there
are in lower Manhattan almost three hun¬
dred buildings in the skyscraper class.
These structures have jumped from
twelve stories to fifteen, to eighteen, to
twenty, to thirty, lo forty-six and finally
Copyright Underwood & Underwood.
MANHATTAN'S CHANGING SKYLINE—1010 AND 1011,
Since tiie days of the Church in the Fort
that has been the nucleus of the city. All
the linancial life blood of the lown flowed
from that central point. Street car lines
radiated from il and the trunk line rail¬
roads of the country brought their pass¬
engers to it from the New Jersey sliore.
But why did not the financial district
move uptown with other business in¬
terests? Here is suggested the reason for
the skyscraper cluster. Before the Post
Offlce was flnally established in a section
of City Hall Park where it forms a tri¬
angle at the juncture of Broadway and
Park Row, Wall street tried hard to have
il located at the Battery, witli other Gov¬
ernment buildings. When the Government
suggested that il be put where the new
Sub-Treasury now is, there was a protest.
It was loo noisy, wilh its trucks and
shouting mail handlers for the city's
financial center, so a compromise was
reached and the Post Offlce was placed
within reach, yet out of the way of busi¬
ness. Wall street needed the Post Office
near it in those days. Transportation by
land and sea was slow and bankers and
business men needed all the time they
and it became necessary to ei'ect larger
and flner buildings to make occupancy of
the land economically profitable. Tbe dis¬
trict rapidly passed from the four, six, and
eight-story grades to tiie ten-story "sky¬
scraper," although not at first in tlie
financial section, proper. The skyscraper
came from reflected increased values by
reason of the congestion already notice¬
able in the lower part of Manhattan. The
Tribune, World and other old-time sky¬
scrapers, mark the beginning of the strug¬
gle for supremacy of building lieight, be¬
cause more income had to he obtained
from tbe land to meet the constantly in¬
creasing taxes and because speculators
soon found that business men saw an ad¬
vantage in locating in distinctive build¬
ings. Here again the influence of the Post
Office upon higher offlce building construc¬
tion was felt, because where the main
Post Office was there also was to be found
the converging of all the principal trafflc
lines except one, the New York Central.
During al this time New Yorkers have
taken pardonable pride in their constanlly
changing skyline, hut the reason for the
skyscrapers is not so worthy of pride. It
lo fifty stories, wlien the Metropolitan
tower was erected at Madison square.
Now comes the fifty-six-story Woolworth
building, opposite the Post Offlce, which,
however, is to be removed, after many
years of resistance to the migratory in¬
fluences of business. The new Post Offlce
site in West 33d street is on the outskirts
of the retail and wholesale business, the¬
atre and hotel center of the Greater City.
The development of to-day is the block
square skyscraper, but it is the mid-town
section on the site of Madison Square
Garden.
In this fact is found the cause of won¬
derment as lo whether the new Municipal
Building, the Telephone Building and the
Woolworth offlce building will not mark
the end of tall building competition down¬
town. In the new center the transporta¬
tion lines of the nation converge between
42d street and SSd and the great trans¬
atlantic steamship companies are docking
their giant liners farther and farther up¬
town, leaving the lower section of the city
for ferry and freight centers, as far as
docking and transportation facilities are
concerned- Announcements that giant