Metropolitan Life Tower, Madison Square

The Metropolitan Life Tower and Madison Square. Photograph by Detroit Publishing Co., publisher. Source: Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division.

The 48-story Metropolitan Life Tower, completed in 1909. This 700-foot tower, with its beacon, gigantic four-dial clock, and monstrous McNeely bells, was the symbol of the Metropolitan Life Insurance Company for decades. For 4 years, until completion of the Woolworth Building in 1913, this tower was the tallest masonry and steel structure in the world, and it remains a prominent feature of the New York skyline. It was designed by Pierre and Michel Le Brun and completed by John R. Hegeman. It is patterned after the famous bell tower of St. Mark's Cathedral in Venice.

The tower underwent refurbishing in the 1960s, and while it surrendered necessarily some of its disintegrating Tuckahoe marble trim, it retained its original form and general appearance. In 1981, MetLife bought the Pan Am Building at 200 Park Avenue and it became the MetLife Building. The Met Life Tower was sold to Africa Israel Investments in 2007.