DuMont Building | |
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General information | |
Location | 515 Madison Avenue, Manhattan, New York City |
Coordinates | 40°45′36″N 73°58′26″W / 40.759897°N 73.973935°WCoordinates: 40°45′36″N 73°58′26″W / 40.759897°N 73.973935°W |
Completed | 1931 |
Owner | Newmark & Co. |
Management | Newmark & Co. |
Height | |
Top floor | 162 m (531 ft) |
Technical details | |
Floor count | 42 |
Floor area | 250,000 sq ft (23,000 m2) |
Design and construction | |
Architect | J.E.R. Carpenter |
Developer | John H. Carpenter |
The DuMont Building (also known as 515 Madison Avenue) is a 532-foot (162 m) high, 42-story building at 53rd Street and Madison Avenue in Manhattan.
The building was built in art deco and neo-gothic style by John H. Carpenter and designed by his brother, architect J.E.R. Carpenter who also designed Lincoln Tower as well as nearly 125 buildings along Fifth Avenue and Park Avenue.
One of the building's most distinctive features is a broadcasting antenna that traces back to the building's role in the first television broadcasts of Allen B. DuMont experimental television station W2XWV in 1938. The station became commercially licensed as WABD—named for DuMont's initials—in 1944, WNEW-TV in 1958, and is now WNYW. The station was one of the few television channels that continued to broadcast through World War II.
After the war, the network and WABD moved to bigger studios - first at the John Wanamaker's store at Ninth Street and Broadway in Greenwich Village, then the Adelphi Theatre, the Ambassador Theatre, and in 1954 to the Central Turn-Verein Opera House at 205 East 67th, which was renamed The DuMont Tele-Centre and today is the Fox Television Center, home of WABD's descendant, WNYW.
In 1947, the building was the site of a protest by 700 picketers demanding that the United States end diplomatic relations with Spain as a protest against the government of Francisco Franco at the site of the Spanish consulate, located in the building.