Exploring Village Preservation Resources, Crossover Edition: One Fifth Avenue
Most every historic building in New York City holds several different stories within its walls. Buildings in our neighborhoods of Greenwich Village, the East Village, and NoHo have been host to a kaleidoscopic array of artists, musicians, politicians, small businesses, activist organizations, and so much more. Village Preservation’s many online resources help you know which person, event, or movement is connected to which building and when. But what happens when more than one thread of historic significance intersects at the same location?
In those cases, the same buildings crossover, appearing in multiple resources. One such example is One Fifth Avenue, a 27-story skyscraper designed by Harvey Wiley Corbett in 1927, significant not only for its architectural design, but for its visual prominence within Greenwich Village, the important people who have lived there throughout its almost 100-year lifespan, and its inclusion in one of the city’s oldest historic districts.
The building is featured, for different facets of its significance, in several of our digital resources:
Landmarks Timeline Map
Village Preservation’s Landmarks Timeline Map shows every landmark and historic district designated by the NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission in Greenwich Village, the East Village, NoHo, and Hudson Square since the enactment of the New York City Landmarks Law on April 19, 1965.
Hit “play” upon entering the map, or drag the timeline manually to at least 1970, and you’ll see that the Greenwich Village Historic District, one of New York’s oldest and largest historic districts, was designated on April 29, 1969. Integral to that district is One Fifth Avenue, among Greenwich Village’s tallest buildings, and a defining landmark visible from many spots in the neighborhood. An historic photograph of the building, alongside the Washington Arch and the Washington Square North Row, was selected to be the map’s representative image for the Greenwich Village Historic District. You can click through to read the designation report for the district, which describes One Fifth Avenue thusly:
“Between Washington Mews and East Eighth Street the great hotel, One Fifth Avenue, towers up above the surrounding neighborhood with picturesque set-back profile projecting against the sky and featuring a single central tower. This hotel was built in 1926, designed by associated architects, Helmle & Corbett and Sugarman & Berger. It is brick above a stone base which rises to four stories in height. Vertical accents are made by band courses carried up between the windows, and the ornament, although contemporary, is largely reminiscent of past styles.”
The designation report goes on to describe the buildings that occupied this site prior to One Fifth Avenue’s construction in 1926, which brings us to our next Village Preservation mapping resource…
Fifth Avenue: 1824 to Today
Our bicentennial of Fifth Avenue StoryMap provides information on the history of every single building ever constructed along lower Fifth Avenue.
Clicking on the “Wash. Sq. to 8th Street: East” section of the map will bring you to a detailed history of the southern portion of that block (7-13 Washington Square North), followed by that of the current 1 Fifth Avenue, which is located on the site of what was originally a row of four buildings with the addresses 1-7 Fifth Avenue. These four homes were built in the 1830s, soon after the row to their south along Washington Square North.
Nos. 5 and 7 were built as single-family homes in the Greek Revival style, and were soon converted to boarding houses. They were subsequently combined as an apartment house and renamed “The Russell” at the turn of the century. The original No. 1 was designed as a double-wide mansion with Federal-style details, and may have been purpose-built as a boarding school rather than a family home. All four 19th-century houses were demolished in 1926, and their lots combined, to make way for the new 1 Fifth Avenue.
A Century of Art Deco
We’ve been spotlighting the incredible influence of Art Deco on our city and neighborhoods in celebration of the centennial of the exposition from which the Jazz Age architectural style derived its name, the Exposition Internationale des Arts Décoratifs et Industriels Modernes, or the International Exhibition of Modern Decorative and Industrial Art, which opened in Paris on April 28, 1925.
Among many delightful, and sometimes surprising, moments of Art Deco architecture to be discovered in our neighborhoods, One Fifth Avenue stands out with its chamfered corners, streamlined accents, and staggered setbacks, making this former residential hotel (now apartments) one of the most iconic Art Deco landmarks in Greenwich Village, and in New York City.
Greenwich Village Historic District: Then & Now Photos and Tours
Beyond architectural history and significance, there are so many layers of cultural history in our neighborhoods. In the case of One Fifth Avenue, among its many residents over the years was the American poet Sarah Teasdale (1884-1933). Details about her life, career, and somewhat tumultuous period living in the building can be found in the “Homes and Haunts of Great Writers” tab of our Greenwich Village Historic District: Then & Now StoryMap.
