New York Times Building, Printing House Square

This 13-story early skyscraper was completed in April 1889 on the site of the first New York Times Building, completed in 1858 at 41 Park Row. It was expanded to a 16-story building in 1904, the same year the newspaper was construction its new headquarters in Times Square. Below, text from the Harper's magazine that accompanies the image above:

« THE NEW YORK “TIMES.”

ITS HISTORY

THE history of the New York Times since the appearance of the first number, September 18, 1851, affords a striking illustration of the persistency in a public journal of the characteristics impressed upon it by its founders, in spite of changes in the personal force through which its work is done. It trains generations of men in its service, and through their selection and discipline preserves its traditions and its individuality. The founders of the New York Times were HENRY J. RAYMOND and GEORGE JONES, the former being its first editor, and the latter having been its publisher and financial manager from the day of its starting to the present time. The enterprise was due to the sagacity of these men in recognizing the field that was then open for a vigorous journal of an independent and out- spoken character, and the intelligence and energy displayed in filling it. The reward came in immediate and continuous success. At that time the Whig press of New York was upholding the policy of compromise and concession on the slavery question, with the exception of the Tribune, whose radicalism ran to extremes, and whose influence was impaired by the vagaries of Fourierism. The prospectus of the Times declared that it would be devoted to principles that were “held by the great Whig party of the United States more nearly than by any other political organization,” which suggested an attitude of independent criticism, then unusual, and ever since characteristic of the course of that newspaper. In the opening editorial article of the first number, in answer to allegations which had been made as to its purposes, it said: “We shall be conservative in all cases where we think conservatism essential to the public good; and we shall be radical in everything which may seem to us to require radical treatment and radical reform.”

This defines with sufficient clearness the position which the new paper took in the journalism of the time when the great agitations between North and South, between slavery and free-soil, were taking shape, in which the Whig party was shaken to pieces and the Republican party built up. It started as a one-cent sheet of four pages, each consisting of six narrow columns. It was so thoroughly established in one year that it felt justified in doubling its size and its price to enable it to fulfil its promise of being “the best family newspaper in New York.” Among the first events which gave it an opportunity to display at once its enterprise and its broad sympathies was the visit of LOUIS KOSSUTH to this country. When the Hungarian patriot was exciting an intense popular interest, the Times followed up his mission with full reports of his speeches and sympathetic support of the purpose of his visit. At the Whig Convention of 1852 Mr. RAYMOND was present in the interest of his newspaper, and was chosen by the chairman of the New York delegation to fill a vacancy. His vigorous despatches, telegraphed back to Baltimore, had much to do with deciding the action of the Convention in favor of General Scott and his Northern supporters, and against the schemes of the Southern advocates of FILLMORE, though the candidate previously favored by the Times had been DANIEL WEBSTER. The paper took a decided stand against the Know-Nothing movement, and predicted its speedy destruction through the efforts of the pro-slavery forces to get possession of it. It took a conspicuous part in the opposition to the repeal of the Missouri Compromise and the passage of the Kansas-Nebraska Act, and found itself by the force of its impulses a leader in the movement for the forming of a new party of freedom. The address to the people of the United States of the Free-soil Convention at Pittsburgh in 1855 was written by Mr. RAYMOND, and when the Republican party was fully organized, and had put its first candidates in the field, the Times had been brought to its hearty support by the logic of its course from the start. It was thenceforth one of the boldest and most vigorous opponents of the aggressions of the slave power, while continuing to hold that there could be no interference with slavery in the States where it was established. It vigorously attacked the reasoning and the conclusions of the DRED SCOTT decision, but held that the authority of the Supreme Court was not to be questioned, and what it held to be law must be respected as such.

In the mean time the Times had won a reputation for the fulness and variety of its news second to that of no other New York newspaper, and had made a special feature of foreign correspondence. The letters printed during the Crimean war, the complications of the Eastern question, and the conflict between Austria and Italy were notable for their graphic narrative and clear expositions. The breaking out of the civil war in our own country brought it special opportunities both for enterprise and promptness in news-gathering and for vigor and patriotism in public discussions, and the Times did not fail to use its resources to the utmost in the cause of the Union and in support of the government. It spoke favorably, but without hope of good results, of the Peace Convention of February, 1861, and when once the contest which had been so long impending came to a violent issue, it was unwavering in its support of vigorous measures until it was over. It was during the era of reconstruction that differences first developed between the Times and the more extreme leaders of the Republican party. It advocated at first a conciliatory policy and “healing measures,” and gave its sanction to the National Union Convention at Philadelphia in 1866, but the efforts which they represented for restoring the union of States with the co-operation of the people of those that had seceded proved without avail, and the subsequent conduct of President Johnson, and the spirit of resistance to the authority of the government exhibited in the South, brought the paper back into practical sympathy with the policy pursued by the Republican leaders in Congress. At all events it supported the reconstruction acts and their execution, though it demurred to the impeachment of Johnson, and consistently advocated the removal of political disabilites and the cultivation of fraternal relations between the estranged sections of the country. It was at the time of an eager demand for news during the war that the Sunday edition of the paper was first issued, to which a distinctively literary character was afterward given. In December, 1865, the paper was increased in size by the addition of a column to each page, making it at that time the largest daily newspaper in the United States.

One of the most interesting episodes in the history of the New York Times, and one that added greatly to its reputation and influence, was the crusade which it fought against the corruptions in municipal administration in New York city, and its vigorous attacks upon the TWEED Ring in the height of its power, which finally resulted in the destruction of the Ring and the rescue of the city government from the control of plunderers. It began with unsparing denunciations of the outrages upon public honor committed under Mayor Wood, and the exposure of the evidences of a corrupt league between judges of the courts and the political spoilers. These were followed by similar exposures and denunciations of the infamous proceedings of the plunderers of the Erie Railway, who were leagued with the municipal Ring dominated by WILLIAM M. Tweed. It was in the midst of this contest against corruption and Ring rule that the first editor of the Times died, in June, 1869, but it did not relax its vigorous assaults. In 1870 the Ring had so intrenched itself in power, and had such a command over the resources of the city, that opposition seemed almost hopeless and relief unattainable. The Times alone among the newspapers of the city kept up an unrelenting onslaught, in spite of corrupt offers and covert threats. It pointed out the evidences of extravagance in public expenditures for which no results were to be seen, and of the growing wealth lavishly displayed by members of the Tammany Ring, and offered to prove its allegations of direct robbery of the public Treasury if access were given to the Comptroller's books. Offers came to Mr. Jones directly from the head of the corrupt conspiracy of immense sums of money if he would stop the warfare, and even of the purchase of the whole Times establishment at his own price, but all without effect. Threats were resorted to, founded on a pretense that the title to the ground occupied by the Times property was not good, to silence the accuser by an injunction from the notorious Judge BARNARD, and even menaces of personal violence were pointedly conveyed.»