Hotel St. Germain ca. 1855 Though now long gone, the Hotel St. Germain certainly attracted some attention when it was built in 1855, especially when compared to the nearby stately Fifth Avenue Hotel. An 1862 Vanity Fair recounted a particularly critical exchange "What started that horse to run away?” asked the Architect. “I don’t know sir, he took fright up at the St. Germain Hotel.” “Took fright at the St. Germain? Sensible horse. I don’t wonder!” replied the Architect. This short exchange sums up the public's feelings about the Hotel St. Germain and it was eventually demolished by real estate investor Amos Eno to make way for better-loved buildings (though not that better-loved since they too were demolished around the turn of the century for the Flatiron Building).

Flatiron Building 175 Fifth Avenue, 1901-1903 Architect: Daniel H. Burnham Developer, Structural Engineer, MEP Engineer, General Contractor, Original Owner & Tenant: George A. Fuller Construction Co. Current Owner: Flatiron Associates Current Tenant: St. Martins Press, Springer-Verlag Inc. Height: 285 ft / 87 m Floors: 21 The Flatiron Building, also called the Fuller Building, stands at 175 Fifth Avenue, at the intersection of 23rd Street, Fifth Avenue and Broadway. The client was Fuller Construction Co., who also built the 22-story, steel-framed triangular shaped building clad in limestone and terra-cotta. The eclectic decoration borrows form Greek, Gothic and Renaissance traditions. It is often mistakenly described as of the first skyscrapers or first steel-framed buildings. It is more aptly described as one of the first Chicago-style tall buildings in Manhattan with its unbroken, columnar block with a distinct base, shaft and capital instead of the more traditional New York-style skyscraper which features a tower rising above the building. The Flat Iron Building is 285 feet tall, but the rounded corner, like the prow of a ship featured in this view, is only 6 feet wide. When it was under construction it was nicknamed "Burnham's Folly" since its triangular shape was considered unsafe. Gawkers used to dawdle in front of the building to watch as the drafts created by the building lifted women's skirts as they passed. This is said to be the origin of the phrase "23 Skidoo" which police officers would shout out to disperse the gawkers. The entrances to the Flat Iron are in the middle of the long facades which houses retail space and elevator banks. When it opened, the building had an electric generator to provide its own electricity and heating and an early type of hydraulic elevator. There were no designated ladies' rooms since the restrooms of alternate floors were assigned to opposite sexes. On the left is Broadway and Fifth Avenue is on the right in this view. Behind the Flat Iron on the right is the dome of the Merchants Bank of New York, 141 Fifth Avenue (Robert Maynicke, 1897) at the southeast corner of 21st Street. Barely visible to the extreme right is the tower of Sohmer Building at 170 Fifth Avenue (Robert Maynicke, 1898) on the northwest corner of 22nd Street is seen behind it. Although they are rather short, both the Sohmer Building and the Merchants Bank are typical of the New York-style tall building.

Explore Lower Midtown. Observe skyscrapers vying for height 🏙️ and glimpse the grandeur of historic hotels, theatres, and public buildings. Join the hustle and bustle of NoMad and wander the quiet, quaint blocks of Gramercy Park🌳.

23 Skidoo. Today crowds gather around the Flatiron Building to admire its architecture and place in New York history, but back in the early part of the 20th century, men gathered there for a vastly different reason. As many New Yorkers know, the Flatiron sits at the intersection of Broadway and Fifth Avenue, directly across from Madison Park; the layout of the streets and the park, combined with the building’s placement, can create gusts of wind strong enough to lift women’s skirts. Back in an era when showing any part of one’s legs was risqué, men would gather on 23rd Street hoping to catch a glimpse of a woman’s ankle or maybe even a little more. A contemporary viewer may not conclude that the man in the postcard to the left is admiring the woman’s ankle; I initially thought he was looking at her posterior, but a fellow cataloger clued me in. While it isn’t used heavily today, some say the phrase “23 skidoo” came from this phenomenon. Popular in the early part of the 20th century, getting the “23 skidoo” refers to either leaving an area quickly or being forced to leave. Apparently, the effect of the wind at this intersection was well known and crowds of men would gather in hopes of seeing some skin. As Andrew S. Dolkart in his online article Birth of the Skyscraper: Romantic Symbols describes, so many men loitered in this area that police would eventually come to 23rd Street to usher the crowd away: In the early twentieth century, men would hang out on the corner here on Twenty-third Street and watch the wind blowing women’s dresses up so that they could catch a little bit of ankle. This entered into popular culture and there are hundreds of postcards and illustrations of women with their dresses blowing up in front of the Flatiron Building.

Flatiron Building, ca. 1977. Located on a site once known as "the Cow Catcher," this building amazed New Yorkers with its dizzy, slender height as seen from the north. Actually, it was almost as sturdy as a rectangular building, though triangular in plan. The exterior treatment, overly rich to our modern eyes, was considered quite conservative in 1902 when it was designed by D.H. Burnham & Company.

Are you ready for a closeup? Try your hand at re-creating these historic photos at Madison Square Park! This challenge is only available to our iOS app users. If you don't yet have the Urban Archive App, download it here. Each location in this challenge has an address and a historic image tied to it. Check-in at each location by tapping the lock icon to the left of the clue. If you’re in the right place, it will turn green. Your challenge today is to take as many then-and-now photos as you can. Tap the image, and then the recreate button to line up the historical image with your present-day view. Once you’re happy with your photo, hit save to add it to your camera roll. Please share these photos with team@urbanarchive.nyc once you’ve completed the challenge. Happy snapping!

Flatiron Building ca. 1938 The Fuller Building, nicknamed Flatiron for its triangular shape, was built in 1902 at the scissor-like intersection of Broadway and Fifth Avenue. It was instantly famous, at first derided as an misshapen symbol of commercial greed and later extolled as an exhilarating symbol of modernity. Abbott photographed the Flatiron Building before the FAP project began and again in 1938. The first photograph, taken from the top floor of a six-story building on 25th Street, was a conventional postcard view, showing the whole building amidst bustling Madison Square traffic. The second photograph was more innovative. Standing close, Abbott pointed her camera upward, transforming the foreshortened building into an arrow soaring above its neighbors. A modern high-rise on the corner of Broadway and 23rd Street has blunted the Flatiron’s impact from afar. A 1991 cleaning of layers of soot has exposed its white limestone surface.