Engineering Societies' Building

25 West 39th Street | Midtown | built 1906

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.

1904
March
Andrew Carnegie funds a shared clubhouse for engineering societies
Andrew Carnegie proposed a unified headquarters for the nation's engineering societies in 1903 and pledged $1.5 million toward it in March 1904. His wife laid the cornerstone on May 8, 1906, and the building, designed by architects Herbert D. Hale and Henry G. Morse for the mechanical, mining, and electrical engineering societies, opened on January 1, 1907.
Source: Daytonian in Manhattan
1907
April 16
The building is dedicated with a speech by Andrew Carnegie
At the building's dedication on April 16, 1907, Andrew Carnegie addressed the assembled engineers in its thousand-seat auditorium. The next day, the John Fritz Medal was presented there to Alexander Graham Bell.
Source: Daytonian in Manhattan
1917
December 17
The American Society of Civil Engineers joins the building
The American Society of Civil Engineers, which had initially declined to take part in the shared headquarters, relented and moved its offices into the building on December 17, 1917, prompting a later two-story addition to accommodate the new member.
Source: Daytonian in Manhattan
1951
September 5
The engineering societies leave for a new headquarters uptown
The founding engineering societies moved out on September 5, 1951, relocating to the new United Engineering Center at 345 East 47th Street and ending this building's 44 years as their shared clubhouse.
Source: Daytonian in Manhattan

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