The Painting Industry Building - 45 West 14th Street

 

Although West 14th Street would not be lined with handsome brick and brownstone mansions until the 1840s, at least one business catered to the pioneering homeowners in the district by 1830.  Florist William Wilson & Brother, which operated at 45 West 14th Street, earned two awards in the American Institute of the City of New-York's Third Annual Fair that year--first place in the Table Bouquet category, and second place in Floral Design.

A half a century later, Wilson's florist shop sat within a bustling commercial thoroughfare.  The private homes had been converted to business purposes or were being used as boarding houses.  In the mid-1880s, the furniture store of Bruner & Moore Co. operated next door at 41 and 43 West 14th Street.

Frank Leslie's Illustrated Newspaper, May 25, 1878 (copyright expired)

In 1886, Bruner & Moore Co. acquired 45 West 14th Street and replaced their three vintage buildings with matching, five-story, brownstone-fronted neo-Grec-style structures.  Each of the identical buildings was three bays wide and shared a continuous cornice.  They were completed in 1887.

In an advertisement in The Sun on October 9, 1887, Bruner & Moore Co. boasted, "Having enlarged our warerooms we are now able to exhibit the largest and handsomest assortment ever offered in all the choice designs and novelties of the season."

Bruner & Moore Co. left West 14th Street early in 1893.  On February 15, The Carpet and Upholstery Trade Review noted that carpet and furniture dealer Julius Lewin had taken over two of the buildings--43 and 45.  J. Lewin & Co. advertised its opening on March 21, 1893 with "this unequalled bargain."  Lewin offered a "6-feet oak extension table, with 3 extra leaves, and 6 oak dining chairs" for $6.50.  (The sale price would translate to about $234 in 2025.)

A bachelor, Julius Lewin found romance four years after opening his store here.  On October 7, 1897, Furniture World reported that he would marry Bertha Heineman in Webster Hall on October 29.  "A large number of the groom's friends in the trade are recipients of an invitation," said the article, "and will tender their congratulations on the evening in question."

A fire on the top floor of 45 West 14th Street on June 25, 1900 resulted in the equivalent of $193,000 in damages today.  The Furniture Trade Review noted, however, that J. Lewin & Co. was fully insured.

The three neo-Grec buildings were essentially unchanged in 1941.  No. 45 West 14th Street is marked by the Menter sign over the storefront.  via the NYC Dept of Records & Information Services.

Apparel firms occupied the upper floors of 45 West 14th Street in the post-World War I years.  Among them were S. & B. Summer Clothing and the Admiral Shirt Company.  But the tenant list would greatly change by the outbreak of World War II as offices replaced factories.

The first appears to have been the ungainly-named New York State Board of the American Association for the Recognition of the Irish Republic.  On January 18, 1941, The Advocate reported that association "held its first meeting for the new year at its headquarters, 45 West 14th st."  It was joined in 1955 by the newly organized Painting Industry Insurance Fund.  By 1958, 6,000 union members and 4,000 spouses made use of its Dental Center here.  The U.S. Department of Health, Education, and Welfare's Digest of Prepaid Dental Care Plans in 1958 explained, "employer contributions to the Insurance Fund finance the dental program."

On August 19, 1959, The New York Times reported that the Painting Industry Building Corporation had purchased 45 West 14th Street "for cash."  A separate article noted that the building "will be altered for occupancy by a single tenant."

Those alterations included a remodeling of the facade.  William J. Conklin of the architectural firm of Mayer, Whittlesey & Glass removed the brownstone and replaced it with glass fronted with a screen of projecting arcades of steel and bronze.  The 1967 AIA Guide to New York commented, "Hopefully, this witty and elegant refacing of a tired facade will inspire its neighbors to follow."

In 1971 the building housed offices like the Painting Industry Pension Fund, the Painting Industry Annuity Fund and the Painting Industry Insurance Fund.  

The painters' unions were investigated by Federal and state law enforcement agencies beginning in the late 1980s.  On June 22, 1990, The New York Times reported that 12 men, "including eight top painters' union leaders," had been indicted and "accused of participating in a Mafia-led conspiracy."  The article continued,

The indictments portrayed the Lucchese organized crime family as the secret power in the city's multimillion-dollar painting industry for more than a decade...The Mafia imposed a hidden 10 percent tax on municipal contracts for painting subways, bridges, schools and highways and on bills paid by private developers who built skyscrapers and apartment buildings.

Among those indicted were "two suspected chiefs in the Lucchese family--Anthony (Gaspipe) Casso and Peter (Big Pete) Chiodo--as well as two painting company executives and eight top officials in the city's painters' union, the International Brotherhood of Painters and Allied Trades District Council 9."

Until June 1989, James D. Bishop served as secretary-treasurer of the International Brotherhood of Painters and Allied Trades District Council No. 9.  The New York Times said he "was influential in the city's construction trades from 1973 to 1989."  Starting as a bridge painter after leaving the Marine Corps, he became active in Local 806 and in 1973 was elected secretary-treasurer of District Council 9.

Bishop, it seems, was not ready to resign.  Law enforcement officials "said he had been forced out by leaders in the Lucchese crime family," said The Times.  Bishop's abrupt removal, apparently, was prompted by the mob's suspicion that Bishop was cooperating with investigators.  And, indeed, on May 18, 1990, The New York Times described him as "an important witness in a major labor-racketeering investigation."

The 60-year-old would not have a chance to testify.  On May 17, 1990, he backed his Lincoln sedan out of a parking space at an apartment building in Whitestone, Queens.  A man walked up to the closed drivers' side window and fired eight shots through the glass.  Bishop was hit "at least three times in the head and chest," according to The New York Times.  He put his automobile in forward gear and drove about 150 feet before striking a wooden fence.  His body was found slumped over the wheel.  Prosecutor Michael G. Cherkasky declared, "It was absolutely a mob hit--no doubt about it."

Bishop's death ultimately did not derail the Government's case.  Eleven of the 12 defendants pleaded guilty and were sentenced to prison, including Paul Kamen, who replaced Bishop as secretary-treasurer of District Council 9.

William J. Conklin's Modernist facade stands out along West 14th Street.  In 2010 the AIA Guide to New York City, which hoped in 1967 that "it will inspire its neighbors to follow," said, "They didn't."

photographs by the author