Scribner Building

You are standing before the old Scribner Building, a landmark of the Flatiron District completed in eighteen ninety-three. It was designed by the architect Ernest Flagg as the headquarters for Charles Scribner’s Sons, and it holds the distinction of being thought of as the first building in the United States constructed specifically for the use of a publishing house. At the time, the building was considered a masterpiece of Beaux-Arts architecture. Its limestone facade is still decorated with intricate Renaissance details, including two small cherubs holding banners above the entrance. For many years, the ground floor housed a grand bookstore, sheltered by an elegant glass marquee that signaled the presence of one of the most prominent publishers in the country. The building served as the creative home for the firm until nineteen thirteen, when the company outgrew the space and moved further uptown to a new headquarters. In later decades, the structure found a different purpose, serving for many years as the headquarters for the United Synagogue of America. It remains a rare, well-preserved window into a time when the surrounding blocks were the center of New York City’s bustling publishing industry.