Candler Building
221 West 41st Street | also 220 West 42nd Street | Times Square | built 1921
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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.
- 1911
Asa Candler buys the old Baptist church site on West 42nd Street for his office tower
In December 1911 Coca-Cola's owner, Asa Griggs Candler, paid $425,000 for the old Baptist church building that stood at 220 to 226 West 42nd Street, whose sellers were Harry Frazee and P. Chauncey Anderson, and added a 25-foot lot on 41st Street. Talk had been of a theater on the site, but Candler announced a 16- to 20-story office building costing about $1 million. Crews began clearing the church site in February 1912.
“Candler acquired the old Baptist Church building on 220–226 West 42nd Street from Harry Frazee and P. Chauncey Anderson for $425,000.”
Source: Wikipedia
- 1913
The Candler Building opens as the tallest tower north of Met Life, built with fire safety in mind
A February 1913 party marked the completion of the building, then the tallest in Manhattan north of the Metropolitan Life tower. Its designers, Willauer, Shape and Bready, joined the tower and rear wing only by masonry partitions with metal doors and fitted a sprinkler system throughout. These measures followed the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire of 1911.
Source: Wikipedia
- 1915
Alfred A. Knopf opens the publishing house's first office in the Candler Building
In 1915 the new publishing company of Alfred A. Knopf took its first office in the Candler Building. Other tenants in the 1910s included the producer Sol Lesser, the theatrical manager Henry W. Savage, and the Broadway partners George M. Cohan and Sam H. Harris, whose theater lay behind the tower on 41st Street.
“…in 1915, publishing company Alfred A. Knopf had its first office at the Candler Building.”
Source: Wikipedia
- 1922
John Barrymore opens as Hamlet at the Harris Theatre and plays 101 performances
John Barrymore opened as the Prince of Denmark on November 16, 1922, at the Sam H. Harris Theatre in the rear of the Candler Building. Tyrone Power Sr. played Claudius and Rosalinde Fuller was Ophelia. The revival closed on February 9, 1923, after 101 performances.
Source: playbill.com
- 1923
Owen Davis's Icebound opens at the Harris Theatre and wins the Pulitzer Prize for Drama
Owen Davis's play Icebound opened at the Sam H. Harris Theatre on February 10, 1923, with Robert Ames as Ben Jordan and Edna May Oliver as Hannah. It ran 145 performances, to June 1. The play won the 1923 Pulitzer Prize for Drama for Davis.
Source: playbill.com
- 1930
Spencer Tracy plays John Mears in The Last Mile at the Harris Theatre
John Wexley's play The Last Mile opened at the Sam H. Harris Theatre on February 13, 1930, with Spencer Tracy as John Mears. It ran 289 performances and closed on October 1, 1930. Among the other original cast members were Richard Abbott, James Bell and Don Costello.
Source: playbill.com
- 1986
A federal grand jury looks into the city's lease in the Candler Building
In 1986 a federal grand jury subpoenaed records on the Taxi and Limousine Commission's lease in the building and on its exclusion from the 42nd Street redevelopment. A limited partner in the building, Lester Shafran, had profited from the lease. Shafran and Michael Lazar were charged with bribery and acquitted on the Candler counts.
Source: Wikipedia
- 2025
A 20,000-square-foot tech store opens in the building that once held a McDonald's
On July 29, 2025, tm:rw opened in the Candler Building in a 20,000-square-foot space spread over three levels. Time Out called it an immersive tech emporium, a mix of theme park and concept store. The magazine added that the building had once housed a 24-hour McDonald's.
Source: timeout.com
Further reading
- Candler Building (New York City)Wikipedia
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