Lost Buildings of New York City

A week after the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Centre in New York, I began my mid-semester study break and decided to get my papers in order. I am not the fastest cleaner: I like to look through all my things before deciding what to do with it. I found a folder of newspaper and magazine clippings I have kept, and was browsing through them before putting them back (some cleaning effort!).

I found an article from Time Out New York, an April 1999 issue, on “Lost New York.” In the light of the recent loss of a major landmark building in New York City, this article seemed very poignant. It is all about the many magnificent buildings and public areas that have disappeared from New York City for one reason or another, some through urban development, and some through disaster. It made me realise that the loss of iconic buildings is not new to the city, and although I think we will miss the Twin Towers and many still miss the old Penn Station, New York will soon come up with equally spectacular replacements.

One extraordinary building was opened in 1853. It was the Crystal Palace, and it housed the U.S.’s first World Fair for two years running. Made of glass and cast iron, it had high arched ceilings, domes on pendentives, and interior balconies lining the magnificent hall. The building was immensely popular with visitors, but was short-lived. What was considered a fire-proof building, being made of glass and iron, in fact burned down in October 1858. Within fifteen minutes of the fire starting in a storage room, the whole building had burned to the ground. People blamed the wooden floors, but glass and cast iron are not in fact fire-proof. They do not burn, but intense heat will cause cracks and buckling in both materials: the wooden floors served as fuel for the flames, which destroyed the entire structure. The old site of the Crystal Palace was rebuilt in 1884 as Bryant Park, a huge public area behind the public library on 42nd Street, between Fifth and Sixth Avenues. This is right where my first workplace in New York was, and I often used to have lunch there. It is a lovely spot (now that they have cleaned it up), but I do wonder what that Crystal Palace would have been like. I am sure it would have been quite extraordinary in the winter, something like an ice palace, but I am not sure I would have liked to visit in the humid days of New York’s summer.

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