2. St. Patrick’s Cathedral was NYC’s Tallest Building (Depending on Whom You Ask)

View of St. Patrick’s Cathedral from the Rockefeller Center elevated gardens, 620 Loft and Garden

According to St. Patrick’s Cathedral, “From October 1888 until October 1890, St. Patrick’s Cathedral at 330 feet high was the tallest building in New York City and the second tallest in America surpassed only by Philadelphia’s City Hall.” As the New York World Building was not begun until 1889, it does that St. Patrick’s Cathedral was indeed the tallest building in New York City for two years after the spires were added in 1888. And if you don’t count the antenna spire of the New York World Building (the roof went to 309 feet, the antenna to 349 feet), St. Patrick’s would have been taller, As the world’s tallest buildings in this era were primarily focused on the new skyscrapers, and St. Patrick’s was certainly not the tallest cathedral in the world during this time, it is often left off of discussions about the world’s tallest buildings historically.