{"nrhp_refnum":"78001874","name":"Metropolitan Life Insurance Company","other_names":["Metropolitan Tower","Metropolitan Life Insurance Tower"],"category":"building","location":{"address":"1 Madison Ave.","address_restricted":false,"city":"New York","county":"Manhattan","state":"NY","lat":40.741275007500064,"lon":-73.98736475822824,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1978-06-02","is_nhl":true,"nhl_designated_date":"1978-06-02","areas_of_significance":["Commerce"],"significance_levels":["national"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"A 50-story, 700-foot office tower at 1 Madison Avenue in Manhattan, completed in 1909 as part of the Metropolitan Life Insurance Company's Madison Avenue complex. It was designed by Pierre and Michel Le Brun.","why_significant":"The tower is the symbol of Metropolitan Life, which the nomination presents as a leading example of the growth of the American life insurance industry. It is described as the most distinctive and least altered surviving Metropolitan building. Its construction coincided with the company's rise to first place in the industry, and it was the world's tallest masonry and steel structure until 1913.","narrative":"Rising 700 feet above Madison Square, this 50-story tower was completed in 1909 for the Metropolitan Life Insurance Company. Pierre and Michel Le Brun modeled it on the bell tower of St. Mark's in Venice, and it cost $6,581,391. It features four 26-foot clock dials, a beacon and four bells. Until the Woolworth Building opened in 1913, it was the tallest masonry and steel structure in the world. The company grew from a Civil War-era insurer into the world's largest life insurance firm by 1909, and it pioneered small-policy industrial insurance and social welfare programs. The tower became its emblem, appearing on hundreds of millions of policy documents. Early 1960s work replaced decaying marble with limestone, removed some ornament and balconies, and re-covered the cupola in aluminum, yet the form remained largely intact. Inside, the second-floor executive suite keeps its mahogany paneling and marble mantels. The nominated boundary covers only the tower.","period_of_significance":"1909-present (1868+)","architect_builder":"Pierre & Michel Le Brun","architectural_style":"Modeled on the campanile of St. Mark's in Venice; Renaissance detail, with the earlier main building described as Second Renaissance Revival","criteria":[],"status_note":"Occupied and in use as an insurance company office; condition marked excellent and altered. The clock, bells and beacon still operate.","vacant_flag":false,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:50:38.549444-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/lz/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_NY/78001874_NHL.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/78001874/144655a94d-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/78001874/144655a94d-1600.webp","licence":"CC0","author":"Ryan Schwark","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Metropolitan_Life_Insurance_Tower,_2024.jpg\" rel=\"noopener\">Ryan Schwark</a>, <a href=\"http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/deed.en\" rel=\"license noopener\">CC0</a>, via Wikimedia Commons","source_page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Metropolitan_Life_Insurance_Tower,_2024.jpg"},"district":{"nrhp_refnum":"95001544","name":"Metropolitan Life Home Office Complex","url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/districts/new-york/metropolitan-life-home-office-complex-95001544/"},"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/75315904","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metropolitan_Life_Insurance_Company_Tower","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q652452"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/new-york/manhattan/metropolitan-life-insurance-company-78001874/"}