1.5 - New York Herald Building

World's Biggest Newspaper One Block from World's Biggest Store

If Macy’s was the biggest department store, just across 34th Street from the Astaires’ hotel, another block north they could have seen the printing press for the world’s largest newspaper, which had given Herald Square its name. The New York Herald’s storied history included financing Henry Stanley’s expedition to find David Livingstone in Africa and the 1874 Central Park Zoo Escape hoax (a fully fabricated front-page story claiming that a rhinoceros, polar bear, lion and tiger had escaped from the Central Park Zoo and mauled and killed numerous people). The newspaper had helped start the commercial uptown migration when it moved in 1893 from its downtown location near City Hall to 35^th Street between Broadway and Sixth Avenue.

James G. Bennett Jr., who had taken over control of the newspaper from his father in 1866, hired famed architect Sanford White of McKim, Mead & White to design the new building.  White modeled the newspaper building on the 1476 Italian Renaissance Palazzo del Consiglio in Verona and adorned it with marble arcades with polished granite columns, elaborate terra-cotta designs, and plate-glass windows (Dunlap 150).

New York Directory. New York, 1910: 108/ <http://hdl.handle.net/2027/nnc2.ark:/13960/t7mp7mx0d>

Atop the center of the roof facing 35^th Street was a statue of Minerva, the Greek goddess of wisdom, and below her on either side of a deep-tone bell were two mechanical bronze typesetters wearing leather printers’ aprons. Nicknamed Stuff and Guff, they swung their mallets against the bell on the hour.  Spaced along the roof line were 26 four-foot bronze owls, another symbol of wisdom. The birds at the corners facing 35^th street had spread wings and green glass eyes that glowed on and off when the bell tolled the hour. The sculptural group was executed by French artist Antonin Jean Paul Charles for a commission of $250,000.  The clock first tolled at noon on March 21, 1895, and attracted a large crowd (Miller). In the evening crowds would continue gathering at the Sixth Avenue windows to watch the preparation of the press plates and then at the Broadway windows to see the plates fastened to the press cylinders and the actual printing and folding of the newspapers at the rate of 150,000 per hour (New York Directory 108).

Irma and Paul Milstein Division of United States History, Local History and Genealogy, The New York Public Library. "West 34th Street - Broadway (Herald Square)" The New York Public Library Digital Collections. 1887 - 1964. http://digitalcollections.nypl.org/items/510d47e2-c301-a3d9-e040-e00a18064a99

The Herald occupied this space until it moved north to 41^st street.  The northern portion building was demolished in 1921, and the New York Tribune acquired the newspaper in 1924 to become the New York Herald Tribune, which in turn ceased publication in 1966. The southern portion of the building, facing 35^th Street, became the Rogers Peet clothing store, until it was demolished in 1940. The name Herald Square persists, as do several adornments from the original building. The Minerva statue, the bell ringers, and several of the owls, including those with the flashing green eyes, can be found on the northern end of Herald Square around a granite monument to the Bennetts.

SOURCES

Dunlap, David. On Broadway: A Journey Uptown Over Time. New York: Rizzolli International Publications, 1990.

Miller Tom. The Lost New York Herald Building - Herald Square. November 2012. 16 February 2019. <http://daytoninmanhattan.blogspot.com/2012/11/the-lost-new-york-herald-building.html>.

New York Directory. New York, 1910. <http://hdl.handle.net/2027/nnc2.ark:/13960/t7mp7mx0d>