New York's LOST Pulitzer Tower | The Rise and Fall of The World Building – IT'S HISTORY



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Once the tallest building in New York City and the tallest office building in the world, the World Building of New York is no longer present in its skyline. Officially known as the Pulitzer Building, named for the same man as the Pulitzer Prize in Journalism, this building had an extensive history despite being wiped from the map. Tied to both the American Civil War and the Second World War, one can feel its presence over decades, and it still has reverberations to this day.

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IT’S HISTORY – Weekly tales of American Urban Decay as presented by your host Ryan Socash.

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» CREDIT
Scriptwriter – Gregory Back
Editor – Rishi Mittal
Host – Ryan Socash
Production Support – Imana Schoch
Sponsor – Squarespace

Chapters:
0:00 – The Rise of The World Tower
1:04 – The Man Behind the World Building (Joseph Pulitzer)
2:11 – Joseph Pulitzer joined the American Civil War
3:28 – Pulitzer’s Journalism in America
5:56 – The History of Newspaper Row and the World Building
8:27 – A Word from Our Sponsor – Squarespace
9:45 – The World Building’s Heights
11:32 – Inside the Pulitzer Building
13:27 – The World buildings Dome and Room Usage
15:32 – What was in the basement of the World Building?
18:00 – Decline of the World Newspaper
18:54 – The Pulitzer Building in WWII
20:36 – The demolition of New York’s World Building

» SOURCES
https://www.facebook.com/groups/itshistory/

» NOTICE
Some images may be used for illustrative purposes only – always reflecting the accurate time frame and content. Events of factual error / mispronounced word/spelling mistakes – retractions will be published in this section.

31 thoughts on “New York's LOST Pulitzer Tower | The Rise and Fall of The World Building – IT'S HISTORY”

  2. NYC is notorious for replacing beautiful architecture with drab, soulless super-tall glass and concrete towers. It's a wonder the Woolworth Building and Grand Central Station are still standing. The destruction really began in earnest in the 1960's. In fact, most cities around the world have become look-alikes – like science fiction backdrops or rat warrens. Except for visiting some museums and a few pockets of charm like Greenwich Village and Central Park, I've no desire to visit NYC again.

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  6. While I appreciate its history, I've never liked the World Building. It looks as if someone had taken any of the country's neo-classical/Beaux Arts state capitols and put it in a girdle.

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  10. The "Civil" War was not about slavery! I'm so sick of hearing this bullshit! It was the War of Secession, the south wanted to secede from the Union, which they had every right. But according to Dictator Lincoln it was not going to happen. The atrocities of Lincoln against the south were reprehensible. He should have hanged, however he got his just desserts!

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  12. How convenient that all the people who knew the truth are dead… Fairy tales come closer to the truth, than history books do!
    On these old pictures the buildings were already very old…

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  16. I am sad this building and the Singer survived WW2 and were later – trashed away. I had some confusion of the location of this building and some neighbors! None of old pictures showing City Hall and Newspapers Row help; I had no idea the original approach to Brooklyn Bridge must have been steeper. I thought perhaps World Bldg was on the site of plaza in front of Pace U. but there is an 'extra block' to account for!

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  21. Use some critical thinking skills here. The story does not add up. Not even close.
    Who is actually buying this story?
    It's obvious they did not possess the capabilities to build such a building at that time, at that pace. Those pictures are not of a brand new building, those are of an old & weathered building. Give me a break
    When they say a building was 'Founded in (insert year)', that's exactly what happened. They Found the building, it was already there. Someone else built it, not in the late 1800s that's for sure.
    Just as all buildings that look like that in this realm/country/world. spruced it up a little bit, and claimed that they built it.
    There's no good construction photos in that video are there? Of course not. Drawings. That's what we get, drawings. And maybe yè oldé ladder lean.
    They built that building how fast? With basements that were how tall? And the dome that was how high? With what kind of equipment & construction technology?
    They don't build stuff like that today, who actually thinks they could build it back then.
    What a joke.

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  24. "Just a decade into the turn of the century the New York World had reached its zenith. It was only downhill from there. The paper began decliing in the 1910s and the 1920s but their news did not slow down. In an effort to increase circulation the paper shifted its focus to more provocative and radical topics. And although this type of journalism did not attract more readership, it did attract the attention of some pretty scary figures in America as a result. Armed guards and police were stationed outside of the building around the clock as the paper continued its descent into obscurity. Nothing could save the World, and hence the paper met its disillusion in 1931."

    Not sure about your facts. Decline during the 1910s and 1920s?? Writer Heywood Broun created the concept of the op-ed section of the newspaper, making the World one of the most popular papers in New York until he was unceremoniously fired for his editorials supporting Sacco and Vanzetti (this, in 1928). It was a direct result of this firing that the number of people reading the World decreased, and they had to sell to their competitor.

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  27. Agree one hundred percent with the commentator. New york has lost so much of its extraordinary structures, like Penn Station, the Produce Exchange, Ernest Flagg's Singer Building, to be replaced with overblown, drab, and mediocre monstrosities. The process continues, with the historic Pennsylvania Hotel, presently biting the dust. New York is hell bent on transforming itself to just another global city, with the same global ethos. Glad I remember how the city once was.

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