|ilw!ii California 3gional i icility I \ C. J> ■ V jf V THE ^^^ ■■■i. ^.|^% 6^- u \jo u 1. i u i\ n M i UCSB LIBRARY GRAND ARCADE ll OF THE CATHEDRAL OF COMMERCE From a painting in natural colors over a photograph made by F-. K. Carter New York iiiijiiiiaiiiiMiJiMiiPiMiiiiiujniiii^^ of (Smmerte 'ft csll lactnrdl I1.HSTRATI0SS. EXCEPT- ING TWO. MADE F K (» M PHOTOGRAPHS BV J. r. MAL'GANS, NI-:\V YORK ^n HPi ripi A TELE-PITOTO VIKW" OP TIM-: ORSKRVATIOX GALLER\' Cupyrijilil. njio. by Broiidwuy Park i'l All Ri«lits Reserved THIS BOOK WAS DESIGNED AND MADE BY THE MUNDER-THOMSEN COMPANY BALllMORE AND NEW YORK. iF5 i, f ■ J i l ' Jl ' iJ iir r ii i i; iTlllli l l'l l l'l ll!!l lll l 5' ] l l !'l' " i i'""Ulgl .» ' iimL'[j7iij i !l nu[| , ' j/.r* FOREWORD -^^ S. PARKES CADAIAN, D. D., S.T. D., L. H. D. HE man who proposes and the architect who designs a truly great building confer a lasting favor on the race at large. Our indebtedness to those who con- structed the Parthenon, the Coliseum at Rome, St. Peter's Cathedral in that city, St. Paul's in London, St. Mark's in Venice and the pure Gothic of St. Chapelle and Notre Dame in Paris, is utterly beyond ordinary methods of computa- tion. These monuments of rare beauty, devotion and civic pride far outlast other achievements of their respective periods. Their true value is not in stone nor in gold but in the spiritual aspira- tions which they embodied and expressed. Brute material has been robbed of its density and flung into the sky to challenge its loveliness. Just as religion monopolized art and architecture during the Medieval epoch, so commerce has engrossed the United States since 1865. The close of the Civil War released the pent-up powers of a young nation, occupying a virgin soil, with the consequences we now witness. Multitudes flocked to our shores, trade increased by leaps and bounds, railways linked East and West in a conti- nental expanse, cities throve apace. Out of the struggles of this process, not without its pulsive and sordid features, have been developed gratifying benefits. The prairies of Illinois, Indiana, Iowa and the Dakotas have become the granaries of the earth. The mineral treasures of Pennsylvania, Georgia and the States located among the foothills of the Rocky Mountains have been mined and placed at the disposal of nations. These and many other enrichments of human life and intercourse received their T^'iirr.CL'fT' ff'mi iivi.LT:"^^'"" -^i i"'Z'gJ:srg.r.&::'aJife'2'ff./_r^ /K; visible tokens in the steady advancement of general prosperity and welfare. Their metropolitan and financial centers were found in New York. Here, on the Island of Manhattan, and at its south- erly extremity, stands a succession of buildings without precedent or peer. The vision of their grandiose effect from the Brooklyn Bridge at dusk, when the gathering darkness softens their bold outlines, and every one of the numberless windows coruscates with radiance, is beyond the brush of Turner to paint c^r the eloquence of Ruskin to describe. It outvies imagination in its most fertile moments. Of these buildings the Woolworth is Queen, acknowledged as premier by all lovers of the city and the com- monwealth, by critics from near and far, by those who aspire toward perfecti(jn, and by those who use visible things to attain it. When seen at nightfall bathed in electric light as with a gar- ment, or in the lucid air of a summer morning, piercing space like a battlement of the paradise of God which St. John beheld, it inspires feelings t(Jo deep even for tears. The writer looked upon it and at once cried out, "The Cathedral of Commerce" — the chosen habitation of that spirit in man which, through means of change and barter, binds alien people into unity and peace, and reduces the hazards of war and bloodshed. Such is its testimony due to Frank W. Woolworth, whose magnitude of mind origina- ted the scheme, and to Cass Gilbert, whose genius executed it to the last detail. To these men, America pays a lasting tribute, and their accomplishment will remain at the heart of the world of trade, a lofty example of the best possibilities in human nature, even when engaged in mercantile pursuits. Q^jgCuXJSLu^ .t^J^fH^ ■ ^t3L.vl«J.^^VJ^^'aJ!lfe}Jav.a^ ^ jiiL:^fe^^ THE CATHEDRAL OF COMMERCE EDWIN A. COCHRAN N the night of April 24, 19 13, President Wilson pressed a tiny button in the White House and 80,000 brilliant lights instantly flashed throughout the Woohvorth Building. The event marked the completion, the dedication and the formal opening of that regal edifice, the tallest and most beautiful building in all the world erected to commerce, so judged by the officials of the Panama-Pacific Exposition when they placed their seal of approval upon it and awarded it the gold medal. It also set in motion a vast machine called industry, whose influences and benefits forever will be felt in every corner of the globe. It was a memorable night. A profusion of light filled the twenty-seventh floor, which had been arranged for a superb banquet. And assembled there, was a great host of statesmen, captains of industry, merchants, journalists, scholars, poets — all representative Americans, proud to break bread with, and hcjnor the man who had realized his dream and the gallant aides who tirelessly had labored with him to accomplish the stupendous task, the upbuilding of a monument to small things. Yes, as a commercial institution the Woohvorth Building is jireeminent. Within its walls are housed great banking institutions, the e.\ecuti\e and clerical stafTs of giant industries, the New York representatives of America's big business enterprises and a great many leaders in the professions. Its tenants, with their employees, number 10,000 people — the population of a city — and only tenants of the highest standard are accepted. The Building could have been filled twice over had not Mr. Woohvorth been so strict about the responsi- bility and personal integrity of every lessee. Altogether, these tenants rank among our country's most prosperous, most progressive and most reputable business and professional men. Doctor Cadman, the noted divine, has called this Building "The Cathedral of Commerce," a term which fittingly describes it. It stands in magnificent splendor, a masterpiece of art and architecture, a Glorious Whole, quite beyond the power of human imagination. The true Gothic lines and tracery of the exterior are extremely impressive, and the proportions have been executed with such studious care and fidelity to detail that its enormous height is not realized from the street; yet it is by far the tallest building in the world, rising 792 feet I inch above the sidewalk, its summit ])iercing the heavens. The recessive Tower, gradually diminishing from base to pinnacle and appearing ^Fiz'^-jrsr:,':^;:' ^M<"-*«iSTS»»-*iS-SMFi:«W-SWT*l8-S«f-*,'S'-Si<»-a>SfS»»-il««!!S»» zs-rsrr.j j,;/:- k always in new lights and colors, forms a fascinating picture from every view- point, as it stands silhouetted against the sky. Its location, too, is of supreme importance. It is in the very heart of things — the civic center of the world's great metropolis, in the midst of all transpor- tation lines. It faces upon three streets and has nine entrances, including two direct communications with the subway system. It is within a stone's throw of City Hall, the Municipal Building, Brooklyn Bridge, the Post Ofifice and Courts, as well as close by the great financial and banking center. No building could command a better location or one more advantageous to its tenants. From the Observation Gallery, fifty-eight stories above the street, the view is marvelous, and the thrilling sensation which comes over the sight- seer is never to be forgotten. It is indeed the most remarkable if not the most wonderful view in all the world. The scenic and color eff'ects, with the sun shining on the multi-colored buildings around it, but far below, and on the water and land for twenty-five miles in every direction, make a landscape impossible of adequate description. The vast area spread out before the visitor's eye is inhabited by more than 7,500,000 souls. To the north lies the great City, with the Hudson River and the lordly Highlands beyond. To the east are Long Island and the mighty Atlantic Ocean, with its ships passing to and fro far distant on the horizon where sky and water seem to meet. To the south are the great Harbor of New York, the Narrows through which pass all ships entering and leaving the Port of New York, Governor's Island, the Statue of Liberty, and Staten Island in the distance. To the west we have again the Hudson River and the great expanses of meadow-land and mountainous country forming Eastern New Jersey. Looking downward, the multitudes of people scurrying about the busy streets in close proximity to the Woolworth Building resemble an aggregation of pygmies — a crowd seen through the large end of a telescope. The view is bewildering. Every year upwards of 100,000 visitors from all parts of the world come here and the Register shows that these good people represent more than sixty different countries and thousands of cities. Another marvel of this Building is the exterior illumination of its Tower by night, extending from the thirty-first to the sixtieth story, a distance of nearly 400 feet. The Tower is illuminated by a gigantic flood of light directed upon it from specially designed nitrogen lamps of great candle-power set in mirrored reflectors to give maximum reflective value. Nearly 20,000,000 candle- power of light is thus transmitted to the ornamental terra-cotta of the whole Tower, making it stand out boldly and majestically like a shaft of glistening alabaster against the blackness of the night. The color effects are brilliantly wonderful. The light, soft and mellow at its base, gradually increases in in- tensity as it reaches upward and, at the very top, the pinnacle, an immense ball of fire appears, giving the effect of a gorgeous jewel resplendent in its setting of rich gold. This light may 1k' seen bj- mariners forty miles at sea. The \arie(l colors of terra-cotta and the superb lines and tracery, abounding in the outer walls of the Tower, are brought out in simple elegance by this Pq!?^l%j^qgi_mj^^ygl>H *^fi^i^ff** ] F_ .>J >->■'■ s^Sr r '<5r< ^ ir-^-"'~^"ii^#'T i i Iri ,. 1 ■ ij V ^ ■ Pi '^ " i 1 1 i "1 1 n TT 5^- I,. v:c >Mr!efW. s^vi; m ^ ii irjau !i .iuiL i .inMm iiii'"> 'LMMUll i m^im c i)^iimmJ T! (laz/,lin;,i illumination, which is acknowlcdi^cd to bf the greatest triumjih in flood-lighting ever achieved. The wonders of the Woolworth Building are not confined to its exterior, for within will be found a wealth oi things intensely interesting, and first among these should be mentioned the grand ccM-ridor with its tall, perfect lines rising and sweeping into graceful curves and arches. The marble, with its warm, golden, evenly matched colors of varied hues forming the corridor w^alls, was quarried on the Isle of Sk\ros off" the coast of Greece, from the choicest of costly marbles obtainable there. It is richly carved in pure Gothic design, and blends perfectly with the magnificently decorated dome-ceiling. This ceiling is a masterpiece of glass mosaic, and its rare beauty is accentuated by the soft glow of artificial light concealed behind the lace-like marble cornice at the springing of the arches. It suggests a flood of dazzling jewels glittering in the sunlight — emeralds, rubies, sapphires, diamonds — a riot of harmonious colors, all spread out in golden settings, and arranged in excjuisite designs. The whole efifect is one of grandeur with which the corridor of no other building in the worUl may be compared; and it is, indeed, an appropriate entrance to this regal structure, "The Cathedral of Commerce." In the sub-basement is located the power plant which generates the electricity needed to operate the elevators and to furnish light and ventilation for the entire Building. This plant is complete in its make-up, and the four mighty engines and dynamos, operating day and night — never idle from one year to another — are wondrous pieces of machinery, the most efficient known to engineering science. The plant has a total capacity of 1,500 kilowatts, and consists of two 500 kilowatt units, one 300 kilowatt unit, and one 200 kilowatt unit. These units are of varying size, so as to afford maximum operating economy, according to the varying electrical load at different periods of the day. The engines are of the tandem-compound low-speed Corliss type, moving at one hundred revolutions per minute, and are capable of generating sufficient power to operate an electric street railway or supply electric light for a city of 50,000 inhabitants. The Engine Room itself is especially attractive with walls and floor of white tile and ceiling of white enamel, always spotless in appearance. Here, too, will be found an elaborate ventilating plant made up of sixteen large motors with fresh air and exhaust ducts, designed to furnish a complete change of air in the three stories underground and the first four above four times in every hour. The air is drawn down from outside the Building above the fifth floor, passed through fine sieves and then through a curtain of constantly running clear water, where it is cleansed and afterwards distributt'd to the tenants free of impurity. During summer months, this air is ctxjled to a proper temperature by refrigeration, and in winter it is warmed by passing through heated pipes. A water filtration plant and a refrigerating plant also form part of the vast mechanical equipment required for the exacting needs of the Building's tenants. The boiler plant consists of six mammoth Babcock & Wilcox boilers with a total capacit)- of about 2,500 horse-power. These boilers are operated m at hiLi,h pressure and except during a few weeks of unusually cold weather in mid-winter the entire Building is heated by exhaust steam from the engines and pumps. Some idea may be furnud of the enormous quantity of coal consumed by these boilers from the fact that the Building's coal bunkers contain over 2,000 tons of coal, which is replaced as used by cargo shipments direct from the anthracite fields of Pennsylvania. An immense Swimming Pool and Turkish Bath establishment, open day and night, is also located in the sub-basement, and here will be found every modern device making for comfort, safety and sanitation. The Woolworth Building Safe Deposit Co. has its vaults in the basement. This, too, is a thoroughly up-to-date institution, where courteous, efficient attendants show hundreds of persons to their strong boxes every business day. No exi)ense has been spared to make it a safe place for the keeping of valuables. Another interesting place in the basement is the beautiful restaurant called "The Postkellcr" — one of the City's show-places. The food and service here are of the very best, and it is noted for its cleanliness. There is also a large, finely equipped Barber Shop in the basement where the appointments are unexcelled and the service first class in every particular. The Irving National Bank and the Broadway Trust Company, nationally known institutions, occupy spacious quarters on one of the main floors, and provide every modern banking facility for the convenience of customers. In the Irving National Bank each department is as convenient to the customer as the single window in the smallest country bank. The final humanizing touch has been given to the Tellers' Department: Each teller both pays and receives, so that customers always transact business with the same teller whether depositing or withdrawing funds. Personal contact between the customers and officers is encouraged by the special design of the Bank's quarters; all officers are within easy reach. The Broadway Trust Company conducts its business along similar lines, personal service being dominant in both institutions. Perhaps the most difficult problem in a structure as tall as the Woolworth Building is the question of elevators. The Building's success depends largely upon the adequacy, safety and regularity of the elevator service. The architectural design of the Building, together with the peculiarities and difficulties of its structural steelwork, to a very great extent govern the number, arrangement and grouping of elevators. This important feature has been carefully studied, and as a result, twenty-eight high-speed electric traction elevators afford excellent service throughout the twenty-four hours of each day, every day in the year, Sundays and holidays included. These elevators travel on a headway of twenty-five to thirty-five seconds during business hours, which means that a car is available to carry passengers up or down from any floor about every half-minute, and this service is faithfully maintained. In order to get tenants, their employees and clients to and from the offices with the least possible delay, many of the elevators are operated at a speed greater than that maintained in any other building, yet they travel so smoothly and noiselessly that their movements are scarcely observed. , l'l.\ T I IK 40 I U 1-1 i Hik hlloW 1\. , II 1 ,1 I -ii i : 1 .XAISSANCE TAPEbTRV iWUN'EX ABOUT 16501 A\D ITALIAN REXAISSANLE MANTELl'IECE CAR\ED I.\ STONE and, for the convenience of tenants, four mail chutes, connected with the mail boxes mentioned, serve every floor of the Building. Thus, any tenant may place his mail in one of these chutes and have it taken to the Post Ofifice within half an hour afterward. Sixteen hundred and fifty telephones are in service throughout the Building, a greater number than is used in a city of 20,ooo inhabitants. The average daily tral^c is 24,000 calls, totaling 6,677,400 messages per year. Frequently visitors to the Oljservatiun Gallery and others ask interesting questions with regard to the means which have been devised to make a building of this height entirely safe before the elements. As a matter of general informa- tion it may be said that, regardless of its supreme height, the structure is quite as safe as the Rock of Gibraltar, and the following facts will probably be of interest to those ^\•ho read them: The foundations for all columns are carried down to solid Ix-d rock l)y means of concrete piers sunk by the pneu- matic caisson process, which consists of sinking metal tubes of the size required for the finished piers. Some of these are 19 feet in diameter. In sinking these metal tubes water was encountered and the pneumatic process had to be resorted to, consisting of closing up the upi)er ends of the tubes by a system of air locks. The interiors were filled with air under pressure, equivalent to the water pressure outside, and this pre\(nl((l the water from entering at ?ii WEST SIDE OF MR. WOOLWORTII'S PRIVATE OFFICE COMMANDING A SUPERB VIEW OF THE HUDSON RUHR AND THE GREAT HARBOR OF NEW YORK the bottom, thereby affording workmen access to the exterior so as to excavate and remove the soiL Upon reaching the solid rock the tube was gradually filled with concrete, the top removed and the filling completed, lea\ing solid concrete piers for the steel columns of the Building to rest upon. The caissons under this Building average no feet long below the side- walk, and there are 69 of these with a combined length of approximately 5,000 feet, all carried down to bed rock. The total load on the rock at the base of the caissons was assumed to be 24 tons per square foot. There is no possibility of the Building rocking in the slightest degree, because the dead load on any of the columns is greater than the maximum uplift due to wind pressure on the Building. The Building's Aveight above the cais.sons is estimated to be 223,000 tons, including allowance for wind pressure. The wind pressure was carefully studied, and it may be safely stated that a hurricane, blowing at 200 miles per hour, would not damage the framework of this Building in any way. Winds of such velocity are, of course, unknown. It is also a fact that no wind ever obscrAcd in this latitude would have the slightest effect upon the Building. At the very top, where scientific obser\"a- tions have been made, no vibration whatever was detected. The Tower is braced to take care of wind strains by a system of portal braces like those used at the ends of bridges. These braces occur in all stories, so that wind m blowing at any floor level is transmitted through the braces to the floors below successively until it reaches the foundation. This form of bracing is unusual in building construction, but it was considered by far the best solution of the difficult engineering problem in hand. The copper roofs on the Tower and on the main building are connected by means of copper cables with the Building's structural steelwork, thereby grounding the structure and producing a result similar to the ordinary lightning conductor. Thus, the Building is safe even during severe lightning storms. No description of the Woolworth Building is complete without a word concerning that vitally important feature called SERVICE, a feature, perhaps, more important than all others to tenants. Every possible need of the tenant is anticipated and cared for promptly, courteously, efficiently. The smooth- running organization, planned and developed as it has been along depart- mental lines, as in a great railway system, has, for example, its F"ire, Police, Cleaning, Repair and Maintenance Departments, on duty night and day, always, each Avorking with rigid alertness and fidelity. The Building contains nearly 30 acres of floor space, yet this \ast area is cleaned — yes, and thoroughly — every single day, but not during business hours when such work would dis- turb the tenants. The 5,000 or more windows throughout the Building are cleaned once c\'erv week and more often when storms make it necessar\-. The work of the Night Watchmen, who make hourly pa- trols of the entire Building, and of the Police Force, is especially important to tenants, because it insures the absolute security of their property during closed hours and prevents interruption and annoyance, dur- ing business hours, of a kind cf)nmionly experienced in office buildings. Substantially all of the repair work — and this is a vast item — is executed by the Building's mechanical forces, which include, among others, the Electrical, Plumbing, Heating and Elevator Maintenance De- partments, all operating coordinately and under com- petent heads. Even the tools required to perform special classes of work are made by the house mechan- ics, and the Building may be said to be self-contained. Absolute cooperation exists among all departments, and, to a man, the 250 odd employees are trained to serve. They go about their work determined to sat- isfy and please every tenant from the largest to the smallest uniformly, knowing, as they do, that upon that altogether the success of the great institution depends. The Woolworth Building has been called "A Cathedra! of Commerce" — a monument to small things, but it is even more — it is the colossal and enduring gift to civilization of a true-born, patriotic American, Frank W. Woolworth, and it stands unique in the history of great buildings throughout the world in that it is without a mortgage or dollar of indebted- ness. Mr. \\^oolworth paid for this gigantic structure from start to rtnish from his own resources, accumu- lated through his business sagacity in establishing an entirely new line of merchandising through retail stores handling only five and ten cent goods. This wonderful enterprise, starting from one small store in 1879, has grown to a $65,000,000 corporation, oper- ating over 870 stores throughout the United States, Canada, and Great Britain, with combined sales ex- ceeding $80,000,000 in 191 5 — the largest retail busi- ness in the world. Thus the name Frank W. W^oolworth has been indelibly inscribed throughout the length and breadth of our land and abroad, and the Woolworth Building, symbolizing, as it truly does, the crowning achievement of a career of usefulness toward mankind, will long herald the march of progress down through the corridors of lime. UCSB LIBRARY University of California SOUTHERN REGIONAL LIBRARY FACILITY 305 De Neve Drive - Parking Lot 17 • Box 951388 LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA 90095-1388 Return this material to the library from which it was borrowed. PSD 2339 9/77 inHEHrjMf.',)ONAI ilttHAH- 'l-<. D 000 309 123 8 Univeri Soul Lit