Woolworth Building
The world's tallest building for 16 years — a five-and-dime fortune built as a Gothic cathedral.
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Cass Gilbert's 1913 tower held the world's-tallest title until 1929, and Reverend S. Parkes Cadman called it "The Cathedral of Commerce." Frank W. Woolworth raised it as headquarters for his five-and-ten-cent store empire: 792 feet of neo-Gothic ornament wrapped over a steel frame.
What to look for
- Terracotta facade panels, each a slightly different color for a polychrome effect, above four limestone lower stories
- The ornate lobby's sculptures and mosaics
- Vertical lines and 15th-16th-century Gothic ornament that make a steel tower read like a cathedral
At 233 Broadway facing City Hall Park; the top 30 floors became private residences in 2012, so it's best taken in from the street and the lobby.
Woolworth Building is one of 38 sights worth the detour in New York, all bundled offline in Voyage GO — download the New York pack and it sits on your map with no signal, filling your travel passport the moment you walk past.
More to see in New York
- Statue of LibertyFrance's gift to the U.S.: a crowned, robed woman raising a torch over New York Harbor, long read as a welcome to immigrants arriving by sea.
- Empire State BuildingRide up to the 86th- or 102nd-floor deck and look straight down on Midtown Manhattan.
- World Trade Center & 9/11 MemorialTwo reflecting pools now sit in the exact footprints where the Twin Towers stood until September 11, 2001.
- Wall StreetUnder 2,000 feet of pavement that stands in for all of American finance — named for a wall that hasn't existed since 1699.
- The Met (Metropolitan Museum of Art)1.5 million works under one roof, from Sumerian stone to modern American rooms — a day here barely scratches it.
- Central ParkThe most visited urban park in the US — an estimated 42 million visits a year — built by hand on the razed land of a Black settlement, Seneca Village.