The Singer Building

Perhaps it's my age.  Perhaps it's my mother making clothes for the family on her sewing machine.  For whatever reason, say Singer and I think of the sewing machine company.

The Singer Building in New York City was designed by architect Ernest Flagg.  It was completed in 1908 and for two years at, 47 stories and 612 feet high, was the tallest building in the world.  The Singer Building has another interesting distinction.  In 1967 it became the tallest building to be torn down.  It seems it's extraordinarily difficult to raze really tall building, which might explain why there are so many old, ugly skyscrapers in cities all over the planet.  (Perhaps, they'll be our version of the great pyramids.)  Before the destruction of the  twin towers of The World Trade Center, the Singer Building remained  the tallest building razed and is still the tallest to be razed voluntarily.

Printed on the back, "SINGER BUILDING and part of the financial district, New York City.  Singer Building located on the corner of Broadway and Liberty Streets is 47 stories high rising to a total height of 612 feet.  In it are 5,000 tenants who are carried to their offices by 16 Otis traction elevators.  The foundations consist of 36 caissons sunk to bedrock 92 feet below the surface.  Built by the Singer Mfg. Co."  This card was published by The Manhattan Post Card Company and credits Irving Underhill as the photographer.  Irving Underhill was a prominent commercial photographer in New York City specializing in urban and marine landscapes.  He was born in 1872 and died in 1960.  Underhill provided photographs for postcards and book and magazine illustrations.