Clock Tower Building
50 Lafayette Street | also 108 Leonard Street, 346 Broadway | Civic Center | built 1899
Open on the map15 entries
Written with AI from the source each entry cites, then fact-checked.
- 1840
Frederic Diaper's Appleton Building rises on the site and houses the New York Society Library
Before New York Life's headquarters, this lot held the Appleton Building, put up between 1838 and 1840 to designs by Frederic Diaper. The New York Society Library was its tenant until 1856, when the publishing firm D. Appleton & Company took over the space. The structure burned down in 1867, clearing the ground for the insurance company's first building here.
Source: Wikipedia
- 1868
New York Life builds its first headquarters on the site
New York Life Insurance Company, founded in 1841 and one of the era's "Big Three" insurers, erected a five-story white marble Italianate building at 346 Broadway in 1868, designed by Griffith Thomas. Rapid growth made the building too small within twenty-five years, and it was later demolished to build the present structure.
Source: Internet Archive
- 1893
New York Life picks Stephen Hatch, who apparently settled for a 3.5 percent fee, for its annex
New York Life invited five firms to a limited competition, each promised $500 for its drawings, and chose Stephen D. Hatch in August 1893. Fees were a sticking point: William Mead had warned his partner Stanford White never to take less than the standard 5 percent, noting that all the competitors but Hatch had agreed among themselves to hold that line. Hatch, a more conservative and less successful architect than either Mead or White, apparently accepted 3.5 percent.
- 1894
Architect Stephen Hatch dies three months into construction, and McKim, Mead & White take over
Construction of the eastern annex began in May 1894, but Hatch died suddenly at fifty-five three months later. New York Life kept William McCabe of his office on as general superintendent and brought in McKim, Mead & White to finish the building from Hatch's drawings, with changes especially to the interior. The extension was completed in late May 1896.
- 1898
McKim, Mead and White complete a tower with a four-faced clock
After Stephen D. Hatch died during construction of an eastern addition in 1894, McKim, Mead and White took over, demolished the original building, and completed a Renaissance Revival palazzo with a thirteen-story clock tower by 1898. The tower's four twelve-foot clock faces were made by the E. Howard Watch and Clock Company, and a sculpture group by Philip Martiny once topped it.
Source: Wikipedia
- 1911
An elevator falls eight stories and injures ten people
An elevator in the New York Life Building dropped eight stories in 1911, hurting ten people. It was not the first lift accident at 346 Broadway: during the rebuilding, two workers were hurt by falling masonry in 1896 and six more when an elevator collapsed in 1897. By the late 1910s the garment trade had moved into the upper floors, with four stories given over to hosiery and underwear firms.
Source: Wikipedia
- 1928
New York Life moves to Madison Avenue
New York Life Insurance Company relocated to a new headquarters at 51 Madison Avenue on November 15, 1928, after occupying 346 Broadway for about three decades. New York City agencies began moving into the vacated building in the years that followed.
Source: Wikipedia
- 1973
The Clocktower Gallery opens inside the building's tower
In 1973, an experimental exhibition space called the Clocktower Gallery opened in the building's clock tower and operated there for four decades. It closed in 2013 as the city prepared to sell the building.
Source: Wikipedia
- 1980
Marvin Schneider brings the tower clock back to life after twenty years of silence
Marvin Schneider, later the city's official Clock Master, spent a year as a volunteer restoring the 1897 E. Howard tower clock, which had been abandoned for two decades. The clock runs on weights totaling about 2,600 pounds and is wound by hand. Schneider and Forest Markowitz were the two men who for years wound, oiled, inspected and reset it.
Source: tribecatrib.com
- 1987
The city designates the former insurance headquarters a landmark
New York City designated the former New York Life headquarters a landmark on February 12, 1987, five years after it joined the National Register of Historic Places. The city, which had bought the building in 1967, sold it in 2013 for $160 million to be converted into condominiums.
Source: Wikipedia
- 1992
Mayor Dinkins names Marvin Schneider the city's Clock Master and gives him a pension
Schneider and fellow city worker Eric Reiner had no clock experience, yet they spent hundreds of hours of lunch breaks and weekends on the tower mechanism, first paying their own way and later being reimbursed by the city. In 1992 Mayor David Dinkins gave Schneider the official title of Clock Master, with a pension so that his weekly upkeep no longer had to be voluntary. The clock keeps time to within about ten seconds a month.
Source: brooklynrail.org
- 2004
The clock tower space becomes headquarters of WPS1, the first internet art radio station
In 2004 the clock tower's thirteenth-floor room, home to Alanna Heiss's Clocktower Gallery, became the base of P.S.1's Art Radio WPS1.org, billed as the first internet art radio station in the world. It broadcast hundreds of hours of programming from art fairs and festivals including the Venice Biennale, Art Basel Miami Beach and the Armory Show, plus recordings of the P.S.1 summer Warm Up concerts.
Source: clocktower.org
- 2013
The city sells the building to Peebles and El-Ad for $160 million
In 2013 the city sold the former New York Life building to the Peebles Corporation and its partner El-Ad Group for $160 million, with the sale final in December. It was part of a $250 million package that included 49 Chambers Street, sold to the Chetrit Group, and was the most expensive property the city had ever sold. The Clocktower Gallery closed that year, and the buyers announced plans for luxury residences.
“The Peebles Corporation, along with its partner El-Ad Group, bought the former New York Life Building from the city for $160 million in 2013…”
Source: Wikipedia
- 2019
New York's top court lets the owners electrify the clock and close the tower to the public
In December 2014 the Landmarks Commission voted 6-1 to approve a condo conversion that would power the 1897 clock electrically and keep it private. Preservationists sued and won in two lower courts, but on March 28, 2019, the Court of Appeals reversed 4-2, saying the commission has broad discretion. The bell, weights and clockworks must stay in place, with inspections every five years.
Source: tribecatrib.com
- 2024
Jack Shainman Gallery opens in the former New York Life banking hall
Gallerist Jack Shainman paid $20 million for the double-height banking room on the east side of the building and planned to spend $3 million to $4 million on renovations. He announced in November 2022 a gallery of about 20,000 square feet there, and the Jack Shainman Gallery soft opened in January 2024.
“The Jack Shainman Gallery soft opened in the building in January 2024.”
Source: Wikipedia
Further reading
- 108 LeonardWikipedia
- The Clock Tower Building (former New York Life Insurance Company headquarters)Place Matters
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