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Photo: Courtesy of Audrey DuVall
Taking a step off busy Broadway into the opulent Woolworth Building is like stepping back in time to a different New York. A New York where telephones and automobiles were brand new, the Titanic had sunk only a year before, electric lit advertisements had just been placed on Times Square, and New York was the most prosperous city in the nation.
The building is the brainchild of Frank W. Woolworth, the chief executive of the F. W. Woolworth Company and owner of 318 five- and ten-cent stores. He commissioned architect, Cass Gilbert to design the Woolworth Building as the company’s headquarters, paying $13 million in cash.
Built to the unprecedented height of 792 feet, the building’s construction epitomized the day’s enthusiasm for technology. Including a rare-high-speed elevator service, along with self-sustaining electrical power generation, heating and cooling, water supply, and fire protection. The building earned its slogan of a “city within a city.”
The Woolworth building is a testament to the beauty of that time- and its lobby is an ode to the extravagance of the truly rich New Yorkers.
Photo: Courtesy of Audrey DuVall
Finding inspiration in their European travels, Gilbert and Woolworth wanted their building to be one of the most impressive in the world – it was then as it is today.
Given its resemblance to European Gothic cathedrals, the structure was dubbed “The Cathedral of Commerce” and still in it’s original condition since the buildings completion in 1913; the lobby is filled with craftsmanship that can no longer be found in buildings built today both here and in Europe.
Photo: Courtesy of Audrey DuVall
From the corbel characters that decorate the walls to the Romanesque barrel vaulted ceilings with Byzantine mosaics to the grand Greek marble staircase, there is no corner of the lobby that isn’t striking to even the most particular of architecture buffs.
Photo: Courtesy of Audrey DuVall
For years, the lobby’s grandeur was only visible to the buildings office workers, but two years ago the lobby was opened once again for small group tours.
Started by Cass Gilbert’s great-grand children, Helen Curry and Chuck Post, the tours take you past the “no tourist sign” in front of the building and into one of the most unique lobbies in the world.
Photo: Courtesy of Audrey DuVall
Much like the attention to detail that was paid during the three years it took to complete the building, the tours give you an expansive look into all the challenging work and history that went into the Woolworth Lobby. (Be on the look out for a cameo by both Woolworth and Gilbert).
Guided by historians with vast appreciation and knowledge for the building, visitors can choose between a 30-minute, 60-minute and 90-minute tour.
Tours can be booked on Woolworthtours.com.
-by Audrey DuVall