Flatiron Building 'skirt-chasers' phenomenon

The Flatiron Building, completed in 1902 at 175 Fifth Avenue, created wind gusts at street level that early-20th-century newspapers reported could lift women's skirts. Those reports drew crowds of onlookers-often called 'skirt-chasers'-and photographic and press accounts from the period document the phenomenon. The stories of skirt-chasing became part of the building's popular legend and are corroborated by contemporary sources.