Ernest Flagg designed the building, the Bourne Building annex and the tower for the Singer Manufacturing Company, whose president, Frederick Gilbert Bourne, commissioned it. George W. Conable prepared the plans and working drawings. The original ten-story building dates to 1897 and 1898, and the tower opened on May 1, 1908.
The roof was 612 feet (187 m) high, and the pinnacle was 674 feet (205 m) in the infobox and about 670 feet in an earlier passage. It was the tallest building in the world in 1908 and 1909. The tower's steel frame weighed 18,365 short tons. The facade used red brick, limestone and terracotta, and the lobby used Pavonazzo marble.
The article calls the style Beaux-Arts and French Second Empire. U.S. Steel acquired the property in 1964 and demolished the building from 1967 to 1969 to build a larger headquarters. The Landmarks Preservation Commission, created in 1965, never designated it.
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