The Finest Building in America: The New York Crystal Palace, 1853 1858

Burrows, professor of history at Brooklyn College and coauthor of the Pulitzer Prize–winning Gotham: A History of New York City to 1898 (with Mike Wallace), assembles the definitive history of the New York Crystal Palace, yet falls short of making the building more than a curiosity. He opens his account with the end of the story—the 1858 fire of unknown origin that destroyed the magnificent structure built on what is now Bryant Park. It’s a captivating narrative hook that shadows the venture’s commercial rise and fall, which Burrows traces from Horace Greeley’s vision of an exhibition that would showcase American ingenuity. Burrows colorfully details the logistical and financial problems caused by the elaborate building, inspired by the Crystal Palace built in London for the Great Exhibition of 1851, and he makes the period come to life by effectively employing memorable details, such as how President Franklin Pierce got caught in a downpour prior to his appearance at the opening ceremony. The building’s “greatest achievement,” Burrows concludes, “may have been to show Americans that they, too, could put up a modern building every bit as beautiful” as the original. Unfortunately, Burrows abruptly ends there, leaving readers to their own speculations as to why this edifice and its history matter. (Feb.)