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On this day in New York · April 24, 1913

The Woolworth Building Opens by Remote Control

Frank Woolworth built the tallest tower on earth out of nickel-and-dime profits, then had the president of the United States turn on the lights from four hundred miles away.

The Woolworth Building Opens by Remote Control
Wikimedia Commons / Woolworth Building (Hollywood, California)

The facts

Date
April 24, 1913
Height
792 feet (241 m), then the tallest building in the world
Construction cost
$13.5 million, paid in cash by F.W. Woolworth
Opening dinner
More than 900 guests on the 27th floor

On the evening of April 24, 1913, F.W. Woolworth opened his new headquarters at 233 Broadway, a 792-foot limestone and terra cotta tower designed by architect Cass Gilbert that had just become the tallest building in the world. At exactly 7:30 p.m., President Woodrow Wilson pushed a button in Washington, D.C., sending a signal up the coast that switched on the building's lights. Upstairs, Woolworth hosted a banquet on the 27th floor for more than 900 guests, including senators, congressmen who rode up on a special train, and steel magnate Charles M. Schwab. The five-and-dime king had paid for the whole thing in cash, roughly $13.5 million, a small fortune built nickel by nickel in stores across the country. Within days a visiting Englishman gave the building the nickname that stuck for good.

In their words

The day in the words of the people who were there. Every quote is verbatim, and every source links out so you can check it.

  1. Perhaps the phrase which best expresses it is that it appears to be a cathedral of commerce.

    Alan Francis, an English visitor to New York, as quoted by the New York Times, April 27, 1913

    Source: New York Public Library

  2. at exactly 7:30 p.m. EST, President Woodrow Wilson pushed a button in Washington, D.C., to turn on the building's lights.

    Description of the opening ceremony

    Source: Wikipedia

Why it still matters

The Woolworth Building set the template every developer since has chased: build the tallest thing in the skyline and let the building itself sell the brand. It held the world's-tallest title for seventeen years, longer than almost any skyscraper that followed.

Sources

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