Conceived by Waring Latting and designed by architect William Naugle, the observatory was an octagonally-based, iron-braced wooden tower 315 feet (96 m) high adjoining the Crystal Palace, with landings at three levels on the structure, allowing visitors to see east into Queens, south into Staten Island, and west into New Jersey.

[3] In announcing the July 1, 1853 opening of the observatory to invited guests, a writer for The New York Times described that he "was not prepared for the wonderful panorama" which was said to reach from 40 to 60 miles (60 to 100 km), providing an incomparable view unavailable in London, Paris or from atop the Great Pyramid of Giza, as the tower rises in "the midst of a human hive, whose bees are the best in the world's apiary."

"[6] The building was acquired by the Hydeville Marble Works shortly after the end of the fair in 1854; the firm removed the top 75 feet of the tower a year later.

The Times described the tower as a "conspicuous landmark, by which the traveler could ascertain his whereabouts" and that it would be "greatly missed" despite the fact that as an investment it was "a stupendous failure" that never paid a return on the $150,000 in capital stock raised to erect the structure.

Spectators feared that the tower would topple on and crush the north side of the Crystal Palace, but the observatory burned down on its base into a "mass of smouldering cinders".