3. The Butterick Building

The Butterick Building was built in 1903 following the success of Ebenezer Butterick‘s innovative system of multi-size sewing patterns that could be easily shipped and used by seamstresses to make cheaper custom clothes. Butterick designs caught on quickly and soon found their way all over the world. Though Ebenezer Butterick himself had left the company by the time his namesake building was completed, the building nevertheless served as the company’s headquarters until October 2001 when the Butterick company was bought by the McCall Pattern Company and moved uptown to Penn Plaza. At 16 stories, the building was a formidable sight against the relatively humble 1903 Manhattan skyline. The company also housed its printing department there, which produced Butterick’s 32 periodicals, making it one of the country’s largest magazine publishers at the time.