The Locomobile Company Building - 16-24 West 61st Street

Founded in 1899, the Locomobile Company of America produced steam-driven cars in its Bridgeport, Connecticut facility until 1903.  That year the firm switched its entire production to internal combustion powered, high-end automobiles.  Its New York City offices and showrooms had been located at Broadway and 76th Street since its inception.

The Locomobile Company of America had outgrown its Broadway and 76th Street building by 1912.  A sign on the building announces its upcoming relocation to 61st Street.  photographer unknown from the collection of the Museum of the City of New York

But by 1912 space in that building had become unacceptably tight.  On January 7 that year the New-York Tribune reported on an innovative scheme the firm had devised to address the space problem.  "It has conceived the idea of constructing miniature models, painted in harmonious color combinations and made to exact scale, thus giving the true lines of the cars."  The scale models exhibited the paint variations and diverse models in a small area.

But that solution was merely temporary.  The day before the Tribune's article the Record & Guide had announced that the Locomobile Company of America had hired the architectural firm of Kirby & Petit to design an impressive structure for its headquarters, showroom, and automobile service department.  It would replace the old houses at Nos. 16 through 24 West 61st Street, and the one directly behind at No. 25 West 60th Street.

Kirby & Petit's rendering of the proposed building was impressive.  Real Estate Record & Guide, January 6, 1912 (copyright expired)

But the Locomobile Company of America rethought the ambitious plan.  A year later the project had still not moved forward and on February 1, 1913 the Record & Guide reported that the firm had sold the old buildings to developer R. E. Pinchot.  "On the combined plot Mr. Pinchot will erect a 12-sty building and will lease it for 21 years to the selling company."  He had paid the Locomobile Company of America $300,000 for the property, and his architect, Walter Haefeli, estimated the cost of the building at another $400,000.  That brought the total outlay for the project to $18.3 million in today's dollars.

The building, reduced to eleven floors, was completed by the end of the year.  And while it was admittedly not outwardly as architecturally striking as Kirby & Petit's; Haefeli's functional design and the location caught national attention within the automobile industry.

For one thing, the building did not sit directly on "Automobile Row."  Broadway north of Herald Square was lined with the headquarters of automobile-related firms.  Automobile Topics explained on January 31, 1914 "Placed in this position, the branch is in very nearly the center of the automobile district of Broadway, but by being on a side street, the high rents of the famous thoroughfare are escaped.  At the same time, nearly all the advantages of a Broadway location are secured."  The article continued "Due to the wideness of the angle with which Sixty-first street meets Broadway, the Locomobile building is in easy view from the latter street, and its pleasing front dressed with brown brick sets if off from all the surrounding structures."

Automobile Topics, January 31, 1914 (copyright expired)

The street level on 61st Street was taken up by vast show windows.  The Locomobile Company of America reserved six floors totaling 61,600 square feet for its own use, which left five floors for rental purposes.

It was the rear of the building that most impressed the auto industry.  Where the old brownstone had stood was now a long drive, capable of accommodating two cars--one in either direction.  It led to a large elevator which took vehicles to the Locomobile service department or to the floors of auto-related tenants.  

The Automobile, on February 5, 1914, wrote "The main feature of the building, from a constructional point of view is the fact that the freight elevator is entirely outside the building...The elevator itself is one of the largest in the world."  It could carry, said the article, two automobiles at a time.  The exterior elevator not only freed up floor space inside the building; but "saves all the space which is usually required for maneuvering cars in order to get them on the elevator."

Automobile Topics explained "On driving his car on the elevator, the chauffeur leaves it, and walks through a short alley into the rear entrance of the station proper, passing by a checking room.  He may then go to the floor above, to the offices of the service department proper, to make out his order sheet, telling what he wants to be done on the car."

A driveway between two old brownstones lead to the automobile elevator in the rear. Automobile Topics, January 31, 1914 (copyright expired)
  

Automobile Topics was impressed that "Instead of leaving the chauffeur or owner to fill out his order blank unassisted, an inspector is assigned to him.  He is met promptly on coming into the room by one of the clerks, who make it a special duty to see that everyone is promptly greeted and his business attended to."

One of the service floors in the building.  Automobile Topics, January 31, 1914 (copyright expired)

Repairing the automobiles sometimes required a blacksmith's expertise.  On the 11th floor was the "forge room" for just that purpose.  Automobile Topics explained that New York Fire Department regulations forbade open fires within a building.  But the architect had deftly side-stepped that restriction.  "At the Locomobile station, however, by means of fire walls and an air well one corner of the eleventh floor has been so completely shut off from the rest of the building as to pass the fire inspectors.  This means that it is possible for car parts that may need the application of a flame, as in welding, to be worked upon without removal from the car, and without taking the open flame into the station proper."

The manager's office and the Locomobile showroom.  The Automobile, February 5, 1914 (copyright expired)

On announcing that the firm had moved into its new building, New York manager John F. Plummer reminded customers of the firm's two mottoes:  "Quality instead of Quantity" and "Service above Sales."  He added "Our manufacturing rule never to produce more than Four Cars a Day keeps the Locomobile demand and the Locomobile Supply in a perpetually safe ratio."

The five rental floors filled quickly with automotive firms.  On June 21, 1914 the New-York Tribune reported that the Marmon Company "has leased the entire eighth floor in the modern building at 16 to 24 West 61st st., and is fitting up one of the finest service departments to be found in the city...A fully equipped machine shop is in process of installation.  It is to be fitted with everything necessary to turn out good automobile repair work, and the mechanics will all be men families with the Marmon car."

Vehicles like this 1914 Marmon Model 48 would have been serviced on the 8th floor.

Other tenants by 1915 were the Stevens-Durea automobile service department, the Franklin Auto Company, and the business office of John Philip Sousa, Jr.--the latter an exception to the automobile tenant list.  Although the son of the famous bandleader was described in newspapers as a musician, he dabbled in real estate and other businesses.

The following year the Springfield Body Co. and the Redden Motor Truck Co. leased space.  That same year Locomobile's idea of building on the side street rather than on Broadway was copied by another major manufacturer.  On December 9, 1916 the Record & Guide reported that the Packard Motor Car Company had paid $200,000 for the four-story apartment houses at Nos. 27 through 33 West 61st Street.  The article noted "This recent purchase makes 61st street an important automobile side street, the Locomobile Company having their headquarters immediately opposite."

Life Magazine, 1915 (copyright expired)

John Philip Sousa, Jr. was heading home from the Locomobile Building on Thursday night, December 20, 1916 when he turned from businessman to hero.  The New York Times reported "When a woman screamed on Park Avenue, near Thirty-fourth Street, early last evening and said that a man had snatched her wristbag, John Philip Sousa, Jr. of 16 West Sixty-first Street, took up the chase and caught the fugitive on Thirty-fourth Street between Park an Madison Avenues.  Sousa held his captive until a policeman arrived."

Sousa appeared in General Sessions court on January 11, 1917.  He identified Albert Steiger as the man whom he saw "waylay a woman on Park Avenue and steal a pocketbook from her."  The Evening World described Steiger as "a homeless wanderer" and said he pleaded guilty, saying only that "he was hungry and fell to temptation."  When Sousa realized the man's plight, he offered to give him money, but the judge refused the gestured.

The building continued to lure automobile firms.  In January 1918 the Franklin Motor Car expanded into another floor; Asch & Co., Inc., makers of auto accessories like automobile straps, funnels and measures, and auto buckets leased space in 1919; and the Lexington Motor Company took a floor that same year.

The shaft of the automobile elevator survives.

Also leasing space in the building in 1919 was the Allen Auto Specialty Company, headed by William A. Allen.  Allen had invented a protective covering for tires which was sold world-wide.  Another invention, the Shutter Front, helped prevent cold air from lowering the temperature of the radiator in winter months.

The Sun, June 1, 1919 (copyright expired)

In 1919 The League for Motorists' Protection had its headquarters in the building.  On November 23 the New-York Tribune reported "The league holds to the theory that any businessman who retains in his employ a chauffeur of proven recklessness is in some measure, at least, responsible in the event that chauffeur, through recklessness, injures or kills a pedestrian or an operator of another motor vehicle."

William Allen was most likely on board with the League.  Five months earlier The Sun had reported that Genji Kaneko, "a Japanese chauffeur, who for upward of ten years past has been employed by various wealthy families," was "quite the heaviest batter in this speed league."  Already that year he had been involved in three collisions, two of them within only a few days of being hired by Mrs. A. W. Malley.

"On Wednesday he fouled a car owned by William A. Allen, president and treasurer of the Allen Auto Specialty Company of 16 West Sixty-first street, into the grass off the West Drive in Central Park...At the time of the collision with Mr. Allen's car he had a maid and two children in the machine that he was driving."

Ornamentation was reserved for the lower floors, visible to pedestrians, and the upper two floors, seen by workers in other tall buildings.  The central section was left mostly undecorated.

A Locomobile of America advertisement in the New-York Tribune on September 9, 1920 clearly indicated the expense of its luxury cars.  It said that the firm 20-year old principle of design satisfied "the requirements of men and women to whom quality is essential and price immaterial."

But the esteemed firm was in trouble.  Earlier that year a full-page advertisement placed by Hare's Motors in The Sun announced that the firm was now operating three makers, Locomobile, Mercer Motors Co., and Simplex Automobile Company, Inc.  The following year, in July 22, Locomobile was acquired by Durant Motors.  That firm would continued using the Locomobile brand name until 1929, when Locomobile ceased to exist.

The early 1920's saw new tenants, including the Cole Motor Car Company, which took two floors in 1921, and the American Taximeter Company, which took one.  

By the 1930's other industries were represented in the building.  Although auto firms, like the Checker Cab Company which ran its used car dealership here, continued to lease space, in 1931 sculptor and art instructor Alexander Archipenko had his studio in the building.  On March 12 that year The Kingston Daily Freeman reported "Mr. Archipenko teaches sculpture, painting and drawing at his present art school, located at 16 West 61st street, New York city."

Another unexpected tenant was the Needlework Guild of America.  On November 3, 1933 The New York Times reported on its annual meeting, this one focusing on a clothing drive for the needy.  "Around the walls of the loft were numbers of sacks filled with new garments which will be distributed among the 300 charitable organizations the guild has aided in the past."

The Telautograph Company was here by 1935 when one of its employees, Jerry Kelly, got into serious trouble.  When cab driver Morris Brayer stepped away from his taxi on December 10, Kelly jumped in a drove away.  The Poughkeepsie Eagle-News reported "Curiously Kelly was trapped through the medium of his own daily employment, the teletype system."  His description and that of the cab were sent off to police stations and he was quickly nabbed.

Other tenants in the building in the 1930's and '40's included the Stutz New York Co., the Barclay Manufacturing Company, makers of "tileboards," the Chevrolet Finance Outlet (where used Chevy's were sold), and the Haver Company, distributors of automobile parts.

Like Locomobiles, the Stutz vehicles were not cheap.  An advertisement in The New York Sun on July 28, 1931 announced "The New 'DV-32' Stutz," a "straight-eight with thirty-two valves."  The prices began at $4,895--about $80,700 today.

1931 Stutz DV-32 models like the one above were seen in the 61st Street showrooms. image via rmsothebys.com

On August 8, 1942 The New York Times ran a small headline reading "More Icebox Space," and announced that Nash-Kelvinator had taken space in the building.  "The lessee will combine its automotive and refrigerator divisions into one large office, display room and parts warehouses."

The Telautograph Company was still in the building at the time and would remain for at least another three years.  In 1953 Allen Auto Specialty Company was still here after at least 35 years when its founder William A. Allen died in October.  And Nash-Kelvinator, too, was still operating here.

Lehr Distributors, Inc., sellers of auto parts and electrical appliances were in the building by 1958.  Its 25-year old bookkeeper, Nancy Von Dolin, was arrested in June that year for embezzling nearly $13,000 over a period of time.  Her finagling of the books was discovered when a customer was pressed for a $2,000 debt and provided a cancelled check as proof of payment.  Nancy had so far absconded around $113,000 in today's money.

A renovation completed in 1974 resulted in a parking garage on the 60th street side.  Another, completed in 1986, converted the upper floors to offices and studios.  And in then in 2008 a renovation was completed for the New York Institute of Technology which now used the 6th through 10th floors as classrooms and part of the 11th as a lecture hall.

Rather surprisingly, throughout its long history and various uses, the exterior of the Locomobile Company Building has been only slightly altered; its handsome brick and limestone facade looking much as it did with wealthy car shoppers peered through the plate glass windows.

photographs by the author

The 1904 First Battery Armory -- No. 56 West 66th St.

In 1881 command of the National Guard’s First Battery was given to Captain Louis Wendel.  Since the unit’s organization from Civil War veterans in 1867 (then known as Battery K), it had had only one commander, a Captain Heubner.  Now the First Battery moved to headquarters at No. 334-346 West 44^th Street, over Captain Wendel’s saloon.

Composed mostly of German-Americans, the First Battery seems to have followed its own course.  According to armory historian Nancy L. Todd it had ‘its own Teutonic-inspired traditions and uniforms.”  Its new leader was highly connected with Tammany Hall figures; and in addition to his saloon he operated hotels and other “places of amusement.”

Running a National Guard unit from above a barroom would have been both inappropriate and humiliating, and it appears it was Captain Louis Wendel who most vigorously pushed for a suitable armory.   Finally, on January 17, 1900 the New-York Tribune reported that the Armory Board had received $115,681.15 from the Mayor’s office for the land needed for the First Battery Armory.  The plot was located on West 66^th Street and Central Park West.

Politics came into play over the choice of architects.  Brigadier-General McCoskry Butt felt that it should be a military decision.  Tammany Hall disagreed.  A month after the land was purchased, the Tribune wrote “When the question of preparing plans first came up General Butt wanted the [Armory] Board to select the firm of architects, but the Mayor objected saying that it was the business of Commissioner Kearny.”

In fact, Tammany Mayor Robert Anderson Van Wyck, had a pet firm—Horgan & Slattery—and he made sure most city commissions went to them.  A few years later, on March 8, 1903, The New York Times flatly explained the corrupt arrangement.  “Horgan & Slattery, architects, during Mayor Van Wyck’s administration drew plans for mud scows and also got jobs on public buildings ranging from a $100 alteration to a $4,000,000 Hall of Records.  Everything artistic and inartistic was put in the way of the Tammany ‘official’ architects because they had the support of John F. Carroll and Mayor Van Wyck.”

The General was powerless to choose the architects; but was permitted to give input on the design.  The New-York Tribune noted “Mr. Kearny selected Horgan & Slattery.  General Butt objected to the first draft of the plans, and as a member of a committee, with Commissioner Kearny, he revised them.”

Horgan & Slattery took their time in producing the finished designs; a matter that annoyed the General and the rest of the Armory Board.  When the Board met in the middle of October 1900 the lack of plans ignited a fury.   General Butt protested “that the preparation of the specifications was but a few days’ work.”  Captain Louis Wendell chimed in.  The New-York Tribune said he “made strenuous objection to the long delay in beginning work on the armory.  He said that the money for the work was appropriated nearly two years ago.”

The architects were ordered to produce plans within a week.  On October 24 The New York Times reported “The filing of the plans and specifications is said to be due to a little agitation of that subject at last week’s meeting of the Armory Board.  At that time Brig Gen. McCoskry Butt called attention to the fact that the board had passed upon the plans eight months ago, and that there the matter had rested.”

It would be nearly a full year before the cornerstone was laid.  But finally, on September 21, 1901, with the foundation laid, the ceremonies took place.  The New York Times said “With picturesque ceremonies and a gorgeous display of gaily colored uniforms the First Battery of the National Guard laid the cornerstone of its new armory, in West Sixty-sixth Street, yesterday afternoon.”

All 106 members rode on horseback to the site led by Captain Wendel.  A band played and crowds listened to a short address by City Council President Randolph Guggenheimer who noted “This battery, composed mostly of German-Americans, was one of which all citizens should be proud.”

                                                                                                                 

With the bank playing “Nearer, My God, to Thee,” Guggenheimer smoothed the mortar with a silver trowel, then dropped coins and other mementos into the cornerstone.  A derrick lifted the heavy stone into place as the band struck up the National Anthem.

Newspapers reported on the rising structure, estimated to cost $175,000.  “The officers of the battery claim that it will be the most conveniently arranged armory in the whole city,” reported The Times.  The proposed design included a central tower “for signaling purposes.”  Inside, the first floor housed a concrete-floored drill room, a riding ring, and offices.  Below street level were stalls for 76 horses, a 50-yard rifle range and 25-yard pistol range.  Also in the basement were “shower baths, toilet rooms, ammunition compartments, and shell, harness, and boiler rooms.”

The second floor contained locker rooms, commissioned officers’ rooms, a gymnasium and a kitchen.  The third floor was dedicated to Captain Wendel’s apartment, his clerk’s apartment and a janitor’s apartment.

Finally, on February 3, 1904 the new Mayor turned over the gold key to the armory to Captain Wendel.  Horgan & Slattery’s exterior design was as much about function as it was romantic medieval fantasy.  At 175-feet wide, it reproduced a crenulated fortress with turrets, loop holes, sally ports and other elements necessary to defend the unit from siege.   The final cost of the armory--$125,000 for the land and $118,000 for the structure—would equate to about $6.7 million in 2015.

 

The armory on opening day. -- New-York Tribune, February 4, 1904 (copyright expired)

Instead of military sieges, the new armory quickly became the scene of sporting and social events.  Just three weeks after the unit moved in a most unusual demonstration took place.  On February 25, 1904 The Evening World reported that a young woman from Brooklyn, Victoria Jarvis, had accepted the challenge to ride a bucking bronco here.

The confident city girl took on a bucking bronco in the riding ring here in 1904 -- The Evening World, February 25, 1904 (copyright expired)

The girl received permission from her parents after “she assured them that she would have no trouble in handling the animal.”  The World said “The bronco recently arrived from the West.  The animal, it is said, has unseated many good riders.  Those who have tried to master it have found the task difficult, for the animal, after going a few paces, usually throws the rider.”

Victoria’s Brooklyn girlfriends had confidence in her, saying “she has ridden many mettlesome horses.”  And the self-assured Victoria boasted to reporters “I believe I will have no trouble in retaining my seat on the bronco. I understand that he is rather a wild little animal, but that does not matter, for I am used to horses.”

One wonders if the Brooklyn girl truly understood the differences between East Coast horses and wild West bucking broncos.  Sadly, we may never know, as newspapers failed to follow-up on the story.

Expense was incurred in the elaborate, variegated brickwork.

Two years after the armory was completed, scandal visited West 61^st Street.  With Captain Louis Wendel’s Tammany Hall buddies mostly gone; his shady operations drew to a close.  On December 26, 1906 he was arrested for graft and corruption.  The Sun reported that he had been charged “as an officer of the State with having unlawfully received money for the performance of certain of his duties.”

Within two months Wendel had tendered his resignation.  The public indignity threatened the very survival of the First Battery.  Major General Charles F. Roe, commander of the National Guard of the State, wrote a letter that said in part “I have the honor to inclose herewith…the resignation of Capt Wendel from the National Guard.”  He added “The condition of the First Battery is such that I am convinced that it would be in the very best interests of the service to disband it.”

It was only through the intercession of Adjt. Gen. Nelson H. Henry that the unit was saved.  He countered that to disband the unit while Wendel’s case was pending “might tend to impair the ends of justice.”

                                                                                                                                                                             

While the ugly court case continued, the 61^st Street armory added another unit, the First Field Hospital.  But, as had been the case during the Spanish-American War when Wendel offered the First Battery’s service and was denied; the members would see World War I come and go without seeing action.

Instead, throughout the war the 61^st Street armory was best known as a wrestling and boxing match venue.  The events were initially staged as part of the war effort.  On November 21, 1919 the New-York Tribune noted “Major J. Franklin Dunseith, commanding officer of the First Field Hospital, New York Guard, last night appointed Billy Roche to manage a big wrestling show, which will be staged at the armory of the First Field Hospital, 56 West Sixty-sixth Street, next Wednesday night.  This show will be staged as a part of a recruiting campaign and will be open to the general public.”

A boxing match that month featured “Paddy Burns, formerly of the Third American Army, and Bushy Graham, formerly of the Second American Army,” according to The Sun, “for the benefit of the American Red Cross.”

But long after the war ended, well into the Depression years, the armory was still best known as a boxing and wrestling arena.  One event in particular ended badly on November 3, 1922.  Lightweight boxer Albert Press entered the ring against Castos Limperoplus that night.  The New-York Tribune reported “it was a fast mill up to the sixth, with Press getting the better of the argument.  The Greek went down four times, taking the count of nine twice.”

Then things took an ugly turn for Press.  “In the sixth he braced and as Press came from his corner, Limperoplus let fly a left hook, striking Press on the temple.  The latter was dragged to his corner unconscious.”

The following morning Press was still unconscious at Bellevue Hospital, diagnosed with a fractured skull.  His opponent was arrested “and paroled pending Press’s recovery.”

A far less violent event was the Open Exhibition of Colorful Tropical Birds and Canary Types which opened on December 3, 1949.  By now military activity in the armory was nearly non-existent.  Finally in 1976 the building was decommissioned and renovated by the architectural firm Kohn Pederson Fox for use as ABC television studios.

In 2003 ABC Television Network commissioned architect Cosmo Veneziale to restore the façade and create appropriate replacement windows.  The romantic fortress, with its history of corruption, scandal and tepid function as a military facility, stands as a colorful side note in the history of the Upper West Side.

photographs by the author

The Kent Automatic Garage -- Nos. 35-43 W. 61st Street

In the first decades of the 20^th century the corner of 61^st Street and Columbus Avenue was just two blocks south of the notorious slum known as San Juan Hill.   But unlike that dangerous and crime-ridden neighborhood; the area around the apartment building at No. 43 West 61^st Street was quite respectable.  The New York Times described one floor-through apartment here in 1910 as “a handsome one, luxuriously furnished.”

At the time, tremendous change was taking place throughout the country.  Automobiles were overtaking horse-drawn vehicles as the preferred mode of transportation.  By the 1920s garages were sprouting throughout New York, capable of housing large numbers of cars.  Among the most ambitious of these were the Kent Automatic Garages.

Milton A. Kent was president of the firm which went far beyond the normal ramped garages.  In March 1928 he and his brother started construction on a $1.4 million structure at No. 211 East 43^rd Street capable of housing 1,000 vehicles.  It would be the first of the Kent chain of garages in the city.  Kent’s automatic “car hotels” went further than normal garages.  The New York Times said on March 25, 1928 “car owners will experience for the first time the luxury of fast and safe ground-floor receipt and delivery of their cars.”

Once the chauffeur or owner dropped off his car at street level, the Kent brothers’ patented machinery took over.  The entire facility was manned by as few as six employees, while a system of self-leveling elevators--moving at one floor per second--and electric automatic "parkers" handled the cars.  The parkers were small rubber-tired mechanisms that coupled with the rear axle.  Within only 15 seconds the parker could move the vehicle 60 feet from the elevator to either park or retrieve it.

Only eight months later Michael Kent announced plans for his second garage.  The site where the apartment house at 61^st Street and Columbus Avenue stood was purchased and on October 31, 1928 Kent declared his intentions to build a 25-story duplicate of the 43^rd Street garage.   Directly next door were the Packard auto showrooms.

The architectural firm of Jardine, Hill & Murdock, who had designed the 43^rd Street garage, filed plans.  Consistent with the up-to-the-minute technology inside, the façade was a jazzy show of the wildly popular Art Deco style.   Orange brick was highlighted by black brick bands and Art Deco designs.

But at street level the architects let loose with vibrant terra cotta ornamentation.  Aztec-inspired, cream and royal blue tiles appeared as chevrons and medallions around the vast car bays and as punctuation of setbacks and parapets of the upper floors.  The New York Times summed it up succinctly:  “The building is of modernistic design.”

The new “automobile hotel” was opened on July 30, 1930, nine months following the stock market crash.  The Times described the automatic operation.  “An electric carriage was sent out from the elevator and operating on a belt placed under the car.  The rear of the car was raised and it was pulled to the elevator and lifted to the proper floor, where the electric carriage sent it out to a parking space and was then returned to the elevator.”

Patrons paid $.50 per hour for the first two hours, and $.05 each hour after.  If they desired, they could make use of the “luxurious lounging and rest rooms” of the second floor.  But in the hard times of the Great Depression, average citizens found other purposes for their money.  In September 1931 the Kent Automatic Garage firm failed.   The building continued to be used as a garage, without the Kent Brothers.

It struggled along until 1943 when the Sophia Brothers Warehouse purchased the building from the Central Savings Bank.   Renovations for the warehousing business were executed by architect George S. Kingsley and required, among other things, the removal of Kent’s complex machinery.   Although the firm would remain in the building for years, it appears that there were, at least initially, some financial problems.  In March 1946 Supreme Court Justice Aron Steuer granted Sophia Brothers a 49% tax relief retroactively for the years 1942 through 1945.

The 61st Street car bay was a scaled-down version of the avenue opening.

By mid-century the building was used as much as offices as warehouse.  In February 1954 Sophia Brothers Warehouse signed a significant lease when rented a full floor to De Luxe Pictures.  The new tenant used the space for the “storage and distribution of motion picture films.” 

The eclectic use of the building continued when the offices of the Foster Parents' Plan opened here.  On April 24, 1956 Elizabeth M. Whitmore, director of the Foster Parents’ Plan in Munich, spoke to reporters about the work with German civilian war victims from the Sophia Brothers building.

She said that “German camps for displaced persons have not been closed, but merely renamed Refugee Camps,” and that the agency “was caring for 1,300 distressed children…most of them living in settlements or barracks.”  American citizens were urged to foster a child living in these quarters.

A few months later the Foster Parents’ Plan announced a drive “for funds to buy 100,000 wool scarves and mittens for destitute children in Europe.”  Its focus was quickly diverted when the Hungarian Government collapsed and the Soviet army invaded.   Refugees began arriving in New York City.  On November 25, 1956 The New York Times reported that the “sixth and seventh planes to bring Hungarian refugees from Soviet tyranny landed in the United States last night.”  The State Department directed New Yorkers to the Foster Parents’ Plan office here to leave donations.

A pedestrian entrance carried on the motif.

Throughout the next three decades the building continued to be used by media companies—like Sterling Movies USA which distributed television movies, and Folkways Records and Service Corporation—and by other firms including the Public Service Mutual offices and Manhattan Cable Studios which initiated a two-way cable TV system here in 1971.

Major change came when the Sophia family eventually sold the building.  A $40 million joint venture by Aaron Green Companies and British Land of America converted it to a mixed-use condominium.  Completed in 1984, it included 17 residential floors of 94 apartments and 65,000 square feet of office space.  The architects, Alan Lapidus Assocs., Rothzeid Kaiserman Thompson & Bee, and Abraham Rothenberg, paid special attention to the Art Deco façade, carefully restoring the brick and terra cotta.  Before the project was completed the College Board had already purchased the nine floors of offices.

The College Review Board remained in the building until 2015, when Fordham University took over its nine floors as offices for faculty and administrators from 18 departments.  The handsome automobile hotel is a striking reminder of the Kent Brothers’ fantastic vision of housing motorcars.

photographs by the author