Murray Leinster's "The Runaway Skyscraper" (novelette, time travel, free): Adventure thousands of years ago in the current location of New York City

While not among the most entertaining stories, this might be among the earliest of the kind where a physical structure mysteriously appears at a place it doesn't belong. A more entertaining modern variant, but with a wilder plot, is Adam Troy-Castro's "Sunday Night Yams at Minnie and Earl's".

Native Americans might find parts of the story offensive.

Story summary.

As an after-effect of an earthquake, the ground shifted under an office building called the "Metropolitan Tower" in New York along the "Fourth Dimension" (time) - sinking the building down thousands of years in time! No other building is affected, & this building is transported generally unharmed to the ancient wilderness where New York City now stands.

As a coincidence, the building will appear next to a village of native Americans. Small parts of the story deal with interactions of building dwellers with those of this village.

It's mostly about adventure in this time - primarily finding food for some 2000 men & woman in the building by city dwellers who don't know how to get food from nature. Plus a background romance between the hero Arthur Chamberlain & his secretary Estelle Woodward.

Arthur, a civil engineer, will figure out what happened, will provide leadership to the stranded lot, & will eventually get the building back to its own time by adding soap to a natural water reservoir below the building!

This story talks of extreme abundance of "wood-pigeons" in the country-side of this era; they will be food for time travelers during their early days. This abundance also figures in another Leinster story - "Sidewise in Time".

I found it curious that electric supply to the building was not affected by travel. Where was the building drawing power from?

Fact sheet.

First published: Argosy magazine, 22 February 1919 issue.
Rating: B
Download full text.
Related: All stories of Murray Leinster.