11. New York World-Telegram at 125 Barclay Street

Former World-Telegram Building, now DC 37 Headquarters (2015)

Q: Why does the building at 125 Barclay Street, facing West Street, have a large metal structure on its roof?

A: It is a vestige from the building’s origin as the headquarters of the New York World-Telegram.

The World-Telegram developed this building in 1932, relocating from Telegram Square (previously known as Globe Square). The building prominently featured a sign with the letters “World Telegram” on the aforementioned metal structure, also called an armature.

The undated photo above shows the World-Telegram building with the sign, before the construction of the World Trade Center (to the right) and Battery Park City (in the foreground).

In 1950, the Sun was merged into the paper and it was renamed the World Telegram and Sun.

Following a newspaper strike in 1966, the World-Telegram and Sun closed as did the Herald Tribune and Journal-American. The three closing papers banded together to create a new merged paper, the New York World Journal Tribune, which was based at the old World-Telegram building. The new paper also failed, closing in 1967 and ending a chapter in New York newspaper history.

Today, the old World Telegram building is occupied by District Council 37, a municipal employees union.