Landmarks pushes architect of 25 Bleecker to design compatibly.
At the March 4 hearing LPC Commissioners were more approving of the second try at the new-designed front of 25 Bleecker, but urged still more tweaking with brickwork and color and width of spandrels between windows to bring the facade closer to the still extant three-to four-story buildings on the northeast side of the block. (LPC staff will suggest the tweaks). Though improved, all the compromise has yielded a misfit – aesthetically and historically.
See Landmarks coverage at GVSHP
Excerpted from NoHo East Designation Report – 2003. Bleecker St -The earliest developments were rows of Federal-style row houses that were constructed in the first decades of the nineteenth century for middle-class New Yorkers who were moving uptown as the lower Manhattan business district rapidly expanded into existing residential neighborhoods. While many of these houses were replaced or greatly altered later in the nineteenth century or during the early twentieth century, a rare group of Federal row houses survive at 7 to 13 and 21 to 25 Bleecker Street, as well as at 300 Elizabeth Street and 306 to 310 Bowery.
History at 25 Bleecker: This altered row house was built in c.1830 for David Chrystie at a time when this area was developing with homes for the city’s expanding middle class. By 1880, the building was occupied by a boarding house, and by 1890 had been converted to a factory. By the early twentieth century, the building was occupied by the fur industry which was centered in this area into the mid-twentieth century. One fur dealer, Jacob Scholnick, moved his business into the building in the late 1930s purchasing the property in 1945. Another long-term tenant was Heyman Sewing Machine Co., which was located here from the late-1930s through the mid-1960s. By then, the post-war decline in the city’s manufacturing base left much vacant commercial space, and loft dwellers began to take over the upper stories of this building. In 1984, the building’s facade was replaced.
Stay tuned though, we hear that 25 Bleecker’s new owner sees a two-floor restaurant in its future.