What’s Coming Across 13th St.
Here’s the latest rendering of the very expensive condos that will rise in the hole in the ground at 13th and 5th. Note there are only a few duplex apartments. They will be really pricey.
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Amazing Image!
Our new neighbor Ann Roth tells us about this incredible image of the 14th St. building that she dug up:
“I found the image on the web, where someone was selling a hand-colored print of the 14th Street facade, from a magazine that dates to 1891. So it clearly dates to that year (or earlier), not 1899, as all the real estate ads say. I ordered it, and they immediately took it off their site, so I can’t send you the link, but I copied the image first, so I’ve attached it. I must say, I wish it still had the fancy spire. The architects were D’Oench & Simon. Albert D’Oench studied in New York and Stuttgart, and then worked for Robert Morris Hunt (who designed the Metropolitan Museum’s facade) for a while. He was the NY Inspector of Buildings for five years, which seems to have mainly involved fire safety. After that, he had a successful architectural partnership with Albert (or Bernard?) Simon, and they designed and built several fire stations in New York. D’Oench later married the mayor’s daughter. Clearly a man with good connections. The plan calls it a “store building,” built it for Mrs. Mary S. Van Beuren, who was the granddaughter and heir of Henry Spingler (who I think has a building on Union Square named after him). She lived nearby, on 14th Street, just west of 5th, and seems to have been a bit of a sharp customer, to judge from some of the legal tussles I found when I searched her name on Google.”
A Sad Sayonara to Japonica
After 48 long years, neighborhood stalwart Japonica has shuttered. Sad!
Good Old Days
Here is a photo of 5th Avenue looking north at 14th St. sometime in the 1940s. Note that 5th Avenue was a two-way street at the time.
