Institutions

29. St. Bernard's Roman Catholic Church

• Address: 330 West 14th Street
• Architect: Patrick Charles Keely
• Date: 1873

Historically, St. Bernard’s Parish was considered one of the most important parishes in the city. In the 1870s, the congregation, primarily composed of Irish immigrants and descendants of Irish immigrants, was rapidly outgrowing its smaller church on 13th Street at Tenth Avenue, so the decision was made to construct a new, larger structure nearby. Irish-born architect Patrick Charles Keely was selected to design the new St. Bernard’s and the cornerstone was laid in May of 1873.

Keely had become famous for his religious structures and designed churches across the county for several different denominations, but most prolifically for the Catholic Church. In his obituary in 1896, he is described as having designed over six hundred churches in his life, many of which are in the New York area.

The church is built in the Victorian Gothic style, which was in fashion for Catholic churches at the time; the twin towers, triple-portal entrance, and rose window inset into a pointed arch reveal a masterful blending of French and English influences to create this uniquely beautiful church. With graceful proportions, strong symmetry, sensitive detailing, and the interesting play of contrasting sandstones, St. Bernard’s is an exceptional example of nineteenth-century religious architecture.

30. (Former) Roman Catholic Church of Our Lady of Guadalupe

• Address: 229-231 West 14th Street
• Architect: Gustave Steinback, et al.
• Date: c. 1854/1921

Our Lady of Guadalupe possesses rich architectural and historical significance despite being a small parish church. Founded at the turn of the twentieth century by the Augustinians of the Assumption, Guadalupe became the first Spanish-speaking Catholic parish in New York City and for a time served as the national parish for Spanish-speaking Catholics. 14th Street between Seventh and Eighth Avenues was the heart of “Little Spain,” and working-class Spanish immigrants composed most of the early congregation. The building occupied by Guadalupe is a mid-nineteenth-century brownstone (interestingly, the former home of restauranteur Charles Delmonico) that has been masterfully converted from a posh rowhouse to a double-height sanctuary, complete with a monumental entrance, side chapel, tiny balcony, and clerestory.

This transformation from residence to church, a form which makes Guadalupe extremely rare, if not unique in the city, spanned two decades and involved several notable architects, including George H. Streeton, Paul C. Hunter, and Gustave Steinback. Steinback, known for his work on religious projects, designed No. 229’s classically proportioned Spanish Revival façade in 1921. The Spanish-like façade on No. 231 was added at a later date by a yet unknown architect. Although the church remained extremely popular, it was consolidated with nearby St. Bernard’s parish and closed in 2003. Today, Guadalupe is as an architectural trace of Little Spain.

31. (Former) First German Baptist Church/Now Town and Village Synagogue

• Address: 334-336 East 14th Street
• Architect: Julius Boekell
• Date: 1866

The building at 334-336 East 14th street, is important as a vernacular example of Rundbogenstil, roundedarch style architecture. It was designed in 1866 by Julius Boekell as the First German Baptist Church. In 1928 it became the Ukrainian Church, and in 1962 the Town and Village Synagogue. The two-story building and threestory rear extension is constructed of Tuckahoe marble. The symmetrical façade is composed in three parts. The middle section is sharply pointed with a round window composed of colored diamond panes in its center. Each outer has three rounded arch windows on the second floor. The middle towers have three rounded arches, one on top of each other, and the ground floor has five rounded arch doors.

The original cupolas have been replaced with onion domes and a third onion dome was placed on the triangular point in the middle of the building where a cross stood when this was a German church. The identifiably German style was important as a statement of ethnic heritage by its German immigrant population. Onion domes added by the Ukrainian congregation made a similar ethnic statement, as did removal of the Christian-themed stained glass to suit the building for Jewish use. The changing ownership of this church represents the changing ethnic groups that inhabited the area, a distinctly important aspect of New York City history.

32. The Salvation Army's National and Territorial Headquarters

• Address: 120-130 West 14th Street
• Architect: Ralph Walker
• Date: 1928

The Salvation Army’s National and Territorial Headquarters buildings strove to change the public’s negative perception of the organization, integrate social and charitable aspects with its religious past, and most importantly, to physically reflect the Salvation Army as a progressive organization. These goals were accomplished with innovative materials and with the selection of modern architect Ralph Walker to design a new headquarters in the German Expressionist style.

Founded by William and Catherine Booth in London in 1865 to serve the spiritual needs of the people, the Salvation Army arrived in New York in 1880. In its early days, the Army had little need for property, often holding meetings outside, in tents, or in rented music halls. As the Army grew, however, land was secured on bustling 14th Street to create a permanent national headquarters. Located near the elevated train station at Sixth Avenue, the site was optimal for attracting passers-by to its cause, and a seven-story fortress-like Italianate building was constructed in 1895.

Now under the leadership of its founders’ daughter, Evangeline Booth, the institution strove to modernize and began to buy properties surrounding the headquarters. In 1928, a new complex consisting of an auditorium, office building and women’s residence was built for the Salvation Army. The dedication of the building in 1930 coincided with the institution’s Jubilee, marking an important turning point for the Salvation Army.

Architect Ralph Thomas Walker, from the firm Voorhees, Gmelin, and Walker, used vocabulary that moved away from styles of the day, creating architecture devoid of historical reference. Having completed their BarclayVesey Building in 1926, and several other buildings for telephone companies, the firm and Walker had gained much attention. Several of Walker’s buildings, such as his Irving Trust Company Building at One Wall Street (1929-30), and the Western Union Company (192830), are clad with various materials forming curtain-like folds. This style continued with the Salvation Army headquarters, in which the curtain-like forms of cast stone and brick accentuate the vertical. The grotto-like entrance to the auditorium is composed of crystalline forms that seem to be carved from solid stone. Visual ideals of German Expressionism, popularized by films like Metropolis (1926), can be seen in the design of this often-overlooked New York architectural masterpiece.

33. Engine Company No. 5

• Address: 340 East 14th Street
• Architect: Napoleon LeBrun
• Date: 1880

Built in 1880, Engine Company No. 5 is the oldest firehouse from the period of New York City firehouse construction at the end of the nineteenth century to still be used for its original purpose and to retain its original appearance. It is one of at least seventeen firehouses in the city designed by Napoleon LeBrun, later of Napoleon LeBrun and Sons, known for their design of the Metropolitan Life Insurance Tower in 1907.

Almost identical to several other firehouses constructed at this time, Engine Company No. 5 has a massive castiron base, upper floors of red brick that, except for stark brownstone trim, and a metal cornice, are entirely free of ornament. The austerity and simplicity of his early design provides an interesting and valuable contrast to later, more ornate firehouses by LeBrun, several of which are already designated landmarks, and represents an attempt by the Department to break away from an image of financial and political corruption.

The interior, much of which remains intact, also marks a change in the function of firehouse. LeBrun’s firehouses were some of the first to reflect emerging technologies and the newly-militarized structure of the Department as it transitioned from an unpaid and disorganized boys’ club to one of the most efficient fire departments in the country. Le Brun’s designs codified the image and structure of the firehouse, and while over time the structures grew increasingly individualized and ornamental, the definitive format was present from the erection of the first identical houses.

Engine Company No. 5, as the oldest remaining Le Brun firehouse to still function fully as it was intended, is one of the best examples of the newly standardized, “modern” concept of the function, organization, and visual statement to be made by a firehouse in the 1880s and 1890s.

34. (Former) Tammany Hall

• Address: 44 Union Square East
• Architect: Charles B. Meyers and Thompson, Holmes and Converse
• Date: 1928

Tammany Hall was designed by Charles B. Meyers and Thompson, Holmes and Converse in 1928 as the headquarters of Tammany Hall, or the Society of Columbian Order. Throughout its history, Tammany Hall offered services that the city and state government would not or could not provide, but in spite of the legitimate political services provided, Tammany Hall’s lasting reputation is one of graft and political scandal. In the early-twentieth century the leaders of Tammany sought to compensate for the organization’s waning status by attempting to reassert themselves within city government. Then, in 1929, they vacated the famous “wigwam” they had occupied on 14th street since 1868 and ordered construction of a new building that would be “more suited to the times.”

The location of their new home was chosen with care. Union Square station was the intersecting point of the IRT and BMT lines; as such, it was the most accessible point in New York City, and practically every important subway, ‘L’ and bus line ran through it or connected it with other rapid transit arteries. The imposing structure of the 1929 headquarters, with its grand order, monumental rise, and pedimented portico, was designed in the Colonial Revival style to emulate the original Federal Hall designed by Pierre L’Enfant in 1789, which served as the first Capitol of the United States and was the site of George Washington’s inauguration as the nation’s first president. Flemish bond Harvard brick, corncob and wheatstalk cartouches, and images of the “Tammany Brave” and Christopher Columbus present a nostalgic and patriotic image.

Throughout the 1920s, the xenophobia and isolation of the postwar era was manifested not only in Colonial Revival architecture, but also in the opening of the Metropolitan Museum’s American Wing, the founding of the Museum of the City of New York (the façade of which, built in 1930, very much resembles Tammany Hall’s), the opening of the Whitney Museum of American Art and the expansion of the New Yorl Historical Society. The four story, seventy- by one hundred fifty-foot building that included commercial space facing Union Square (which was promptly leased to the Manufacturer’s Trust Co.), a ninety- by seventy-foot, 1,200 seat, twostory auditorium on the east side of the first and second floors, a social lounge on the third floor, and conference rooms and offices for both Tammany and the Democratic County Committee on the second and third floors.

By the 1940s Tammany lost its political strength and died out. The building was then occupied by the International Ladies’ Garment Workers Union in 1943, at which time the main meeting hall became an important center for union activity in New York City, and is now occupied by Union Square Theater and the New York Film Academy.