Quantcast RochesterSubway.com : A Tower to Rival Eiffel’s Designed in Rochester NY?
Rochester Subway
Subscribe for Email UpdatesBecome a Facebook FanFollow Us on TwitterRSS Feed Rochester History + New Ideas. Fresh from the Rochester Subway.

Topics


Rochester Subway Gift Shop


¤ Visit the Gift Shop


Modern Rochester Subway Map


Modern Rochester Subway Map

¤ View Details
¤ Buy at MetroPosters.com


City of Rochester, New York


City of Rochester, New York

¤ View Details
¤ Buy at MetroPosters.com


Rochester Neighborhoods Map

Rochester Neighborhoods Map

¤ View Details
¤ Buy at MetroPosters.com


Rochester Subway DVD

The End of the Line - Rochester’s Subway (DVD)

¤ View Details
¤ Buy at MetroPosters.com


Rochester Landmarks Poster

Rochester Landmarks Poster

¤ View Details

 | 

SOLD OUT


Work in Rochester

Work in Rochester

¤ View Details
¤ Buy from Amazon


Original Streetart by SPACEMAN

Original Streetart by SPACEMAN

¤ View All Spaceman Art


Old Rochester Photos<br>and Historical Views

Old Rochester Photos
and Historical Views

(Framed Reprints Available)

¤ View All Rochester Photos


Rochester Subway Cap

Embroidered Subway Cap

¤ View Details


Rochester Subway T-Shirt

Rochester Subway T-Shirt

¤ View Details


Rochester Subway Token T-Shirt

RTC Token T-Shirt

¤ View Details


Rochester RTC Token

RTC Token (1948)

¤ View Details

 | 

SOLD OUT


Roch. & Brighton Token

Roch. & Brighton Token
(1887-90)

¤ View Details

 | 

Add To Cart


Rochester Railway Co. Token

Rochester Railway Co. Token (1900-09)

¤ View Details

 | 

SOLD OUT


Rochester School Fare Token

School Fare Token (1948)

¤ View Details

 | 

Add To Cart


Rochester NYS Railways Token

NYS Railways Token (1909-38)

¤ View Details

 | 

Add To Cart


Rochester Subway Vintage Postcard

Vintage Postcard (1941),
Rochester Rail Equipment

¤ View Details

 | 

Order Reprint

¤ See All Vintage Postcards


Rochester Subway Vintage Postcard

Vintage Postcard (1938),
Subway & Broad Street

¤ View Details

 | 

Order Reprint

¤ See All Vintage Postcards


Rochester Subway Vintage Postcard

Vintage Postcard (1942),
Rochester City Hall & Subway

¤ View Details

 | 

Order Reprint

¤ See All Vintage Postcards


Rochester Subway Vintage Postcard

Vintage Postcard (c.1912),
Rochester’s Four Corners

¤ View Details

 | 

Order Reprint

¤ See All Vintage Postcards


Rochester Subway Vintage Postcard

Vintage Postcard (c.1905),
Erie Canal Aqueduct

¤ View Details

 | 

Order Reprint

¤ See All Vintage Postcards


Rochester Subway Vintage Postcard

Vintage Postcard (c.1928),
South Entrance to Subway

¤ View Details

 | 

Order Reprint

¤ See All Vintage Postcards


Rochester Subway + Trolley Transit Passes

Original Subway, Trolley,
and Bus Weekly Transit Passes

¤ View All Transit Passes





A Tower to Rival Eiffel’s Designed in Rochester NY?

March 9th, 2015

A Great Tower of London designed by an M.T. Otis in Rochester NY.
By Mike Governale

The Atlantic’s CityLab recently posted external link some late nineteenth-century designs for a Great Tower of London. The first one in the stack was a 1,355 foot sky scraping behemoth designed in Rochester USA…

The design was submitted to a design competition for a tower that would rival Eiffel's in Paris.
In 1889 the 1,000-foot Eiffel Tower had just been unveiled at the Paris Exposition. And although the Brits said they thought it hideous, they wanted one of their own. So a design competition was launched which drew 68 proposals external link from around the world, all of them at least 200 taller than Eiffel’s.

The tower by Otis was to be 1,355 feet tall. 355 taller than Eiffel.

The design from Rochester was attributed to an M.T. Otis. But just who this Otis person was has me scratching my head.

Maps of Rochester are littered with references to an Otis, but that would be General Elwell Stephen Otis external link. General Otis commanded American forces in the Spanish-American War. Rochester even had an arch and an official “Otis Day” (June 15, 1900) for him.

Could M.T. Otis have been some relation to Elisha Otis and his famous elevator company? Otis Elevator Company did have offices in Rochester at 527 East Main Street, but I couldn’t find a connection there.

Emily Morry, Historical Researcher at Rochester Public Library was able to find a George T. Otis in the city directory of 1890. And as it turns out, George was an architect, and had a firm named “G.T. Otis and C.F. Crandall” located in the Ellwanger and Barry Building. Hmmm… G.T. but no M.T.

Perhaps the M.T. Otis in the catalog of design submissions had been a typo? That would be some insult added to injury after his design for the Great London Tower didn’t even get picked. Then again, the London tower never was built either so, humpf.

The Y.W.C.A. building on North Clinton Avenue may have been designed by the same Otis of Rochester. At least this one was actually built.
If it’s any consolation, George did get the opportunity to design Rochester’s Y.W.C.A. building on North Clinton Avenue and it DID get built in 1912. Aaaand then it was replaced by a much larger building in 1951. Doh!

• • •

UPDATE: Matt Denker correctly points out that these designs may have been from some other “Rochester USA” not necessarily NY. The search continues for the real M.T. Otis.

Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

This entry was posted on Monday, March 9th, 2015 at 10:13 am and is filed under Architecture, Rochester History. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.

8 Responses to “A Tower to Rival Eiffel’s Designed in Rochester NY?”

  1. So there was an M.T. Otis who filled a number of public service positions in New England. I wonder if it was Rochester, NH?

  2. You just blew my mind.

  3. I have to admit that I checked up on Rochester, MN, first. It being the second most famous Rochester, but to no avail. I mean, I don’t have a passage saying M.T. Otis from Rochester, NH designed the tower or something, there just happened to BE an M.T. Otis there, where there is really no record of one in Rochester, despite pretty good records of people about town from this time period. Food for thought, I guess!

  4. Ruth Nederlk says:

    #30 School on Otis St in Rochester NY was Named After General Otis .

  5. Dave Gottfried says:

    Check it out… claims “NY” http://greattower.co.uk/list.html

  6. Christopher Brandt says:

    From “Architects and Architecture of Rochester” written by Carl and Ann Schmidt in 1959…

    “George T. Otis recieved his training in the office of Charles Coots. In 1879 he formed a partnership with a fellow draftsman, Charles Crandall. The partnership was dissolved in 1892 and he practiced independently until 1904. Mr. Otis designed the old Y.W.C.A. Building on Clinton avenue North.”

    I know the tower drawing says “M. T. Otis,” but George Otis is the only Otis listed in the book, and he practiced during this time (plus his middle initial is the same).

  7. Kevin Yost says:

    Taitlyn’s Tower was to be built in 1920’s St. Petersburg, Russia, but was not to be because they did not have enough steel production. Would be nice if a small sculpture resembling it were built in either Rochester Martin Luther King, Jr. Park or the green space that is to be on the Midtown Plaza site. It would resemble freedom and liberty, not communism.

  8. Tom Cerasuolo says:

    George T. Otis was General Otis’ brother. Reference the D&C article dated 10-22-1909 on the General’s death. Many of his family members including George T. owned land near the “Otis Place” land bounded by Lyell, Emerson, Burrows and Field (now Glide) Streets. Reference the 1902 Town of Gates plat map.

    Trivia: My wife lived her first 25 years on George T’s former land as her parents built a house in ’51 when the west side of McNaughton Street was developed!


Post a Comment...



Earn 75,000 Bonus Points for travel with the Chase Sapphire card when you use this referral link.

  Most Popular...
  1. Inside Rochester’s Terrence Tower(views: 78.8k)
  2. The Old Barber House(views: 41.4k)
  3. University of Rochester’s Lost Swimming Pool(views: 40.7k)
  4. Pot Holds Bowie in Rochester(views: 39.9k)
  5. Inside Rochester’s Abandoned Walters Psychiatric Building(views: 39.7k)
  6. Inside Abandoned Medley Centre (a.k.a Irondequoit Mall)(views: 38.6k)
  7. History of Seabreeze Amusement Park(views: 33.5k)
  8. Deep Inside Rochester’s Big Old Sibley Building(views: 30.7k)
  9. Abandoned Glass House(views: 25.7k)
  10. Durand Eastman Park and the Lady In White(views: 24.4k)
  11. Rochester Mafia, the Banana King, and the Infamous “Barrel Murder”(views: 23.7k)
  12. Exploring the Caves of Rochester, NY(views: 20.9k)
  13. Abandoned Girl Scout Camp Beech-Wood(views: 20.4k)
  14. Inside the Abandoned Vacuum Oil Refinery(views: 19.2k)
  15. Inside 65-67 Chestnut St. – Old Hotel Richford(views: 18.1k)
  16. Inside the Abandoned Camp Haccamo, Penfield(views: 17.7k)
  17. The Best Holiday Light Displays in Rochester v1.0(views: 15.7k)
  18. Rochester’s Mercury Statue, Up Close and Personal(views: 15.1k)
  19. Martha Matilda Harper – Innovator in Beauty and Business(views: 15.1k)
  20. Abandoned Theme Park: Frontier Town(views: 15.1k)

Topics

  • Architecture (64)
  • Art + Culture (127)
  • Events (110)
  • Freebies (9)
  • Interviews (32)
  • Opinion (110)
  • Other (17)
  • Reader Submitted Stories (126)
  • Rochester Apartments (7)
  • Rochester Destinations (109)
  • Rochester Gifts (19)
  • Rochester History (203)
  • Rochester Homes for Sale (14)
  • Rochester Images (208)
  • Rochester News (379)
  • Rochester Subway (51)
  • Rochester Subway Stories (17)
  • Subways Around the Globe (11)
  • Train/Railroad Stuff (47)
  • Transit + Infrastructure (210)
  • Uncategorized (29)
  • Urban Development (263)
  • Urban Exploration (65)


  • Earn 75,000 Bonus Points for travel with the Chase Sapphire card when you use this referral link.

    Rochester Subway Information

    Get Email Updates...
    Stay up-to-date on Rochester-related stories, artifacts, and ideas that you won't find in the mainstream news. Totally free, never spammy, and you can unsubscribe at any time.


    ¤ See Past Issues
    ¤ Our Privacy Policy

    Links

    Get Involved...

    ¤ Reconnect Rochester

    Related Blogs...

    ¤ A Town Square
    ¤ Moderate Urban Champ
    ¤ Our Tiny Earth
    ¤ The Rochesterian
    ¤ RocVille
    ¤ Rust Wire

    Resources...

    ¤ RochesterDowntown.com
    ¤ Rochester's Public Library
    ¤ ROCwiki


    Earn 75,000 Bonus Points for travel with the Chase Sapphire card when you use this referral link.



    Want to Advertise
    on RocSubway?
    Drop us a line.


    Other ways to follow RochesterSubway.com...

    Subscribe for Email Updates

    Email

    Become a Facebook Fan

    Facebook

    Follow Us on Twitter

    Twitter

    RSS Feed

    RSS

    Questions + Comments

    For questions about the Rochester Subway Poster or about your order, please email [email protected].

    Want to SAVE Shipping Costs?
    Buy the Subway Posters at these local shops...

    About the Rochester Subway Poster...

    ¤ Parkleigh [ ...map it ]
    ¤ Poster Art [ ...map it ]
    ¤ Rochester Public Library Store [ ...map it ]

    ¤ Rochester Subway Poster Press Release
    ¤ Article by Otto M. Vondrak
    ¤ Design by Mike Governale

    More About The Rochester Subway

    Help Support...

    ¤ Rochester Subway (Wikipedia)
    ¤ The End of the Line - Rochester's Subway, DVD
    ¤ Abandoned Subway Photos (Opacity.us)
    ¤ Walking the Rails (YouTube Video)

    ¤ Friends of RochesterSubway.com




    RochesterSubway.com