What was the world's first steel girder building?

[Speaker_for_the_Dead]

The title is pretty much it–which building was the first to use a modern steel-girder “skeleton”? Even just a name would be great, because I can always look up additional information on my own.

[Squink]

Science Hall at the University of Wisconsin?

Science Hall was completed in December, 1887, and was first occupied by University personnel in January, 1888. It was one of the first, if not the very first, buildings in the country to be constructed of all masonry and metal materials (wood was used only in window and door frames and for some floors), and may be the only one still extant. Massive iron and steel beams provide the framework for the building’s central section and its interior floors.

[chukhung]

How about the Home Insurance Building in Chicago?

Considered the first American skyscraper, the 10-story Home Insurance Building in Chicago was the first tall building to be supported by a metal skeleton of vertical columns and horizontal beams. Engineer William LeBaron Jenney discovered that thin pieces of steel could support a tall building as well as thick stone walls could.

Unfortunately, it was torn down in 1931. Does it have to be a building that’s still standing?

[tremorviolet]

Dang it, chukhung was quicker on the trigger than me…

[VernWinterbottom]

William LeBaron Jenney was a native of the lovely little seaside town of Fairhaven, Massachusetts.

Most of us around here who are familiar with local history know about the Home Insurance Building in Chicago.

[Reeder]

I think The Manhattan Building in Chicago is the oldest one still standing.

[Valgard]

Here’s a couple of earlier ones, although they aren’t office buildings.

London’s Crystal Palace exhibition hall was made entirely of iron and glass and it was built in 1850-1851. The building proper was about three stories high and it had a 108 foot transept.

Eiffel’s Bon Marche department store was also built of wrought-iron and it was built in 1869-1870.