41 Park Row, often called the
New York Times Building is located near
New York City HallNew York City Hall is located at the center of City Hall Park in the Civic Center area of Lower Manhattan, New York City, USA, between Broadway, Park Row, and Chambers Street. The building is the oldest City Hall in the United States that still houses its original governmental functions, such as...
in the
New York CityNew York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
boroughNew York City, one of the largest cities in the world, is composed of five boroughs. Each borough now has the same boundaries as the county it is in. County governments were dissolved when the city consolidated in 1898, along with all city, town, and village governments within each county...
of
ManhattanManhattan is the oldest and the most densely populated of the five boroughs of New York City. Located primarily on the island of Manhattan at the mouth of the Hudson River, the boundaries of the borough are identical to those of New York County, an original county of the state of New York...
, was the longtime home of
The New York TimesThe New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...
, until it moved to
Longacre SquareLongacre Square in New York City, the predecessor of Times Square, Manhattan, formed a nexus of important roads to the north of the island at the intersection of 42nd Street, Bloomingdale Road and Seventh Avenue, today in Midtown Manhattan....
, now known as
Times SquareTimes Square is a major commercial intersection in the borough of Manhattan in New York City, at the junction of Broadway and Seventh Avenue and stretching from West 42nd to West 47th Streets...
. , the building still stands as the oldest of the surviving buildings of what was once "
Newspaper RowPark Row is a street located in the Financial District of the New York City borough of Manhattan. It was previously called Chatham Street and during the late 19th century it was nicknamed Newspaper Row, as most of New York City's newspapers located on the street to be close to the action at New...
" and is owned by
Pace UniversityPace University is an American private, co-educational, and comprehensive multi-campus university in the New York metropolitan area with campuses in New York City and Westchester County, New York.-Programs:...
The newspaper's first building was located at 113
Nassau StreetNassau Street is a street in the Financial District of the New York City borough of Manhattan, located near Pace University and New York City Hall. It starts at Wall Street and runs north to Frankfort Street at the foot of the Brooklyn Bridge, lying one block east of Broadway and east of Park Row...
in
New York CityNew York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
. In 1854, it moved to 138 Nassau Street, and in 1858 it moved to a building on 41 Park Row, making it the first newspaper in New York City housed in a building built specifically for its use. The original building constructed for the
Times was a five-story structure in the Romanesque revival style, designed by
Thomas R. JacksonThomas R. Jackson was an English-born American architect who rose to the position of head draftsman in the office of Richard Upjohn , one of New York's most prominent designers; in his position in Upjohn's office he was one of the designers in the construction of Trinity Church, New York. The...
, that occupied the site of the Brick Presbyterian Church. The 1851 building, located across from City Hall and dwarfing that of
Horace GreeleyHorace Greeley was an American newspaper editor, a founder of the Liberal Republican Party, a reformer, a politician, and an outspoken opponent of slavery...
's
New York TribuneThe New York Tribune was an American newspaper, first established by Horace Greeley in 1841, which was long considered one of the leading newspapers in the United States...
, was described by the
Times in 2001 as "a declaration that the newspaper regarded itself as a powerful institution in civic life.... No politician standing on the broad steps of City Hall could fail to note the newspaper's presence. And after 1871, when The Times led the crusade against the Tweed Ring, no politician could afford to ignore it."
After Greeley's
Tribune raised the stakes with a taller building of its own in the 1870s, the Times responded in 1889 with a commission for architect
George B. PostGeorge Browne Post was an American architect trained in the Beaux-Arts tradition.-Biography:Post was a student of Richard Morris Hunt , but unlike many architects of his generation, he had previously received a degree in civil engineering...
to design a grander — and taller — building at 41 Park Row to replace the existing structure. The 13-story Romanesque building, with arches carved from Maine granite and Indiana limestone, was constructed around the core of the original building. The printing presses were kept in place, and the new building constructed around it as the old one was demolished. The top floor was designated for use by the composing room to allow the printers access to more natural light. The paper was purchased by
Adolph Ochs in 1896. Under Ochs' leadership, architect
Robert MaynickeRobert Maynicke was an American architect. The New York Times called him "a pioneer in the building of modern loft buildings."...
was retained to remove the original mansard roof and add three additional stories of offices.
Five printing presses, capable of printing 12,000 newspapers an hour, were located below street level in a space that was later used by Pace University as a gym.
The building was purchased by Pace University in 1951, and has been used for classrooms and offices. 41 Park Row was granted landmark status by the
New York City Landmarks Preservation CommissionThe New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission is the New York City agency charged with administering the city's Landmarks Preservation Law. The Commission was created in April 1965 by Mayor Robert F. Wagner following the destruction of Pennsylvania Station the previous year to make way for...
in 1999. A bronze statue of
Benjamin FranklinDr. Benjamin Franklin was one of the Founding Fathers of the United States. A noted polymath, Franklin was a leading author, printer, political theorist, politician, postmaster, scientist, musician, inventor, satirist, civic activist, statesman, and diplomat...
holding a copy of his
Pennsylvania GazetteThe Pennsylvania Gazette was one of the United States' most prominent newspapers from 1728, before the time period of the American Revolution, until 1815...
stands in front of the building in Printing-House Square, currently known as 1 Pace Plaza. .