Inside the Epic Safe Deposit Vault in NYC’s Woolworth Building

Every month, we take Untapped Cities readers on an exclusive one hour tour of the Woolworth Building led by the great grand-daughter of Woolworth Building architect Cass Gilbert. The building is one of those places where you discover something new each time you visit.

Today, we thought we’d take you inside the bank vault of the Woolworth Building. Normally, even for tour guides, you can only peer in from the locked gates and touch the double vault door. On a rare occasion recently, we were allowed to walk inside.

Irving National Bank was the Woolworth Building‘s main anchor tenant until relocating to their new headquarters at 1 Wall Street in 1931 (they also changed their name to Irving Trust Company at that time). Today, an air conditioning duct runs through the door so the original double vaulted doors can’t actually close and the inside of the vault is used by the building’s maintenance staff. It’s neat to see the tools all hanging from the safety deposit boxes.

Join us for our next tour of the Woolworth Building:
VIP Tour of the Woolworth Building

See more photographs from inside the Woolworth Building, including the lobby, abandoned pool, basement levels, Woolworth’s original office and more. Check out more Untapped Cities events here.