New York Crystal Palace
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New York Crystal Palace designed by Karl Gildemeister. The image is an 'oil-color' plate by George Baxter, London, dated 1 September 1853

New York Crystal Palace was an exhibition building constructed for the Exhibition of the Industry of All Nations in New York City in 1853. The building stood in Reservoir Square and was originally built for the World's Fair held in the summer of 1853.

The building was directly inspired by The Crystal Palace built in London's Hyde Park to house the Great Exhibition of 1851.

New York's 1853 Exhibition was held on on a site behind the Croton Distributing Reservoir, between Fifth and Sixth Avenues on 42nd Street (today's Bryant Park). The building was designed by Georg Carstensen and German architect Charles Gildemeister in the shape of a Greek cross.

The New York Crystal Palace was crowned by a dome 100 feet in diameter and, like the original Crystal Palace, was constructed from iron and glass.

Elisha Otis demonstrated the safety elevator, which prevented the fall of the cab if the cable broke, at the Crystal Palace in 1854.^[1]

In 1854 another building directly inspired by The Crystal Palace, the Glaspalast in Munich, was inaugurated.

The New York Crystal Palace was destroyed by fire on 5 October 1858. When it burned the fair of the American Institute was being held there. The fire began in a lumber room on the side adjacent to 42nd Street. Within fifteen minutes its dome fell and in twenty-five minutes the entire structure had burned to the ground. No lives were lost but the loss of property amounted to more than $350,000. This included the building, valued at $125,000, and exhibits and valuable statuary remaining from the World's Fair.^[2]

References

• Carstensen & Gildemeister, New York Crystal Palace: illustrated description of the building by Geo. Carstensen & Chs. Gildemeister, architects of the building ; with an oil-color exterior view, and six large plates containing plans, elevations, sections, and details, from the working drawings of the architects (New York: Riker, Thorne & co., 1854)

External links

• New York Crystal Palace information
• History of Bryant Park

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