Helmsley Building

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The Helmsley Building is a 35-story building straddling Park Avenue. Before the erection of the Pan Am Building, now the MetLife Building, this building was the city's dowager queen, lording it over the city's second most prestigious avenue and marking the elegant heart of the city as it was the tallest structure in the great "Terminal City" complex around Grand Center Terminal designed by Warren & Wetmore. ^[1]

Contents 1 History 1.1 New York Central Building 1.2 New York General Building 1.3 The Helmsley Building 2 Miscellanea 3 References

[edit] History

[edit] New York Central Building

In 1929 the New York Central Railroad Company built their 34-story headquarters at 230 Park Ave., New York City, New York. In 1913 New York Central bore a concept for a visual termination point in the city. Although the original plan was to have this termination point be over New York Central's Grand Central Terminal, the concept was instead realized in the form of The New York Central Building just across the street to the north.

Before the electrification of the New York Central Railroad in 1912-1913, the neighbourhood north of Grand Central Terminal was one of open-air railway yards and tracks used by steam locomotives. The electrification and subsequent covering of the yards enabled the continuation of Park Avenue to the north and the construction of new buildings (with curious foundations) to the area, among them this one. ^[2]

[edit] New York General Building

When New York Central sold the building, Harry Helmsley renamed the building to New York General Building. The building was easily renamed as the "C" and "T" in Central were masterfully chiseled into "G" and "E" respectively.

[edit] The Helmsley Building

Later, Leona Helmsley once again renamed the building The Helmsley Building in what may be the final name for this grand building. The deal in which the ownership of this 2.3 million sq ft building, which was owned by the Helmsley-Spear Management until August 1998, changed hands stipulated that the building would only be sold under the condition that the building would officially remain as a Helmsley namesake. The building is now owned by Max Capital who purchased it for $253 million.^[3]

[edit] Miscellanea

On September 10, 1931, capo de tutti capi Salvatore Maranzano was murdered in his ninth-floor office here by hitmen sent by Lucky Luciano and Vito Genovese, ambitious underlings whom Maranzano had hired Vincent "Mad Dog" Coll to kill. ^[4]

[edit] References