Wilder Building is a historic

office building An office is a space where an organization's employees perform administrative work in order to support and realize objects and goals of the organization. The word "office" may also denote a position within an organization with specific dut ...

located in

Rochester, New York Rochester () is a City (New York), city in the U.S. state of New York (state), New York, the county seat, seat of Monroe County, New York, Monroe County, and the fourth-most populous in the state after New York City, Buffalo, New York, Buffalo, ...

. It is an eleven-story steel or iron framed brick clad structure built between 1887 and 1888 in a modified Romanesque style. It is considered Rochester's first modern

skyscraper A skyscraper is a tall continuously habitable building having multiple floors. Modern sources currently define skyscrapers as being at least or in height, though there is no universally accepted definition. Skyscrapers are very tall high-ris ...

, and is considered to be among the oldest of the

early skyscrapers The earliest stage of skyscraper design encompasses buildings built between 1884 and 1945, predominantly in the American cities of New York and Chicago. Cities in the United States were traditionally made up of low-rise buildings, but significan ...

. It was designed by noted Rochester architects

Warner & Brockett Andrew Jackson Warner (March 17, 1833 – September 4, 1910), also known as A. J. Warner, was a prominent architect in Rochester, New York. Early life Warner was born in New Haven, Connecticut on March 17, 1833, a son of Amos Warner Jr. and Ada ...

. ''Note:'' This includes an
''Accompanying three photographs''
/ref> It was listed on the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic v ...

in 1985. The Wilder Building originally contained spires at each corner of its roof, but they have since been removed.

Mail Chute

James Goold Cutler James Goold Cutler (April 24, 1848 – April 21, 1927) was a prominent Rochester, New York, architect and businessman, and served as the 48th mayor of Rochester from 1904 to 1907. Biography Early life and career Cutler was born in 1848 in ...

receive
U.S. Patent 284,951
on September 11, 1883 for the

mail chute A mail chute is a device by which mail is collected for pick-up by a post office from within high-rise buildings, such as offices and hotels. Deposit boxes on upper floors are connected via a chute to a central depository at ground level, from ...

. The first one was installed in 1884 in the

Elwood Building The Elwood Building was built in 1879 for a Rochester lawyer Frank W. Elwood, whose family owned the property. The Elwood Building was the first building to have a mail chute, which was installed in 1884 by James Goold Cutler, the inventor of the ...

. Then, during its 1887 construction, Cutler installed a perfected mail chute in the Wilder Building. With the Elwood Building having been demolished in 1965, the Wilder Building's mail chute is currently the oldest surviving one. File:WilderBuildingRochesterNewYork.jpg File:WilderBuildingRochesterLobbyLookingIn.jpg File:WilderBuildingRochesterLobbyLookingOut.jpg File:WilderBuildingRochesterHallwayFloor10.jpg File:WilderBuildingRochesterViewOfMainStreet.jpg

References

External links

Skyscraper office buildings in Rochester, New York Office buildings on the National Register of Historic Places in New York (state) Office buildings completed in 1888 National Register of Historic Places in Rochester, New York {{MonroeCountyNY-NRHP-stub