Buchman & Kahn's 1926 Hoffmann Building - 79 Madison Avenue

In 1914, millionaire real estate operator Robert W. Goelet announced that he would erect a "16-story brick fireproof store and loft building" on the northeast corner of Madison Avenue and 28th Street.  Architects Warren & Wetmore projected the cost of the project at $350,000.  The firm had recently designed the new Grand Central Terminal, which was completed the previous year.

For some reason, however, the project did not go forward.  Instead, eleven years later, the 79 Madison Ave. Corp., headed by Harris H. Uris, acquired the property and hired Buchman & Kahn to design an office and loft building on the parcel.  On June 6, 1925, the New York Evening Post reported that the architects, "have placed the estimated cost at $3,500,000 for land and building."  The figure would translate to about $60.8 million in 2025.  The article noted, "The building is expected to be ready for occupancy about February 1, 1926."

Buchman & Kahn designed the 16-story building in the Renaissance Revival style.  The three-story base was faced in stone.  The first and second floors were designed as a segmental arcade, the spandrels of which were filled with deep red, veined stone.  The reeded pilasters of the third floor were decorated with carved bands.  They upheld a remarkable intermediate cornice that smacked of Egyptian lotus capitals.  It was adorned with full relief, carved rosettes.

Above the 12th floor--decorated with stone and terra cotta panels--were two setbacks, at the 13th and the 14th through 16th floors.

photograph by Sigurd Fischer from the collection of the Museum of the City of New York

The New York Evening Post remarked, "The architects have introduced every detail of modern business building design in the layout and plan, including ceiling heights of unusual liberality, [and] four freight and four passenger elevators."  The most noticeable ceiling height of "unusual liberality" was the ground floor, which was nearly double height.  It was leased to the Equitable Trust Company in January 1926.

The Hoffmann Building attracted a variety of tenants.  Initial lessees were apparel-related firms like The Rubber Reducing Corset Co. and Barton's Bias Narrow Fabric Co.  Publisher G. K. Hanchett was also an initial tenant.  The firm published periodicals like Good Hardware and Progressive Grocer.  Other early tenants were accountant Leonard Levine; the French-based fabric firm of Seydoux & Michau; and Anderson, Meyer & Co., Inc., dealers of antimony.  (Antimony is a gray metal, used in alloys.)

The Corset and Underwear Review, April, 1926 (copyright expired)

G. K. Hanchett remained in the building well into the Depression years.  Another publisher, Frederick Warne & Co., which dealt in children's books, leased space in 1944.

The second half of the century saw the tenant list of 79 Madison Avenue filling with focus-related groups.  The City Youth Board was here in the late 1950s through mid-1960s.  At the same time, the Committee for the Monroe Doctrine and the Committee of One Million Against the Admission of Communist China to the United Nations were here.  The 1970s and 1980s saw the Council for Agencies Servicing the Blind, the National Association of Social Workers, and the New York Coalition for Safety Belt Use leasing space.

Image by Wurts Bros., 1936, from the collection of the Museum of the City of New York

In the meantime, Dodd, Mead & Co. signed a lease for the eighth floor in September 1966.  The New York Times reported that the book publisher, "will use the space for new editorial, executive and business offices beginning in February."  The firm would remain for decades.

Occupying space at the time was the public relations firm Marvin Liebman Associates.  During the 1964 Presidential campaign, the firm did the public relations work for the Barry Goldwater organization.  

Two interesting tenants here as early as the 1980s were Sparkman and Stephens, Inc. and the German Wine Information Bureau.  Sparkman and Stephens, Inc. offered an upscale service--chartering more than 350 yachts including captain and crew.  According to Joanne A. Fishman, writing in The New York Times on May 30, 1982, the winter charters were mostly in the Caribbean.  In the summer months, however, they "run mostly in New England, the Mediterranean, the Baltic, off Norway, Sweden and Denmark and the English Coast."

Buchmand & Kahn placed intricate sunflower screens above the entrance doors. photograph by Sigurd Fischer from the collection of the Museum of the City of New York

As its name implied, the German Wine Information Bureau disseminated the nuances of German wines.  In November 1985, New Yorkers who were seriously interested in learning about them could enroll in the German Wine Academy here.  Its five-month seminars took the enrollees to the vineyards and wineries of the German wine regions.  The German Wine Information Bureau operated here at least through 1988.

F. Schumacher & Co. became an important tenant beginning in the late 1980s.  Established in 1889, the privately held textile firm designs and manufactures wall coverings, drapery fabrics, and other interior design elements.  When the interior of Radio City Music Hall was restored, F. Schumacher & Co. reproduced the 1931 original carpets and wall coverings.

On June 30, 1995, Newsday reported that F. Schumacher & Co. "is expanding at 79 Madison Ave. by leasing an addition 16,000 square feet to house office and showroom space."

Modernization of vintage buildings most often attack the lower floors, obliterating the original designs as mismatched storefronts are installed.  But 79 Madison Avenue happily escaped that fate.  Although the magnificent entrances have been streamlined and their ornate screens scrapped, overall Buchman & Kahn's 1926 structure survives intact.

photographs by the author