3 Times Square (Reuters Building)
1481 Broadway | also 1487 Broadway, 208 West 43rd Street, 1483 Broadway | Times Square | built 1999
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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.
- 1899
Oscar Hammerstein opens the Victoria Theatre at 1481 Broadway
Theater baron Oscar Hammerstein opened the Victoria Theatre on March 3, 1899, at 1481 Broadway, on the corner now occupied by 3 Times Square. The house also had a roof garden that adjoined the Republic Theatre.
Source: cinematreasures.org
- 1904
Willie Hammerstein turns the Victoria into a vaudeville house on this corner
Oscar Hammerstein opened the Victoria Theatre in 1899 at 42nd Street and Seventh Avenue, on the corner's northwest side, where 3 Times Square now stands. None of its early productions was successful enough to build the theater a reputation. In 1904 his son Willie took over operations and turned it into a vaudeville house, which proved very profitable. Unusually for a New York vaudeville theater, Hammerstein's ran independently of the Keith and Albee circuit, and its headliners included the Three Keatons, the Four Cohans and the Seven Little Foys.
Source: Wikipedia
- 1916
The Rialto movie palace opens on the Victoria's site as a Broadway home for Triangle films
The Rialto Theatre opened on April 21, 1916, at 1481 Broadway, on the former site of Oscar Hammerstein's Victoria Theatre. With 1,960 seats, it and the Strand were the most important movie theaters on Broadway at the time, and it played only Triangle Film Corporation pictures. From 1919 it premiered many Paramount releases. When Paramount sold the building in 1935, the Rialto was demolished and rebuilt on a smaller scale.
“The 1,960-seat theater... opened on April 21, 1916, on the former site of Oscar Hammerstein's Vaudeville venue the Victoria Theatre. It exclusively played Triangle Film Corporation films…”
Source: Wikipedia
- 1929
The Marx Brothers' The Cocoanuts has its world premiere at the Rialto
The Marx Brothers' Paramount comedy The Cocoanuts premiered at the Rialto Theatre in New York on May 23, 1929. The Rialto, at 1481 Broadway, stood on the site of Hammerstein's Victoria Theatre, where 3 Times Square now stands. The film was a hit and, as a pre-Code musical comedy, was one of the most successful early talking films.
“The film premiered on May 23, 1929, at the Rialto Theatre in New York.”
Source: Wikipedia
- 1935
The first Rialto is demolished and replaced by an Art Deco Rialto credited to Rosario Candela
The 1916 Rialto, designed by Thomas Lamb, closed and was demolished in May 1935. A second Rialto rose on the same corner, counted among the new Art Deco movie houses built in New York at the time, with Rosario Candela listed as its architect. That building was later fitted with a television studio used by everyone from Rivera to Montel Williams, and it was razed in 1998 to make way for the Reuters tower.
Source: cinematreasures.org
- 1997
Giuliani and Pataki announce Reuters will build its headquarters on the site
At MTV's new Broadway studio, Mayor Rudolph Giuliani and Governor George Pataki announced that Reuters would stay in the city for 23 years and take a new Rudin tower at 3 Times Square. Reuters had weighed moving 1,200 jobs to New Jersey or Connecticut. It would consolidate seven city offices, and stood to gain about $12.5 million in city and state incentives for keeping 1,800 jobs, with another $13.5 million tied to creating 2,348 new ones.
“Reuters will receive a maximum of approximately $12.5 million in City and State benefits if it successfully retains the 1,800 jobs…”
Source: nyc.gov
- 1999
The Reuters tower is topped out after sidewalk portrait artists are chased from its fence
Ground was broken on January 11, 1999, and the tower was topped out on December 10. During construction, Chinese sidewalk artists hung their portraits on the plywood fence around the site, and police cleared them away every night. A month after the topping out, falling debris forced a temporary closure of the section of Seventh Avenue beside the site.
“Chinese "sidewalk artists" hung their portraits on the plywood construction fence that surrounded the site…”
Source: Wikipedia
- 1999
Reuters breaks ground for a $360 million headquarters meant to gather 1,800 staff
In January 1999 Reuters held a ceremonial groundbreaking at the Times Square site for its new U.S. headquarters. A trade report put the 30-story building at an estimated $360 million and said it would bring 1,800 employees from seven Manhattan locations under one roof, with completion planned for early 2001. Reuters and its Instinet subsidiary were to take 19 floors and 570,000 square feet.
Source: waterstechnology.com
- 2001
Reuters leases 692,170 square feet and sublets space to its Instinet trading arm
In May 2001 Reuters leased 692,170 square feet at 3 Times Square from the Reuters and Rudin partnership that owned and developed it, and sublet 360,392 square feet to Instinet. The principal lease ran to 2021 with an option to extend, and Reuters backed it with a $120 million letter of credit. The building became its US headquarters.
Source: sec.gov
- 2003
Reuters refuses a Methodist ad, then reverses its ban on religious advertising
In October 2003 Reuters refused to run an advertisement from the Methodist Episcopal Church, which drew controversy. The company ultimately reversed its policy against religious advertising.
Source: Wikipedia
- 2006
Reuters removes the car-bomb planters it set along the sidewalk after 9/11
After the September 11 attacks, Reuters put 13 planters on the sidewalk to shield the building from car bombs. In late 2006 the planters were taken away, after counterterrorism experts said they could become projectiles during a vehicle attack.
“Reuters had placed 13 planters on the sidewalk to protect the building against car bombs. The planters were removed in late 2006…”
Source: Wikipedia
- 2022
Touro College leases nine floors of the tower to bring seven schools together
Touro College and University System signed a lease in January 2022 for 243,305 square feet on floors three through nine, bringing seven of its schools under one roof. The lease followed Rudin Management's $25 million renovation, announced in April 2021, which hired FXCollaborative to redesign the lobby. A separate entrance for the college was built at Seventh Avenue and 43rd Street.
Source: Wikipedia
Further reading
- 3 Times SquareWikipedia
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