Old World Building Ruins, Park Row

Ruins of the old World Building , destroyed by fire on January 31, 1882, seen from the old Post Office on Park Row. Source: Photographic views of New York City from the collections of the New York Public Library.

The old World Building, located at 37 Park Row, was erected in 1857 as Park Building and housed offices of some companies, specially of the publishing industry, like the newspaper New York World, established in 1860, the Scientific American, the Observer and others. The World had left the building months before the fire.

The fire partially damaged other buildings around it, like the Times Building on the left. The Morse Building, erected from 1878 to 1880, is in the background on Nassau Street. The present Potter Building was erected on the site, from 1883 to June 1886.

The New York World built its skyscraper on the corner of Frankfort Street from 1888 to 1890, then the tallest building in New York City.