(l. to r.) 815 and 817 Broadway. The two-story neo-Renaissance–style galvanized iron-faced commercial building at No. 815 was constructed in 1897 by architect John C. Westervelt for the Roosevelt family. By 1910 it housed a branch of the Childs Restaurant, one of the first restaurant chains in America, whose later Coney Island building is a New York City landmark. No. 817 was built in 1895-98 in the Renaissance Revival style as a 14-story structure designed by George B. Post for William Weld. It housed various clothing companies, including Meyer Jonasson & Company, then known as “the world’s largest manufacturer of ladies’ garments.”
For more information on the history of these and other buildings South of Union Square, click here.