Primary Resources: Labor

25. The Dix Building

• Address: 116 West 14th Street
• Architect: Louis Korn
• Date: 1907

Designed and completed in 1907 by Louis Korn for developer Samuel Weil, this building located at 116 West 14th Street has come to be known as the Dix Building, for long-term occupant and progressive employer Henry A. Dix. Dix’s dressmaking company designed and manufactured the uniforms of the Red Cross as well as those of U.S. Army and Navy nurses. While Dix maintained an “open shop,” which employed non-unionized workers, his business practices were progressive at a time when employers, especially in the garment-making industry, treated employees poorly and maintained appalling work conditions. Dix was one of the first employers to institute the five-day work week without reduction of wages, as well as paid vacation time. In 1923, at the age of 72, Dix retired and handed his business over to his employees, all of whom became shareholders.

26. (Former) Italian Labor Center

• Address: 231 East 14th Street
• Architect: Matthew Del Gaudio, John Caggiano, and Anthony Lombardi
• Date: 1920

Dating from 1920-21, the (former) Italian Labor Center building is a significant reminder of the ItalianAmerican working class community which flourished in New York City in the early-twentieth century to the 1950s. One of the few extant examples of a labor union-based community service center, the Italian Labor Center’s unusual and notable façade, designed by Bronxbased architects John Caggiano, Matthew Del Gaudio, and Anthony Lombardi is modeled after well-known Italian architectural ideas. Originally constructed for the members of the International Ladies’ Garment Worker Union (I.L.G.W.U.) Local 48 with a public store on the ground floor, more recently the Ukrainian Center for Social Research, and now a six-story apartment building with a theme-based bar on the first floor, the building has long been a gathering place for New Yorkers. Further, it, like the Triangle Shirtwaist factory, is a “reminder of the period at the beginning of the twentieth century when the garment industry was the largest employer in New York City.” The building utilized varied materials, such as reinforced concrete floors, steel stairways, Detroit Steel windows, brick, and galvanized metal on an iron support structure. Other notable features include the galvanized-metal balconet on the sixth floor, decorative terra-cotta paneling from the first to second floor, and symbolic terra-cotta bas reliefs between the second and third floors. An early work in the career of Matthew Del Gaudio, the (Former) Italian Labor Center acknowledges the versatility of this architect, who was later recognized for his work on both the Williamsburg Houses and the Civil Courthouse of the City of New York (with William Lescaze).

Description

The (former) Italian Labor Center occupies a twenty six-foot wide, ninety six-foot deep footprint on a twentysix-foot wide, one hundred-foot deep lot. The building is six stories tall and has a flat roof with edge fencing. Above an unglazed, painted light brown terra cotta store front and second floor, the façade is white glazed brick.

Base

The ground story was originally articulated into three bays—a central display window and two side bays of equal size which contained the storefront entrance and the members’-only entrance to the Union floors above. Surrounding the ground story and continuing to the second floor is terra cotta cladding in a classicallyinspired pattern. The original ground story signage consisted of a red-and-green-and-white (the Italian national colors) striped cloth retractable awning, and glass above the Union entrance was painted with the words, “I.L.G.W.U. Local 48.” (At present the signage above the Union entrance has been removed, the awning has been pulled back into the holding mechanism, the original rectilinear center display window has been replaced with a curved one, the store entrance is clad in blue and beige metal, and a new electric sign that reads, “Beauty Bar,” comprises the width of the western and center bays.)

The westernmost bay retains its original wood door surround. The extant central display window and door are replacements to the original design, likely the result of alterations in the mid- to late-1970s, when the building came under new ownership. The original rectangular fanlight above the door is now obscured by electric signage. Likewise, the eastern bay entrance doors have been replaced by a contemporary steel-and-glass door with an apartmental buzzer system.

The first floor housed a public store, a richly decorated members-only entrance to the Union floors above, with patterned tile floor and breccia pernice marble wainscoting imported from Italy, and, at the rear of the first floor, the modest residence of Local 48 manager, Salvatore Ninfo.

Upper Stories

The terra cotta-clad second story is richly articulated with ornamental frieze details and windows that follow the central arch. The original fenestration continued the bay pattern of the first floor with two sets of four-overfour casement windows on either side of central French doors. (Original muntins have been removed from the central and side fanlights and the double-hung windows on the present façade are replacements.) The bays on the second floor retain the original Kalomein (metalclad solid wood) framing from the original design. Visible in original plans were central French doors that opened onto a small cast iron and concrete balcony, now removed.

A terra cotta set of panels above the center bay on the second story reads, “ITALIAN LABOR CENTER.” Strikingly, this center panel is flanked by two decorative terra cotta bas reliefs which depict scenes of Italian, family, and labor-related significance. The eastern panel clearly shows a content family of working father, mother, and baby, the latter being cradled by his parents. The father holds a shovel in his left hand. The western panel illustrates the naked Roman goddess Minerva, patroness of craftspeople, next to a naked male child in the foreground before a shirtless laborer. The top of this central arch is capped by a band of wave scroll ornamentation.

The third through fifth stories are grouped into a series of five bays in a 1-2-1-2-1 pattern. Each floor contains symmetrical sets of windows above rectangular brickwork enhancements. Originally, the fenestration of these floors was all one-over-one wooden frame doublehung windows. Some windows of this style (now in contemporary aluminum) are in place today, but other extant hopper and casement replacement windows were installed around the 1950s.

The sixth story stood apart from the floors below in both its ornamentation and fenestration. Whereas the lower floors were arranged in a 1-2-1-2-1 pattern of bays, the sixth floor was designed with nine bays in a tighter arrangement. The top story was lit by four evenlyspaced pairs of four-over-four casement windows above a central galvanized metal balconet. Today, two of the four windows have been bricked in, and the remaining openings have replacement aluminum double-hung windows. From Second Avenue, additional original four-over-four windows are visible on this upper story. The façade retains its somewhat rusted galvanized metal balconet.

The International Ladies’ Garment Worker Union’s Local 48 represented Italian male and female workers in the cloak-, skirt-, and suit-making industry of New York City. When they formally announced plans for the Labor Center on East 14th Street, their plan revealed the group’s desire to educate and assimilate their members into working-class American society. Indeed, the building was initially designed to be the “largest and costliest building in New York owned exclusively by a labor union."

For the 7,000 members of the Union (most of whom were working mothers), day nursery facilities were provided for small children, courses in English and naturalization were offered for new immigrants, and a trade school operated to “supply the industry with the needed skilled mechanics from a union source” and continue a “tradition of craftsmanship” in the industry.

Over time, the Italian Labor Center hosted anti-Fascist meetings, as well, and was often a locus for rallies and politically-charged events. The Union’s officers were known figures of the Italian-American community, the most prominent being Salvatore Ninfo, manager of the Local 48, Vice President of the I.L.G.W.U., and city councilman from the Bronx, positions he held concurrently.

27. Labor Temple

• Address: 242 East 14th Street/223-227 Second Avenue
• Architect: Emery Roth
• Date: 1924

The “Labor Temple” also known as “Temple Courts,” was commissioned by the New York Presbytery specifically for working class immigrants. At the time that the Labor Temple was commissioned, the Presbyterian Church, that occupied the site of the current Labor Temple, had lost most of its patrons because they tended to be of a more affluent nature and therefore moving north away from 14th Street to more desirable areas of the city. Furthermore the Presbyterian Church was not generally viewed favorably by the immigrant population, who were skeptical of the Church and its activities. Facing possible closure, the Church decided to try a new, nonintimidating way to reach out to the immigrant working class.

They hired Emery Roth, a significant architect of New York City in the early-twentieth century, to design a multi-functional building that would consist of retail, a cafeteria, gymnasium, central court, auditorium, chapel, offices, meeting hall, apartments, nursery, roof garden and even a subway platform complete with subway passages. All of these uses had to be contained within a building shell that was unassuming and approachable. The Italian Renaissance style that was used by the architect was appropriate because it was a style that was characteristic of many other buildings of the time, which added to the familiarity and unassuming feelings it was meant to evoke. This building, therefore, is not only important to 14th Street but also for the Presbyterian Church and for New York City as a relic of its immigrant past and hopeful future.

28. 45 West 14th Street

• Architect: William Conklin
• Date: 1960

In 1959, the 1875 rowhouse at 45 West 14th Street was bought by the Painting Industry Funding Corporation for the use of the International Union of Painters and Allied Trades. Located within two blocks of Union Square, an historic center of labor activity, protest, and organization, 45 West 14th Street served as an appropriate headquarters for a labor union. The IUPAT evolved from the 1887 Brotherhood of Painters and Decorators of America. Consecutively with the occupation of their new headquarters the Union played a major role in the 1960s fight for legislation regarding labor and civil rights. Today it serves over 140,000 workers. The interior of the building has been outfitted to meet the many needs the organization, which still occupies the building. Upper floors house office space, while the mezzanine is used for boardroom meetings, Union training, and community educational programs. The upper floors provide space for Union and Painting Industry Fund general offices and work areas.

The Union commissioned architect William Conklin of the firm Mayer, Whittlesley, and Glass to adapt the existing structure in 1960. A new façade was constructed that used the cast iron buildings in the area as inspiration. When Conklin’s project was published in Progressive Architecture in December 1961, it was noted that “it is the architects’ hope that, by recalling their qualities, [the façade] can stimulate greater respect for these older neighbors.” This acknowledgement of historical influences in “modern” design was a radical departure from the ahistorical design theory of the time.

Furthermore, the design addressed technical problems inherent in the use of a new and evolving construction system. Practical concerns and functional requirements, such as the need to shade large areas of glass and convenient access for cleaning, manifest themselves as elements of the façade. The multiple layers that are produced in the composition of these functions articulate a depth and modulation of light that was not characteristic of other early curtain wall designs.

In addition to its contribution to the history of labor activity in and around Union Square, the headquarters of the International Union of Painters and Allied Trades exhibits concepts of aesthetic sympathy and historic reference that were far ahead of their time.