Four Months Later, I Finish The Thought

I wrote a blog post in April about the grotesques in the lobby of the Woolworth Building. As I mentioned then, they are grotesques because they are purely decorative figures; gargoyles are decorative figures that are generally water spouts and are part of a roof drainage system. The Woolworth Building’s original hype made much of its gothic styling, calling it “the Cathedral of Commerce.” In that context, using the gothic imagery of grotesques to put portraits of people involved with the design and construction of the building in the lobby makes sense. The most famous today is probably the portrait of Cass Gilbert, the architect, holding a model of the buidling:

The other option for most famous is the portrait of Frank Woolworth holding some coins. This is a double-edged joke. First, speaking as someone who shopped in Woolworths in the 1970s, it was even then still known by the nickname “five and ten” – meaning that prices were five or ten cents – although prices had not been that low for decades. That’s the power of marketing. The other part of the joke is that Woolworth had enough cash on hand to pay for the building without a mortgage, which was rare then and has only become more rare since. Woolworth:

Closest to my heart, of course, is the portrait of Gunvald Aus, the structural engineer, with a built-up steel column and a folding ruler. I could be wrong, but it looks like Woolworth is wearing a suit and tie, Gilbert an artist’s smock, and Aus a workman’s overalls. Sounds about right…