On this day in New York · July 14, 1853
New York Opens Its Crystal Palace
A dome of iron and glass rose behind the Croton reservoir, and a sitting president came to open America's first world's fair on the ground that is now Bryant Park.
The facts
- Date
- July 14, 1853
- Location
- Behind the Croton Reservoir at 42nd Street, now Bryant Park, Manhattan
- Structure
- An iron-and-glass palace on a Greek-cross plan, topped by a 100-foot dome
- Fate
- Destroyed by fire on October 5, 1858
On July 14, 1853, President Franklin Pierce opened the Exhibition of the Industry of All Nations inside a soaring palace of iron and glass at what is now Bryant Park, behind the old Croton Distributing Reservoir on 42nd Street. Modeled on London's Crystal Palace of 1851, the New York version took the shape of a Greek cross and was crowned by a dome one hundred feet across. Thousands of exhibitors from two dozen nations showed off machines, sculpture, and manufactured goods to a city hungry to prove it belonged among the world's capitals. Elisha Otis would demonstrate his safety elevator on the grounds. The building burned down one October afternoon in 1858, its dome collapsing within fifteen minutes.
In their words
The day in the words of the people who were there. Every quote is verbatim, and every source links out so you can check it.
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President Franklin Pierce spoke at the dedication on July 14, 1853
New York Crystal Palace, Wikipedia
Source: New York Crystal Palace, Wikipedia
Why it still matters
The Crystal Palace announced New York's ambition to be a world city and not just a port, and its grounds became Bryant Park and the site of the New York Public Library. Otis's safety elevator, shown off here, is the invention that made the skyscraper possible, which is the shape New York reached for next.
Sources
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