CBS Studio Building

49 East 52nd Street | Midtown | built 1967

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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. 1908

    Warren and Wetmore design a guest house for the Vanderbilt family

    Warren and Wetmore designs the seven-story building at 49 East 52nd Street, completed in 1908 to serve as a guest house for the Vanderbilts. The family's own home stands a block away, at the corner of Fifth Avenue and 52nd Street.

    Source: Wikipedia

  2. 1924

    The Vanderbilts sell the building to the Juilliard Musical Foundation

    In 1924 the Vanderbilt family sells the former guest house at 49 East 52nd Street to the Juilliard Musical Foundation. The building becomes the first graduate school of what is now the Juilliard School.

    Source: Wikipedia

  3. 1939

    CBS buys the building to house its radio operations

    CBS, whose corporate headquarters is around the corner at 485 Madison Avenue, buys 49 East 52nd Street in 1939 to relocate its radio operations, other than the main network newsroom. Architects Fellheimer & Wagner remove the Vanderbilt-era exterior ornament and the windows, which helps soundproof the interior. They divide the building into seven studios, one of which can hold an audience of 300 along with a symphony orchestra.

    Source: Wikipedia

  4. 1951

    June 25

    CBS shows the first sponsored color broadcast to 400 guests at its 52nd Street studio

    On June 25, 1951, CBS aired Premiere, the first commercially sponsored color television program, on a five-city network. For New York, the network placed eight color receivers in its studio at 49 East 52nd Street and invited 400 guests from the press and the advertising world. CBS supplied no sets to the general public that day, estimating that about 1,000 homemade color receivers existed around the city.

    Source: Wikipedia

  5. 1966

    Columbia Records studios in the building record Sinatra, Dylan and Miles Davis

    By 1966 the building has become a recording facility for Columbia Records, where artists including Frank Sinatra, Barbra Streisand, Bob Dylan, Paul Simon and Miles Davis record music. Radio host Arthur Godfrey broadcast from Studio 21 and kept his main office in the building. Studio 27, later renamed Studio G in his honor, is where CBS Radio Mystery Theatre is recorded from 1974 until 1982.

    Source: Wikipedia

  6. 1970

    May 1

    Bob Dylan starts the New Morning sessions in Studio B with George Harrison

    Bob Dylan began recording for New Morning at Columbia's studios in the building on May 1, 1970. George Harrison joined the first session in Studio B, along with Charlie Daniels on bass and Russ Kunkel on drums, and its results were rejected. Dylan then moved to Studio E, where he recorded most of the album over five straight days ending June 5.

    Source: Wikipedia

  7. 1988

    Sony leases the former CBS studios for offices and recording

    Sony took a lease on the old studio building at 49 East 52nd Street in 1988 and put offices and recording studios there. CBS Records had stopped using the building about ten years earlier. Sony moved out about a year before the 1993 sale, relocating to the AT&T building, and the building stood vacant afterward.

    Source: Internet Archive

  8. 1993

    CBS sells the old radio studios where Arthur Godfrey broadcast

    In 1993 CBS sold its nine-floor building at 49 East 52nd Street, about 58,000 square feet, to Park Avenue Plaza Company, a Fisher Brothers affiliate, at a price not disclosed. CBS writer Andy Rooney said the building earned more money for the network than any other, thanks to Arthur Godfrey. A CBS executive added that some of radio's first soap operas, including Our Gal Sunday and Helen Trent, were broadcast there, as were early contest shows produced by Mark Goodson and Bill Todman.

    Source: Internet Archive

  9. 1996

    Fisher Brothers restores the building's Vanderbilt-era appearance

    CBS sells the building to Fisher Brothers in 1993, three years before Fisher Brothers reverses the 1930s Art Moderne makeover. In 1996 the firm replaces the windows and recreates the building's original Vanderbilt look. Fisher Brothers, which has held the land since 1979, has since converted the building to offices.

    Source: Wikipedia

Further reading

Nearby

All 178 buildings with stories in Midtown