Here rises the Wilder Building. It rises as an eleven-story, steel or iron framed, brick-clad structure built between 1887 and 1888 in a modified Romanesque style. You can think of it as Rochester’s first modern skyscraper, and one of the oldest of the early skyscrapers, a milestone in the city’s skyline designed by the local firm Warner & Brockett.
In 1985 it was recognized on the National Register of Historic Places, a formal nod to its architectural and civic significance. At one time each corner of the roof carried a spire; those spires have since been removed, so look up and imagine the building once crowned at its corners. There is another piece of living history here: James Goold Cutler received U.S. Patent 284,951 on September 11, 1883, for the mail chute.
The first chute was installed in 1884 in the Elwood Building, and during the Wilder’s 1887 construction Cutler installed a perfected mail chute here. With the Elwood demolished in 1965, this building's 1887 mail chute — perfected here by James Goold Cutler — is now the oldest surviving example for you to find near the entrance and lobby.