The New York County National Bank Building at 77–79 Eighth Avenue at

West 14th Street 14th Street is a major crosstown street in the New York City borough of Manhattan, traveling between Eleventh Avenue on Manhattan's West Side and Avenue C on Manhattan's East Side. It forms a boundary between several neighborhoods and is so ...

in the

Greenwich Village Greenwich Village ( , , ) is a neighborhood on the west side of Lower Manhattan in New York City, bounded by 14th Street to the north, Broadway to the east, Houston Street to the south, and the Hudson River to the west. Greenwich Village ...

neighborhood of

Manhattan Manhattan (), known regionally as the City, is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the five boroughs of New York City. The borough is also coextensive with New York County, one of the original counties of the U.S. state ...

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

– also known as the Manufacturers Hanover Trust Company Building – was built in 1906–07 and was designed by De Lemos & Cordes and Rudolphe L. Daus in the Neoclassical style. A seven-story addition to the south of the building at 75 Eighth Avenue was constructed in 1926. Renovations and a further addition in 1999 were by Lee Harris of the Hudson River Studios and John Reimnitz and mimic the original architecture. On June 7, 1988, the building was designated a New York City landmark by the

New York City Landmark Preservation Commission The New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission (LPC) is the New York City agency charged with administering the city's Landmarks Preservation Law. The LPC is responsible for protecting New York City's architecturally, historically, and cu ...

. It was originally designated under the name "Manufacturers Hanover Trust Company Building".Urbanelli, Elissa; Goeschel, Nancy ed.(June 7, 1988
"Manufacturers Hanover Trust Company Building Designation Report"

As of 2018, the building houses the Museum of Illusions.

History

The New York County National Bank was founded in 1855, and by 1877 occupied the corner lot at Eighth Avenue and 14th Street. In 1905, it bought the lot next door at 77 Eighth Avenue from

John Jacob Astor John Jacob Astor (born Johann Jakob Astor; July 17, 1763 – March 29, 1848) was a German-American businessman, merchant, real estate mogul, and investor who made his fortune mainly in a fur trade monopoly, by smuggling opium into China, and ...

, which was occupied by a printing house. Construction of a new bank building could not begin until the printing house's lease ran out in 1906. The bank commissioned De Lemos and Cordes to design their new building, which was originally to have been eight stories, of which the bank would occupy two, but by the time papers were filed with the city, the building was to be one story with an attic, and De Lemos and Cordes had brought in Rudolphe L. Daus on the project.

R. H. Robertson Robert Henderson Robertson (April 29, 1849 – June 3, 1919) was an American architect who designed numerous houses, institutional and commercial buildings, and churches. Life and career Robertson was born in Philadelphia of Scot ...

's Neoclassical

New York Savings Bank The New York Savings Bank is a historic bank building in Chelsea, Manhattan, New York City. It was built in 1896 by Robert Henderson Robertson with George Provot, and was added to the National Register of Historic Places on January 7, 2000. The ...

had already been erected in 1886 across 14th Street from the site, and may have been an influence in the scale and design of the new building, although classical forms were, at the time, widely used for banks throughout the United States, as "temples of commerce". The City Beautiful movement also played a part in the choice of neoclassical design which, together with Robertson's bank, created a compatible ensemble for the intersection. In 1921, the New York County National Bank merged with

Chatham and Phenix National Bank The Chatham Phenix National Bank and Trust Company was a bank in New York City connected with the Chatham Phenix Corporation. Its predecessor Chatham and Phenix National Bank was formed in 1911 when Chatham National Bank paid $1,880,000 to absorb t ...

, which then merged with Metropolitan Trust Company in 1924, forming the Chatham-Phenix National Bank and Trust Company. This institution was bought in 1932 by Manufacturers Trust Company, which later became Manufacturers Hanover Trust Company (MHT), which continued to use the building as a branch bank. It is under this name that the building was designated a New York City landmark. In 1991, MHT merged with the Chemical Banking Corporation, which eventually became

JPMorgan Chase JPMorgan Chase & Co. is an American multinational investment bank and financial services holding company headquartered in New York City and incorporated in Delaware. As of 2022, JPMorgan Chase is the largest bank in the United States, the ...

. Since it ceased being used as a bank, the building at 77-79 Eighth Avenue had interior alterations, and has been the location of an

Off-Broadway An off-Broadway theatre is any professional theatre venue in New York City with a seating capacity between 100 and 499, inclusive. These theatres are smaller than Broadway theatres, but larger than off-off-Broadway theatres, which seat fewer tha ...

theater, a men's gym, and a museum."14th Street"
''New York Songlines''

Architects

De Lemos & Cordes, the partnership of German natives Theodore W. De Lemos and August W. Cordes, was formed in 1884, and was responsible for designing a number of significant retail and commercial buildings in New York, including the Siegel-Cooper Dry Goods Store (1895); the Adams Dry Good Store (1900), executed in the

Beaux-Arts style Beaux-Arts architecture ( , ) was the academic architectural style taught at the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris, particularly from the 1830s to the end of the 19th century. It drew upon the principles of French neoclassicism, but also incorporat ...

; the

Macy's Department Store Macy's (originally R. H. Macy & Co.) is an American chain of high-end department stores founded in 1858 by Rowland Hussey Macy. It became a division of the Cincinnati-based Federated Department Stores in 1994, through which it is affiliated wit ...

of 1901, an "over-scaled Renaissance style palazzo"; and the 1893 Fulton Building, in which both they and Rudolphe L. Daus had offices. In 1903, they designed a bank building at 24 Pine Street for Speyer & Company, which received positive critical reception, and may have led to the commission to design the New York County National Bank Building. Rudolphe L. Daus, Mexican-born and educated in New York, Berlin, and Paris, was an 1879 graduate of the École des Beaux Arts and was the recipient of a number of awards and prizes for excellence in architecture. He worked as an assistant to

Richard M. Hunt Richard Morris Hunt (October 31, 1827 – July 31, 1895) was an American architect of the nineteenth century and an eminent figure in the history of American architecture. He helped shape New York City with his designs for the 1902 entrance fa� ...

before opening his own office in Brooklyn in 1884, which moved to the

Flatiron Building The Flatiron Building, originally the Fuller Building, is a triangular 22-story, steel-framed landmarked building at 175 Fifth Avenue in the eponymous Flatiron District neighborhood of the Boroughs of New York City, borough of Manhattan in New ...

in 1896, although his practice remained primarily in Brooklyn. He designed both residences – in the Romanesque Revival and Queen Anne styles – and public buildings such as the

Lincoln Club Lincoln Club, also known as Mechanics Temple, Independent Order of Mechanics of the Western Hemisphere, is a historic clubhouse in Clinton Hill, Brooklyn, New York, New York. It was built between 1886 and 1889 and is a -story Queen Anne style ma ...

in 1889, the Thirteenth Regiment Armory in 1891, and a number of

Brooklyn Public Library The Brooklyn Public Library (BPL) is the public library system of the New York City borough of Brooklyn. It is the sixteenth largest public library system in the United States by holding and the seventh by number of visitors. Like the two othe ...

branches. There is no record of any other collaboration between De Lemos & Cordes and Daus, although both had offices at 130 Fulton Street at the time. The plans and designs for the New York County National Bank Building are ambiguously signed, so it is not possible to who was responsible for the building's design and to what extent.

Architecture

The building has a concrete base and brick foundations. The roof is flat. The supporting structure consists of steel columns and reinforced interior columns. The building's facade is rubbed South Dover marble, which has in the past been painted to match the stone's original color. The Eighth Avenue entrance has a pedimented entrance portico which has two corner piers and two fluted Ionic columns. The steps were originally flanked by two bronze lamps which have since been removed. The pediment itself features a monumental eagle with its wings spread and its neck swooping downward, a change from the original design, in which the bird's head was to be raised. The side facade features caduceuses, a symbol of commerce.

Gallery

File:New York County National Bank from south.jpg, The building, including the addition at 75 Eighth Avenue File:2020 New York County National Bank Building Museum of Illusions.jpg, The front facade with banners for the Museum of Illusions (2020) File:14th St 8th Av td (2018-08-16) 08 - Museum of Illusions (NY County National Bank).jpg, The building's northern facade on 14th Street File:14th St 8th Av td (2019-07-11) 11 - Museum of Illusions (NY County National Bank).jpg, The building's pediment File:009 NY County National Bank and NY Savings Bank.jpg, With

's 1886

across 14th Street

References

External links

*{{commonscat-inline, New York County National Bank Building Former bank buildings Neoclassical architecture in New York City Commercial buildings completed in 1907 New York City Designated Landmarks in Manhattan Bank buildings in Manhattan 14th Street (Manhattan) Eighth Avenue (Manhattan)