One Times Square
1475 Broadway | also 1 Times Square, 1471 Broadway | Times Square | built 1908
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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.
- 1902
The Times announces its Longacre Square tower and the Pabst Hotel is razed
On August 4, 1902, The New York Times announced a steel-frame headquarters on the triangular plot bounded by Broadway, 42nd Street and Seventh Avenue, with Cyrus L. W. Eidlitz as architect. Most of the site held the Pabst Hotel, one of whose architects, Otto Strach, put its cost at $225,000 and its decoration at $60,000, and which prided itself on its bar and rathskeller. Demolition of the hotel began later that year.
Source: Daytonian in Manhattan
- 1904
The New York Times lights up its new tower to welcome 1905
The New York Times built its tower here in 1903 and 1904, and the square around it was renamed Times Square in April 1904. To mark the move, the paper set off fireworks from the roof at midnight on December 31, 1904, drawing about 200,000 people. The Times moved out in 1913, only eight years later.
Source: Wikipedia
- 1904
Aldermen vote unanimously to rename Longacre Square as Times Square
The Times Building was nearing completion in early 1904 when August Belmont proposed naming Longacre Square after the newspaper. The Board of Aldermen met on April 5 and approved the change, and the Times reported the next day that not a single voice was raised against it. The new name arrived months before the tower itself opened.
Source: Daytonian in Manhattan
- 1907
The first New Year's Eve ball drops from the Times Tower
After the city banned fireworks over the crowd, Times owner Adolph Ochs replaced them with a time ball. On December 31, 1907, a 700-pound ball of iron and wood, five feet across and lit by 100 bulbs, was lowered from the tower to welcome 1908. The drop was halted only for New Year's Eve 1942 and 1943 because of wartime lighting restrictions.
Source: Wikipedia
- 1912
A 150-pound coping stone falls from the 16th floor and misses a dozen lunchtime pedestrians
In 1912 a 150-pound coping stone dropped from the 16th floor of the Times Tower to the pavement. The Evening World reported on April 2 that about a dozen people, mostly young women walking to lunch from nearby offices, were endangered. One man missed by roughly three feet pulled his hat down and hurried up Broadway through the traffic, last seen passing 47th Street.
Source: Daytonian in Manhattan
- 1913
The New York Times leaves its namesake tower after eight years
The New York Times moved out of its Times Square headquarters on February 2, 1913, only eight years after occupying the building it had built to anchor the newly renamed Times Square. The paper relocated to a larger building at 229 West 43rd Street, though the tower kept the Times name and its New Year's Eve ball drop.
Source: Wikipedia
- 1928
The zipper news ticker starts with election returns
On November 6, 1928, an electric news ticker wrapped around the base of the tower began flashing headlines and election returns to the crowds below. The sign became known as the zipper. In 1963 Allied Chemical stripped the building to its steel frame and reclad it in marble.
Source: Wikipedia
- 1942
The New Year's Eve ball drop goes dark for two years because of wartime lighting limits
The Times Square ball drop was put on hold for the 1942-43 and 1943-44 celebrations because of wartime lighting restrictions. In its place, a moment of silence came a minute before midnight, followed by the sound of church bells broadcast from trucks.
Source: Wikipedia
- 1945
The tower's zipper announces Japan's surrender to a packed Times Square
The news ticker around the tower was powered down in May 1942, the first time it had stopped since its installation. It was turned back on in October 1943 but shut off again within two weeks to save electricity, and it then ran intermittently until the war ended. On the evening of August 14, 1945, it flashed the news of Japan's surrender to a crowd filling Times Square.
Source: Wikipedia
- 1947
An elevator mechanic turns out to be a concert tenor singing in the shaft
In September 1947 the Times profiled William White, a Bronx-born mechanic installing new elevators in the Times Building, who had a second life as an Irish tenor. He was discovered on the Major Bowes Amateur Hour in 1944, and he was heard singing inside an elevator shaft. A month after the story ran he was scheduled to give a concert at Carnegie Recital Hall.
Source: Daytonian in Manhattan
- 1961
A subbasement fire kills three people and injures 24
In November 1961, the year the Times sold the tower to Douglas Leigh, a fire broke out in one of the building's subbasement levels, killing three people and injuring 24 others. Investigators concluded it had been caused by careless smoking. At the time 110 tenants occupied the building.
Source: Wikipedia
- 1961
Douglas Leigh strips the tower's ornate facade
Sign impresario Douglas Leigh bought the former Times Tower from the newspaper in 1961 and renamed it the Allied Chemical Building. His architects then stripped away its ornate granite and terra cotta facade, resurfacing it in concrete panels interspersed with marble slabs to maximize space for advertising.
Source: Daytonian in Manhattan
- 1964
The first marble facade panel crashes to the ground during Allied Chemical's makeover
Allied Chemical stripped the tower to its steel frame in a $10 million renovation that replaced the old granite and terracotta with marble panels, and in August 1964 the first new panel crashed to the ground while being installed. The work came a year before the city gained power to landmark buildings, and critic Ada Louise Huxtable objected to it, praising the building's vintage structural details.
“The first panel of the new facade crashed to the ground while it was being installed in August 1964.”
Source: Wikipedia
- 1996
Sony's Jumbotron, a favorite of David Letterman's show, is removed from the tower
A Sony Jumbotron on the building's exterior carried news and advertising and was often used by the producers of Late Show with David Letterman, who could show a live feed from the studio on it. Sony chose not to renew its lease to save money, and the screen came down in June 1996. Producer Rob Burnett joked that it was a sad day for New York.
“As a cost-saving measure, Sony declined to renew its lease of the space, leading to the subsequent removal of the Jumbotron in June 1996.”
Source: Wikipedia
- 2008
Walgreens opens a flagship store beneath a giant new LED sign
Walgreens opened a flagship store at One Times Square in November 2008 after leasing the entire building for about $4 million a year. The opening coincided with the installation of a 17,000-square-foot sign built from 12 million LED lights, continuing the tower's century-long run as a billboard for Times Square advertisers.
Source: Wikipedia
- 2026
A $500 million renovation adds an observation deck and museum space and wraps up by January 2026
Jamestown, which has owned the building since 1997, began a $500 million renovation of One Times Square in 2022. By January 2026 the work was finished, with an observation deck, museum space and a new glass exterior in place. Plans for a Times Square museum, an observation deck and a new subway entrance had been announced in 2017.
“Jamestown started a $500 million renovation of the building in 2022. The renovation added an observation deck, a museum space, and a glass exterior, and was completed by January 2026.”
Source: Wikipedia
Further reading
- One Times SquareWikipedia
- The Former NY Times Bldg -- No. 1 Times SquareDaytonian in Manhattan
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