Empire Building
71 Broadway | Financial District | built 1898
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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.
- 1891
A bomb meant to extort Russell Sage explodes in the old Empire Building on this site, killing four
The six-story brownstone that preceded today's tower was bombed in 1891 in an extortion attempt aimed at the politician Russell Sage. Four people died, including the bomber. Before the blast a tenant had written to the buildings commissioner claiming the structure sometimes vibrated violently, and Sage moved to 31 Nassau Street afterward.
“The brownstone was bombed in 1891 as part of an extortion attempt directed toward politician Russell Sage, killing four people including the bomber.”
Source: Wikipedia
- 1894
Orlando B. Potter dies without a will, and his estate later commissions the Empire Building
Orlando B. Potter, a congressman and sewing-machine executive who had bought the earlier building at 71 Broadway in 1884, died suddenly in January 1894. He was thought to be the wealthiest New Yorker ever to die without a will. His son Frederick administered the estate, and the Estate of Orlando B. Potter commissioned the Empire Building in 1895.
- 1898
An elevator cab loaded with eggs and light bulbs is dropped to test the Empire Building's air cushion
Because of a string of elevator accidents at nearby 150 Nassau Street, the bottom 50 feet of each hydraulic shaft in the Empire Building narrowed to create an air cushion. On July 18, 1898, a cab loaded with eggs and light bulbs was released from the top of a shaft. It passed the third floor at about 82 miles per hour, and the eggs and bulbs were still intact.
“An elevator cab with eggs and light bulbs was experimentally dropped from the top of the shaft on July 18, 1898…”
Source: Wikipedia
- 1898
Kimball & Thompson raise a 20-story tower for the Potter family
Orlando B. Potter's heirs commissioned Kimball & Thompson to replace an 1859 brownstone on the site with a 293-foot Classical Revival office tower, built on pneumatic caissons as one of the city's earliest skyscrapers to use that foundation method.
Source: Wikipedia
- 1899
A critic says the Empire Building resembles a waffle iron, a year after another praised it
In 1898 the critic Montgomery Schuyler praised the Empire Building as one of the best commercial buildings in the city, helped by the open space of Trinity churchyard opposite. In 1899 Eliot Gregory, without naming the building, wrote that it looked grotesquely like a waffle iron and gave an impression of instability. The Landmarks report notes the early skyscrapers were controversial in the 1890s.
“Critic Eliot Gregory, not even naming the building, wrote in 1899 that it had a "grotesque resemblance to a waffle iron…”
- 1901
U.S. Steel Corporation is founded in offices here
The newly organized United States Steel Corporation was founded in offices inside the Empire Building, one of the tower's earliest tenants. By 1900 the building already employed more than 3,000 people across its various tenants.
Source: Wikipedia
- 1919
U.S. Steel buys its namesake building for its headquarters
U.S. Steel purchased the Empire Building outright for about $5 million and used it as corporate headquarters until 1976, keeping offices there into the mid-1980s.
Source: Wikipedia
- 1931
A new, much taller Empire Building steals the name's spotlight
The tower carried the Empire name alone among Manhattan skyscrapers for 33 years. That ended in 1931, when the Empire State Building opened 82 stories taller and became the far better known building of that name.
Source: Ephemeral New York
- 1938
Walker & Gillette give the entrances an Art Deco stainless-steel makeover for U.S. Steel
In 1937 and 1938 Walker & Gillette remodeled the Empire Building's entrances in stainless steel, a material the report calls fitting for client U.S. Steel. The main entrance gained steel lettering reading 71 Broadway 71 above its doors, and the work closed the entrance to the Trinity Place elevated railway. A second floor level was also inserted into the main arch.
“Art Deco style by Walker & Gillette in 1937-38 were executed in stainless steel, a material appropriate to the client, U.S. Steel.”
- 1996
The city designates the Empire Building a landmark after 19 witnesses speak in favor and none against
The Landmarks Preservation Commission designated the Empire Building a city landmark on June 25, 1996. Its public hearing was continued twice, to December 12, 1995, and January 30, 1996. Nineteen people testified for designation, among them Councilwoman Kathryn Freed and speakers for the Municipal Art Society and the Historic Districts Council, and no one testified against.
- 1997
The former steel headquarters becomes 237 apartments
In 1997 World-Wide Group of Manhattan, which had bought the foreclosed building for about $10 million, converted the Empire Building into 237 apartments. Schuman Lichtenstein Claman & Efron designed the $40 million renovation. About 30 tenants occupied 70,000 square feet when the work began, and the new residential units were quickly occupied.
Source: Wikipedia
- 2011
Dominique Strauss-Kahn is placed under house arrest here, and the building is dubbed a tourist hot spot
Dominique Strauss-Kahn, the politician and economist, was placed under house arrest at 71 Broadway in 2011 during a criminal case against him. An apartment building on the Upper East Side had declined to host him. The Empire Building received heavy media attention and notice from passersby on Broadway, and was called "a new tourist hot spot".
Source: Wikipedia
Further reading
- Empire Building (Manhattan)Wikipedia
- Before there was an Empire State Building . . .Ephemeral New York
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