| WARNING:
If you have NOT read the book yet, it's not advised to read this
page. It may contain spoilers. The red
terracotta Potter Building on the corner of Park Row and Beekman Street across the street from City Hall was built
from 1882 to 1886 by Orlando Potter with a mind toward fireproofing as the original building,
completed in 1857 really did burn to the ground on January 31, 1882 in an
infamous fire, which is referenced to a great degree in one of my
favorite books.
| Orlando Potter (b 1823) was a
member of the US House of Representatives and a rich land developer.
He is known for laying out much of what would become the National
Banking Acts of 1863 and 1864. He commissioned both the old and the
new Potter Buildings on Park Row, referred to in the book Time
and Again by Jack Finney. His architect employed rolled steel girders,
cast-iron, extensive terracotta, tile and brick in an effort to
fireproof the new building. The "old" Potter Building was called the World Building because the
New York World newspaper (a pioneer in yellow journalism) was
originally based there, although it wasn't a particularly successful
paper during the time of the book, after the original building burnt
down in 1882 and the new building was built between 1882 and 1886,
Joseph Pulitzer (who founded the Columbia University Graduate School
of Journalism in 1912) purchased the paper and moved it to the "new" World
Building a block or so NE, which was subsequently demolished some 65 years later to
make room for on ramps to the Brooklyn Bridge.
A hundred years after the events of
the book take place, around 1980, the building was turned
into co-op apartments with an entrance at 145 Nassau Street.
The price of these apartments ranges from 1.5 to 2 million with
monthly fees in access of $1200, doorman service and a really
nice roof top garden.
|
The
"old" Potter Building from a couple of
years
before
the fire is at the right of the image.
|
Trivia
A tenant of the old Potter Building in
Newspaper Row directly adjacent of City Hall's politicians, was
Scientific American, in whose offices
Thomas Edison successfully tested his phonograph invention and
gained fame.
One of the tenants of the new
Potter Building back in the late 1800s was the headquarters of Otis
Elevator, which is another company with a long history that
most of us can still relate to today as we wait to get carried to
our desired floor.
Some of the current tenants of the
building are a pizza place, a Starbucks and a Verizon Wireless
storefront.
Click for larger
The Potter Building as seen
from in front of City Hall
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