Page 1 Page 2 Page 3 Page 4 Page 5 Page 6 Page 7 Page 8 Page 9 Page 10 Page 11 Page 12 Page 13 Page 14 Page 15 Page 16 Page 17 Page 18 Page 19 Page 20 Page 21 Page 22 Page 23 Page 24 Page 25 Page 26 Page 27 Page 28 Page 29 Page 30 Page 31 Page 32 Page 33 Page 34 Page 35 Page 36 Page 37 Page 38 Page 39 Page 40 Page 41 Page 42 Page 43 Page 44 Page 45 Page 46 Page 47 Page 48 Page 49 Page 50 Page 51 Page 52 Page 53 Page 54 Page 55 Page 56The 1886 Potter Building sits on Park Row and Beekman Street across from City Hall Park, its redbrick, terra cotta, and cast-iron rising up eleven floors. It grabs your attention with its strong colors, rich detail, and busy roofline. All that red piled atop that heavy black base. The cast-iron drapery surrounding the lower floors was designed as fire protection. The red- brick and terra cotta forming the thick exte- rior walls were chosen for their fireproof quali- ties. That they were in- expensive and could be beautifully detailed was a nice bonus, but fire- proofing was para- mount. Even the interior— the iron column-and- beam cage that supports the floors and stairs—was designed to that end. In fact, the owner had vowed to use the most advanced materials available to construct a building “absolutely fireproof inside as well as out- side.” Orlando Potter had good reason to—his reputation. You see, this structure was built on the ashes of Potter’s 1857 World Building. While fire was not an uncommon end for a mid-century wood-interior office building, this one spread so quickly it got noticed. Fireman’s Herald reported that the building had “made itself notorious the country over for burning up in the shortest time on record.” A messenger had spotted the smoke through a freezing Jan- uary snowstorm at ten p.m. The first of fourteen fire engines ar- rived within three minutes of the alarm, but it was already clear the World Building could not be saved. Many tenants were newspaper and magazine publishers— in an era when most printing was done on the premises. The fire, fueled by chemicals and paper stored on site, spread quickly through the five floors, climbing and engulfing the only stairway, trapping those on the upper floors. Rescue ladders reached only to the third floor, however, so some of the trapped chose to jump, while others slipped back into the flames. And while many were rescued by firemen, some of whom tethered ladders to- gether for a longer reach, by dawn it was discovered that twelve lives had been lost. Though the cause re- mains a mystery, it was reported that Potter him- self had discovered and extinguished—but never reported—a small fire in the building the day before. It is thought that the tragic fire was a rekindling of that earlier one. Cleared of wrongdoing but feeling responsible nonetheless, Potter rebuilt almost immediately, determined to construct the most fireproof building in the world. In doing so, Potter also left us a notable example of the “tall office building,” a building type that paved the way for New York’s true skyscrapers. In a true skyscraper, thin curtain walls hang from an interior metal frame. The Potter Build- ing’s thick walls rise a hundred feet independent of the metal frame and support their own weight. Take note of those four-foot-thick walls—deep enough to define seating areas—the next time you stop into the Starbucks on Beekman Street and Park Row. Park Row was the center of New York City’s newspaper publishing indus- try. The five-story building of the New York World had been built in 1857. During an 1882 winter storm fire broke out and within minutes the building was doomed. Here and There, Then and Now THE POTTER BUILDING ON PARK ROW POTTER’S EARLIER BUILDING EARNED THE UNENVIABLE NOTORIETY OF BURNING TO THE GROUND IN THE SHORTEST TIME ON RECORD