Jul 15, 2022
A fire broke out in the former Wanamaker’s department store at 9th St. and Broadway on July 15, 1956. Six hundred firefighters and more than 50 pieces of equipment were needed to control the blaze, which lasted 25 hours. An estimated 50 million gallons of water was used. It flooded the Astor Place subway station and officials feared that Fourth Avenue (on the other side of the building) would collapse, but fortunately that did not happen.
The handsome Renaissance palazzo-style building was gutted, but the cast iron shell remained.
Top photo: Associated Press via the Harry Ransom Center, U. of Texas Bottom photo: Sheldon Gottesman for the NY Journal-American via Harry Ransom Center, U. of Texas
