44 Union Square EAST (1928) Were Nearby
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201 PARK AVENUE SOUTH (1911) 109–111 EAST 15TH STREET (1869) 34½ EAST 12TH STREET (1855) 6 10 13 FORMER GUARDIAN LIFE INSURANCE BUILDING FORMER CENTURY ASSOCIATION CLUBHOUSE POLICE ATHLETIC LEAGUE BUILDING With its extraor- TION In the Gilded Age of This was one A I dinary four-story C what some call Union of the first mansard roof, Square’s heyday, all-girls public F CENTURY ASSO F CENTURY O schools and a this building was before it became the erected to cater theatrical equivalent benchmark for OURTESY C O to the insurance G of today’s Broadway, the education O L needs of German this building was the of children in immigrants. Hence ultimate private club New York City. its original name, for gentlemen, many As city-owned the Germania Life of whose mansions property, it still Insurance Company. 44 UNION SQuaRE EAST (1928) were nearby. provides free 8 Along came World FORMER TAMMANY HALL activity space War I, though, and Built for the famous (and infamous) political club, and 4 IRVING Place for juveniles the battle against of both sexes designed to emulate the respectability of the old Fed- 11 (1911–1929) the German enemy. eral Hall on Wall Street, where George Washington took THE CONSOLIDATED from all five EDISON BUILDING So the company the oath of office. In 1943, Tammany sold the building boroughs. cast about for a to the International Ladies’ Garment Workers Union, Covering an entire city name with the which used the interior theatre space for labor rallies block between Irving Place 22 EAST 14TH STREET (1881) same number of that often spilled out into the North Plaza of Union and Third Avenue from East 14 FORMER BAUMANN BROTHERS STORE letters as Germania. Square. Landmarked in 2013, the build- 14th Street to East 15th TS They settled on C ing was recently approved for a con- HITE Street, this complex of C Guardian. Now it troversial rooftop expansion, allegedly AR structures built over almost has been renamed inspired by the dome of Monticello, BKSK two decades is perhaps again, as W Union the Virginia home of Thomas Jefferson. COURTESY most celebrated for its Square (hotel). clock tower, illuminated 20 UNION SQuaRE EAST (1907) nightly and visible from 9 105 EAST 17TH STREET (1963) 7 FORMER UNION SQUARE SAVINGS BANK afar as the tallest building FORMER GUARDIAN LIFE ANNEX in the Union Square area. Considered a compelling example of post-World War II architecture, this low-rise midblock building, which goes 126–128 EAST 13TH STREET (1904) through to East 18th Street, is a product of Skidmore, 12 FORMER HORSE AUCTION MART Owings & Merrill, one of the world’s leading architec- ture firms. Before the days of automobiles, this is where the gentry The wide bought their carriage horses. Built by Van Tassel & Kear- windows of ney, it is one of the the Annex few such structures reflect the remaining from the Gilded Age that is historic houses But for intervening buildings of lesser commercial also architectur- opposite, in or architectural merit, this fomer furniture-and-carpet ally notable for its the East 17th This Classical design, by architect Henry Bacon, has the emporium might well have been included in the nearby Beaux-Arts style. It Street/Irving solidity of an ancient Greek temple, meant to give de- Ladies’ Mile Historic District, designated in 1989. Three now provides space Place Historic positors a sense of security for their funds. Bacon went lots wide, the Baumann facade above the ground floor for various dance District, desig- on to design the imposing Lincoln Memorial in Washing- is an elaborate cast-iron composition of sunbursts, gar- companies. nated in 1998. ton, D.C. The bank is currently the Daryl Roth Theatre. lands, and huge fenestration. 4 5.