Robert Maynicke's 1903 130-132 Fifth Avenue

 

image via loopnet.com

In 1874, piano maker Chickering & Sons invaded Manhattan's mansion district by erecting a piano showroom and concert hall on the northwest corner of Fifth Avenue and 18th Street.  For nearly three decades Chickering Hall would be one of the city's foremost music venues.  But at the turn of the century, the entertainment district and its wealthy patrons had moved northward.  The last concert in Chickering Hall took place in 1901.

Soon afterward, on December 8, The New York Times reported, "A new mercantile structure will soon rise on the site of Chickering Hall."  The venerable concert hall was razed and in 1902 excavation for the foundations of an 11-story business building began.  Developer Henry Corn was busily transforming the district from private homes to loft and office buildings.  He hired Robert Maynicke, of the architectural firm of Maynicke & Franke, to design the structure.  The two men had a close relationship and Maynicke, in fact, was simultaneously designing a similar 11-story building four blocks to the south at 84-90 Fifth Avenue.

Maynicke filed the plans on April 4, 1902, placing the construction cost at $600,000--about $22.6 million in 2025.  A month later, the excavation became the site of tragedy.  On May 27, 1902, an excited crowd of viewers crammed the area to view a parade welcoming the Rochambeau Delegation to the city.  (The group of distinguished French Governmental representatives and military figures were in the U.S. to dedicate a memorial to Jean-Baptiste-Donatien de Vimeur, Comte de Rochambeau, in Washington.)  The New York Times reported, "About 100 persons...were precipitated to the bottom of the deep excavation on the site of Chickering Hall...shortly after 6 o'clock last evening by the collapse of a large section of a temporary bridge or sidewalk thrown across the front of the pit."  One man died instantly and “at least fifty were so seriously injured that they either had to receive medical attention on the spot or else were driven away in carriages,” said the police report.

The structure was completed in 1903.  Maynicke disguised its steel frame skeleton by placing heavy, rusticated piers along the three-story base--mimicking load-bearing masonry construction.  There were two entrances on Fifth Avenue.  One accessed the upper floors and the other the ground floor store.  The northern entrance sat within a striking portico of polished granite columns upholding a Renaissance inspired hood.

The upper floors were clad in tan brick and trimmed with stone, their corners distinguished with stone quoins.  Typical of Maynicke's style, the windows of the eighth and ninth floors were arranged in stacked groups.  They sat within Gibbs-style elliptically arched frames.

image via the NYC Dept of Records & Information Services.

The building filled, mostly, with apparel-related firms.  Among the first was Stein-Bloch Co., a wholesale tailor which had operated for years at 718-720 Broadway.  In its March 1903 issue, The Clothier & Furnisher reported that the firm's loft, "is being fitted up in the most artistic manner, and when completed will be models of convenience and attractiveness."

The Clothier & Furnisher, March 1903 (copyright expired)

Other initial tenants included Marks Rosenberg & Bros., lace and millinery importers; Burr & Hardwick, dealers in trimmings; and the dry goods firm of P. K. Wilson & Son.  Decidedly not part of the apparel industry was S. Sanford & Sons, which sold floor coverings.

Burr & Hardwick included a rendering of the new building in its moving announcement.  Dry Goods Reporter, January 3, 1903 (copyright expired)

Marks Rosenberg & Bros., which was based in Paris, was described by The Evening World as "one of the largest millinery importing houses in America."  It consisted of Jules, Hugo, and Max Rosenberg.  (Max managed the Paris concern.)  

Jules and Hugo Rosenberg were drawn into an uncomfortable position in the spring of 1905 when Parisian-born traveling  salesman Hugo Jacobson committed suicide by shooting himself in the head at the Hotel Breslin.  Before doing so, he mailed a letter to a friend, saying where his body could be found.  He also left a note on the dresser that read, "Mr. Jules and Hugo Rosenberg of 130 Fifth avenue will take care of me and settle everything."

McClure's, October 1908 (copyright expired)

On January 10, 1908, the 12-story Parker Building on Fourth Avenue (later Park Avenue South) and East 19th Street was gutted by fire.  It was one of the first fires in a high-rise building in the city.  The O. B. Potter Trust, which now owned 130-132 Fifth Avenue, quickly reacted.  On January 22, The Sun reported, "Plans have been filed for equipping the eleven story Mercantile Building at Nos. 130 and 132 Fifth avenue with an auxiliary fire extinguishing plant, supplied by a 15,000 gallon storage tank and two 5,000 gallon pressure tanks."  Architect Francis H. Kimball was hired to make the modifications.

In the summer of 1910, the employees of P. K. Wilson & Co. were moved by newspaper reports of 12-year-old Ethel Worbert, who was knocked down by an Eighth Avenue streetcar and hospitalized.  On June 26, the New-York Tribune reported, "The case excited much sympathy, as the girl had been accustomed to lead her blind father to and from the Christopher street station of the Hudson tunnel, where he stands all day and sells newspapers."  The P. K. Wilson & Co. workers, who had little money to spare, pooled their resources for the little girl.  The New-York Tribune reported, "Ethel Worbert received $10 through The Tribune some days ago from employe[e]s of the firm of P. K. Wilson & Co., silk merchants."

Marks Rosenberg & Bros. got less favorable press that same month.  The New-York Tribune reported that Jules and Hugo Rosenberg, "along with their brother, Max, who is the Paris manager of the concern, were indicted...on a charge of undervaluing imports entered at the New York Custom House."  Along with the charge of undervaluing $234 worth of goods, said the newspaper, "there are other indictments standing against them."  Jules and Hugo posted $10,000 bail  each awaiting their trial.  (The bail was significant--amounting to about $341,000 each today.)

When the men did not appear in court in October 1910, Marshal Henkel went to 130-132 Fifth Avenue to arrest them.  But they were not there.  Henkel was told they were out of the city.  The New-York Tribune explained, "The offence charged is one for which extradition does not apply, so that if they get out of the country they will be safe from punishment."

Three months later, on January 23, 1911, The Evening World reported that Judge Hand had declared their bail forfeited.  Having closely examined the firm's books, the Government now placed the amount the men had cheated Customs at $250,000 (more than $8.5 million today).  The article said that Jules and Hugo Rosenberg had joined Max in France, adding, "it has been impossible to coax them across from Paris for trial."  In the meantime, their firm had been placed "in other hands, though there has been no change in the sign."

Finally, a compromise between the Government and the brothers was made and Jules and Hugo returned to America in June 1911 and paid $182,436 on the outstanding duty, and $25,000 each in fines.  

In 1915, original tenants in the building like Burr & Hardwick and S. Sanford & Sons were joined with G. C. Batcheller & Co., a corset maker.  The quality of the carpeting sold by S. Sanford & Sons was reflected in a two-day auction held in the building beginning on April 19 that year.  The Sun reported, "Carpets and rugs valued at $4,500,000 will be disposed of."  The article estimated that nearly 2,000 buyers from throughout the country would be in attendance.

image via the NYC Dept of Records & Information Services.

At the time of the auction, Charles Cheever Hardwick, of Burr & Hardwick, was preparing for his semi-annual buying trip to Europe.  Normally his wife accompanied him on these trips, but this time she was nervous about the ongoing war in Europe.  On May 1, Hardwick boarded the RMS Lusitania headed to Liverpool, England.   Six days later, a German U-boat torpedoed the ship off the coast of Ireland.  Among the 1,198 lives that were lost was Charles Hardwick.

On June 21, 1920, Ralph Cherry, a 17-year-old clerk working for P. K. Wilson & Son, purchased $100 in stamps for the shipping room.  Just as he returned, three men stopped him on the sidewalk and asked about possible work.  Suddenly one of them grabbed the parcel.  Cherry fought back and was stabbed in the back, but refused to release the stamps.  The Evening World reported, "The three men, grabbing clubs that looked like baseball bats, went out into the crowds on Fifth Avenue."

Two policemen came to Cherry's aid.  One stayed with the injured clerk and the other chased the would-be robbers.  One of them was captured at Broadway and 17th Street, and another policeman who had joined the chase overcame a second on 18th Street and Fourth Avenue.  Joseph Gardella and Frank Flanio were both 19 years old.  The knife used to stab Cherry was found on Gardella.  Ralph Cherry recovered from his wounds at New York Hospital.

The building continued to house apparel firms into the 1920s.  In 1921 Sanford Narrow Fabric Co. leased a floor, and in 1924 Belcraft Shirt Company moved in.  That year the Chatham and Phenix National Bank converted the ground floor for a branch office.

photograph by the author

That space became home to a Manufacturer Hanover Trust branch in 1970.  It was followed in the early 21st century by an Express retail shop, and a Duane Reade store in 2022.  Robert Maynicke's handsome 1903 design is little changed, including the ground floor and its impressive Renaissance-style entrances.

many thanks to reader Doug Wheeler for prompting this post