Western Union Telegraph Building
The Western Union Telegraph Building was a building at Dey Street and Broadway in the Financial District of Manhattan, New York City. It was designed by the architect George B. Post, and completed in 1875. The building served as headquarters for the Western Union telegraph company from 1875 until its destruction by fire in 1890, and was subsequently rebuilt in 1892 to designs by Henry Janeway Hardenbergh. The building was ten stories tall, rising to a height of. It provided workspace for 100 telegraph operators and was staffed 24 hours a day.
The building was topped by a clock tower, and some claim that this building was the first skyscraper in New York City. Beginning in 1877, a time ball was dropped from the top of the building at exactly noon, triggered by a telegraph from the National Observatory in Washington, D.C. This system, invented by George May Phelps, was later used as the initial reference for Standard railway time in 1883, and would stay in use until 1912. The building's time ball would serve as an inspiration for One Times Square's New Year's Eve "ball drop", first held on December 31, 1907.
The building was demolished from 1912 through 1914. It was replaced with the taller AT&T Headquarters at 195 Broadway. The Western Union Building annex at 14-18 Dey Street was demolished in 1912, and Western Union employees moved out of the old building to a new structure at 32 Avenue of the Americas in June 1914. The new AT&T headquarters was completed in 1916.
