
New York’s First Skyscraper Fire (1898)
THE FIRST OF OUR LOFTY BUILDINGS TO BE
SUBJECTED TO FLAMES
(Frank Leslies Weekly/December 22, 1898) No fire in years has attracted more attention in New York City and throughout the country than the one which occurred on December 5th, on Broadway and Warren Street, and destroyed a clothing store and damaged the Home Life Insurance building. The fire is not a notable one because of fatalities connected with it, nor because of the damage done, although that amounted, in round numbers, to a million dollars. This particular blaze will stand out in the history of modern conflagrations, because it was the first to put a so-called absolutely fire-proof building to the test. The “sky-scraper” has been “tried by fire,” and some problems which the fire department and insurance companies had been speculating about ever since the sky-scraper became a leading feature of the city’s architecture have been elucidated.