Municipal Building (David N. Dinkins Municipal Building)

1 Centre Street | Civic Center | built 1914

Open on the map6 entries

The lot about 1940
About 1940. Via 1940s.nyc
The lot about 1985
About 1985. Via 80s.nyc

The city photographed every building for its tax records around 1940 and again in the 1980s. NYC Municipal Archives.

Written with AI from the source each entry cites, then fact-checked.

  1. 1893

    March 28

    Mayor Gilroy backs a municipal building that would have replaced City Hall

    After the city's offices outgrew the 1812 City Hall, a March 1893 meeting in Mayor Thomas Gilroy's office endorsed a $4 million municipal building sited directly on the City Hall site, with wings engulfing the old Court House. A design contest drew 130 architects with a September 1 deadline, but the plan was never built. Preservation opposition continued, and Andrew Haswell Green wrote a long public letter in 1894 praising City Hall. The Municipal Building ended up on its present site facing City Hall Park instead.

    Source: Daytonian in Manhattan

  2. 1908

    May 9

    William M. Kendall's design for McKim, Mead & White is published for the Brooklyn Bridge site

    The Record & Guide published a rendering of the new building on May 9, 1908, designed by William M. Kendall of McKim, Mead & White. Kendall had to fit an irregular lot at the entrance to the Brooklyn Bridge and build over a subway without interrupting trains. His design ran Chambers Street through a central arched arcade inspired by Rome's Arch of Constantine.

    Source: Daytonian in Manhattan

  3. 1911

    June 28

    A fire on the 25th floor is the highest the Fire Department has fought

    Fire broke out on the 25th floor of the unfinished building on June 28, 1911, the highest blaze the department had fought to that time. Standpipes reached only the 21st floor, the upper floors were not yet floored over, and firefighters had to walk in line with lanterns while hoses were hauled up. It was put out, and iron workers topped off the tower on July 3 by unfurling a flag. A foundation cave-in in June 1910 had buried three workers.

    Source: Daytonian in Manhattan

  4. 1913

    Adolph Weinman's gilded Civic Fame is installed atop the tower, modeled by Audrey Munson

    The 1913 statue Civic Fame, designed by sculptor Adolph A. Weinman and hammered from about 500 copper pieces, stands on the tower holding a mural crown with five turrets for the five boroughs. Audrey Munson, who modeled for many New York sculptures, posed for it. Its left arm was repaired in 1928. In February 1935 the 150-pound arm broke off, crashed through a skylight and ended up in the 26th-floor cafeteria, after which the statue was renovated.

    Source: Wikipedia

  5. 1914

    January 22

    Mayor Mitchel calls the new Municipal Building badly planned, and the Tribune a white elephant

    On January 22, 1914, Mayor John Purroy Mitchel told the Sinking Fund Commissioners the building was badly planned and wasted space. That day the New-York Tribune described it as a fine white elephant costing some $15 million to date. Borough President Marcus Marks later defended it, citing fourteen acres of floor space and a rent cost of $1.33 per square foot against $1.76 elsewhere.

    Source: Daytonian in Manhattan

  6. 1924

    Radio station WNYC begins broadcasting from the Municipal Building

    In 1924 the city-owned radio station WNYC began broadcasting from the Municipal Building's upper floors, where it stayed for 85 years. Other services shared the tower: a nonprofit cafeteria opened on the 26th floor in 1918, a small hospital was set up on the third floor in 1929, and a marriage chapel and the Municipal Reference Library later occupied lower floors. The building had opened with about 4,200 city employees.

    Source: Wikipedia

Further reading

Nearby

All 64 buildings with stories in Civic Center