Landmarks Preservation Commission October 7, 1986; Designation List 186 LP-1539 THE CENTURY BUILDING, 33 East 17th Street and 38-46 East 18th Street, Borough of Manhattan. Built 1880-1881; architect William Schickel. Landmark Site: Borough of Manhattan Tax Map Block 846, Lot 30. On May 14, 1985, the Landmarks Preservation Corrmission held a public hearing on the proposed designation as a Landmark of The Century Building, and the proposed designation of the related Landmark Site (Item No. 5). The hearing had been duly advertised in accordance with the provisions of law. Thirty witnesses spoke in favor of designation. Two witnesses spoke in opposition to designation. The Commission has received many letters and other expressions of support in favor of this designation. DESCRIPTION AND ANALYSIS The Century Building is a rare surviving Queen Anne style corrmercial building in New York City. Designed by William Schickel and built in 1880- 81, it has been a major presence in Union Square for over a century. Schickel, a German-born architect who practiced in New York, rose to prominence as a leading late-19th century designer of churches and institutional buildings in the United States. He designed the Century Building as a speculative venture for his major clients, the owners of the Arnold Constable department stores. Schickel designed the Century Building in the Queen Anne style, an English import defined by a picturesque use of 17th- and 18th-century motifs. More usually associated in this country with residential architecture, the Queen Anne was also used in commercial buildings, but few of these survive in New York City. The Century is an unusually handsome example of the Queen Anne, notable particularly for its richly carved stonework, its two-story oriel window, its gambrel roof framed by massive chimney stacks, and its terra-cotta details including sunflowers, the trademark of the style. For over three decades the building housed the Century Publishing Company, publishers of the Century and St. Nicholas magazines. The Century was considered by many critics to be one of the finest general periodicals in the world during the last two decades of the 19th century. Today, the Century Building survives as one of the most picturesque structures in New York, and is a physical reminder of one of New York's 19th-century literary giants. 1

The Development of Union Square At the beginning of the 19th century as New York entered a period of expansion that would lead to its emergence as the largest and richest city in the country, it was realized that some means was needed to control growth and clearly establish property boundaries so that titles could be transferred. Accordingly in 1807, the New York State Legislature appointed a commission to survey the city north of present-day Houston Street and to lay out streets, roads, and public squares.1 Although the new streets were generally planned in a rectangular grid, certain established roads were al lowed to retain their traditional orientation. John Randal 1, Jr., chief surveyor for the Commission, recalled that at the time of the survey, the Bowery met Broadway at 16th Street forming an acute angle "which when further intersected by the streets crossing it left so small an amount of ground for building purposes that the corrmissioners instructed me to lay out the ground, at the Union of those streets and roads, for a public square, which from that circumstance they named Union Place." 2 Initially Union Place extended from 10th to 17th Streets. However, city officials soon objected to keeping so much potentially valuable real estate undevelol?jd and untaxed and in 1812 recommended that Union Place be "discountinued." The state legislature did not go so far, but did reduce the size of the area in 1814. 4 Then, as the city expanded northward and land use intensified, the need for open spaces became apparent. In 1831, at the urging of local residents, Union Place was set aside as a public s

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