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NoHo Historic District 25th Anniversary Tour, Part III

The NoHo Historic District was designated by the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission (LPC) on June 29, 1999, with the NoHo East Historic District designated in 2003 and expansions to the original district boundaries approved in 2008. This virtual walking tour features 25 buildings within the approximately 130-building original NoHo Historic District, in celebration of its 25th anniversary. The highlighted buildings represent the range of construction periods and array of building types, styles, and uses that occur throughout the district. We encourage you to explore this fascinating stretch of Manhattan virtually, or to use this tour as a jumping-off point as you take your own walk through the historic district!

The three-part tour is organized by phases of development, based upon the same categories found within the LPC NoHo Designation Report. Part III includes buildings constructed from the 1890s to 1910s:

The Booming Nineties a) 611-621 Broadway, The Cable Building b) 65-69 Bleecker Street, The Bayard-Condict Building c) 696-702 Broadway d) 34-36 Cooper Square, "Village Voice"
Post-Consolidation Growth e) 756-770 Broadway, Wanamaker's Department Store Annex f) 684 Broadway (aka 2 Great Jones Street) g) 740-744 Broadway (aka 2 Astor Place)

-- To return to Part II of the tour, click here. To revert back to Part I of the tour, click here.

By

Village Preservation

16 stops•1.7km•22 min

Cable Building

Photograph by Village Preservation, June 2024

Cable Building

LPC Designation Photograph, June 1999 Designed by renowned architecture firm McKim, Mead & White, this imposing, through-block Beaux Arts style powerhouse and office building was built in 1892-1894 for the Broadway & Seventh Avenue Railroad Company. The basement once held giant wheels that powered the Broadway cable car line, giving the building the name it retains to this day. The basement continued its use as a powerhouse until May 21, 1901, when the final steam-powered car ran its route and the Broadway line switched to electric power. Click here and here for more information about this history. By the 1930s, the building had been sold and its upper floors were occupied by different small businesses and manufacturing companies. In 1989, the basement that once held the wheels was transformed into the Angelika multiplex cinema.

Cable Building

The Cable Building, William Vogel & Son’s Poster: Opening Date September 21, 1893. From Village Preservation's Historic Image Archive. Extending from Mercer Street to Broadway, the Cable Building was built with a steel and iron frame, with terra cotta and stone facing. The formal symmetry of its oversized bays of arched windows are emblematic of the Beaux Arts style. The building is topped by a unique and elaborate copper cornice, and the main Houston Street entrance features a round window flanked by two stone female figures, designed by sculptor J. Massey Rhind.

Bayard-Condict Building

Bayard-Condict Building in 2017, courtesy LGBT Historic Sites Project

Bayard-Condict Building

LPC Designation Photograph, June 1999 Constructed from 1897-99 in the Chicago School style, at twelve stories tall, the Bayard-Condict Building (65-69 Bleecker Street) was one of New York City's first true skyscrapers and is its only building designed by renowned architect Louis H. Sullivan. Known as the “Father of Modernism” and the “Father of skyscrapers,” the design is an exemplar of Sullivan’s iconic, ornamental style with heights made possible by then newly introduced iron-and-steel structural framing technology. The original client, the Bayard Family, for which the building is named, has lineage tracing back to colonial New York City. They hired Sullivan to tear down the previous building on the lot and create a new commercial build for the United Loan and Investment Company.

Bayard-Condict Building

The white, glazed terra cotta cladding on the primary Bleecker Street facade features floral and foliate ornamental detailing throughout, with the entryway as its focal point featuring projecting, flanking ornamental piers with similar leafy and organic ornamental forms. These ornamental details connect throughout the facade creating a seamless unification of form, a hallmark of Sullivan’s style, who famously stated that these new large-scale commercial and office buildings should be “a proud and soaring thing, rising in sheer exultation that from bottom to top it is a unit without a single dissenting line.” Click here to learn more. The Bayard-Condict Building was designated an Individual New York City Landmark in 1975, and was subsequently included as part of the NoHo Historic District.

700 Broadway

Photograph by Village Preservation, June 2024

700 Broadway

LPC Designation Photograph, June 1999 696-702 Broadway (aka 1-7 East 4th Street), which occupies the northeast corner of Broadway and East 4th Street, was built in 1890-91 for Frederick A. Schermerhorn, a noted Civil War veteran and trustee of Columbia College and the New York Trade School. The Romanesque Revival style store building was designed by George B. Post, constructed of iron and steel framing with brownstone facing at the first two floors, and lighter brick and terra cotta above. In 1912, renovations, including a rebuild of the portico, were undertaken by Post's successor firm, George B. Post and Sons. The Schermerhorn family owned the building until at least 1914, which was subsequently converted from lofts to the headquarters of the National Audubon Society in 1990-92.

34 COOPER SQUARE

34 Cooper Square in 2019

34 COOPER SQUARE

LPC Designation Photograph, June 1999 34 Cooper Square was built in 1894 to a design by architect John T. Williams, who was also the owner. The Rennaisance Revival style warehouse building is seven stories tall, composed of a cast iron frame with brick and sandstone facing. Over the years, the building was joined internally with the adjacent buildings at 32 Cooper Square, 419-421 Lafayette Street, and 38 Cooper Square. The building suffered a major fire in 1905. By 1933, No. 34 Cooper Square was used as a showroom and factory. Later, it was owned and occupied by the Hartz Mountain Corp, makers and suppliers of pet care products. From 1991 to 2013, No. 34 Cooper Square was home to the offices of the Village Voice, which you can read more about here.

Wanamaker's Annex

Photograph by Village Preservation, June 2024

Wanamaker's Annex

LPC Designation Photograph, June 1999 756-770 Broadway (aka 133-147 E 8th Street; 42-58 Fourth Avenue) was designed as a Renaissance Revival style department store by architects D.H. Burnham & Co. of Chicago. It was built in two stages, in 1903-07 and 1924-25, for John Wanamaker, as an annex to his earlier store building, located on Broadway across East 9th Street. Wanamaker's had become one of the leading department stores in the city, and the company continued to expand in the neighborhood, additionally constructing 726-730 Broadway (also within the NoHo Historic District, for which the five most southerly houses of Colonnade Row were demolished), which was used for the storage of its delivery trucks, carpenters' and upholsterers' shops, and workshops for repairing and tuning pianos. Wanamaker's Department Store closed in early 1955, and the ground floor retail space was later leased to Kmart, which remained there until 2021. In 2024, the supermarket Wegmans opened in the space. You can read more about this architectural and retail history here.

684 BROADWAY

Photograph by Village Preservation, June 2024

684 BROADWAY

LPC Designation Photograph, June 1999 This Renaissance Revival style store and lofts building was designed by Frederick C. Browne and constructed in 1905 for Philip Braender, at a time when the earlier five-and six-story loft buildings that lined this section of Broadway were being replaced by taller commercial buildings. Philip Braender appears to have been related to the president of the Braender Rubber and Tire Company of New Jersey and the Braender Building and Construction Company of New York, of the same name. Braender also commissioned 693-699 Broadway, located across the street from this building and also within the NoHo Historic District, in 1908. To achieve 684 Broadway's twelve-story height, Browne incorporated an innovative method of concrete arch floor construction. The building now houses joint living/working quarters at its upper floors.

436-440 Lafayette Street

Photograph by Village Preservation, June 2024

436-440 Lafayette Street

LPC Designation Photograph, June 1999 The final stop on the tour, 740-744 Broadway (aka 2 Astor Place; 436-440 Lafayette Street) is a Beaux Arts style loft building designed by architect Francis H. Kimball and built in 1910-12 for the Orlando B. Potter Trust. Potter was a lawyer and a prominent figure in New York politics, achieving recognition by developing a plan for a national banking system and currency that was adopted by Congress in 1863. Potter had several other real estate holdings in Manhattan, including 444 Lafayette Street (1875-76, Griffith Thomas; the building is in Part II of this tour), 746-750 Broadway (1881-83, Starkweather & Gibbs), and 4-8 Astor Place (1890, Francis H. Kimball), all within the NoHo Historic District, as well as the Potter Building at 35-38 Park Row (1883-86, N.G. Starkweather), a designated New York City Individual Landmark. This twelve-story building is composed of a steel frame with limestone, brick, and terra cotta facing. It features five symmetrical bays along the Broadway facade, including a historic granite entryway with a prominent keystone and carved sculptural elements. The similarly designed Astor Place facade has four bays, with a historic storefront at its easternmost bay, and a subway entrance at the base. \--END--