Many of these banking halls were magnificent, like the Bowery on 42nd Street and the Dime Savings Bank in Williamsburg. They weren't public spaces per se, but the common man was, for a moment, ennobled; that was their purpose. The same was true for Grand Central and the original Penn Station. Contrast this experience with emerging from the rat warren of the current Penn Station or banking at a claustrophobic ATM kiosk. Not only are you being reminded of your worthless, your nose is being enthusiastically rubbed in it.
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Not a prewar building.
The term only applies to apartment buildings built as such. No matter what the NY Times Real Estate "editors" want us to believe.
The term is fake, like the fake Manhattan neighborhood of East Chelsea, or the constant extension of the invented Manhattan neighborhood of SoHo west of West Broadway by this section.
The problem is that all of these inventions trivialize differences in neighborhoods and building styles and types.
Highlighting that the developers don't care about working for a "prewar look" is the rental of the bank's lobby as commercial space.
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Sorry, but I do not follow you. Prewar is a chronologic description, referring to a building built before WWII. How is it "fake?" Is the term antebellum, referring to pre-Civil War, fake? It's a commonly used signifier for the sort of solidly built masonry building that was common before post-war era brought in the metal and glass International or Modern style.
Neighborhood names are ALWAYS "invented" until they become popular. Did God hand down the name "Greenwich Village?" No, it was named after Greenwich in London, invented for a patch of farmland with a cluster of houses a couple of miles north of the city and became an established name when people used it. And yes, SoHo is a name that was invented almost 60 years for an area previously called Hell's Hundred Acres (for the flammability of the former factory loft buildings), and it caught on. For that matter, the prior name was invented, and whatever it was called before that and before that. If SoHo hadn't caught on as the name, another name might have or we might still call it Hell's Hundred Acres (a name that I always liked, personally).
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Steve,
"Sorry, but I do not follow you. Prewar is a chronologic description,"
No, it is not, or better it it means "pre war apartment building". I made this clear.
"It's a commonly used signifier for the sort of solidly built masonry building that was common before post-war era brought in the metal and glass International or Modern style."
Only when applied to apartment buildings. Note only the headline falls into this invention, the marketing piece "article" avoids the "prewar" claim.
"And yes, SoHo is a name that was invented almost 60 years for an area previously called Hell's Hundred Acres (for the flammability of the former factory loft buildings), and it caught on. For that matter, the prior name was invented, and whatever it was called before that and before that. If SoHo hadn't caught on as the name, another name might have or we might still call it Hell's Hundred Acres (a name that I always liked, personally)."
Completely immaterial to my point: SoHo has specific boundaries, unlike say TriBeCA, and the NY Times is constantly moving the boundary on the western side of SoHo to the west of West Broad. The area has a name. It was on MTA Subway Maps 20 year ago. (Oh and the name SoHo for NYC is NOT 60 years old.)
In 1800, 49 Chambers Street was the location of High Constable Jacob Hays' house. Hays was America's greatest policeman.
From 1802 to 1850, Hays was the High Constable--the head of the city's "police" force (night watchmen). After his death, the office of High Constable was retired.
Hays' character earned a cameo in the film, Gangs of New York. Hays was the guy who snuck up behind a ring of men who were watching a fight. To get their attention, he knocked their hats off with a stick. (Hays actually used this tactic).
Hays was born a Jew. He married a Christian, and then converted, a conversion that was described as "skin deep."
Toward the end of his career, Hays had an international reputation as the top police officer in America, the equal of--if not the superior to--any in Europe. As High Constable, Hays was the chief "detective" of the city--decades before that descriptive term was applied to the activity. It was due to Hays' success that by 1857 the new term (Detective) was officially applied to New York's elite "detectors of crime".
Detectives were attached to the police but they were independent actors. They tracked known criminals, and also took "potential" criminals off the streets, even before a crime was committed.
The Emigrant Industrial Savings Bank was organized in 1850 by Bishop John Hughes. as the Irish Emigrant Society to protect the savings of newly arrived Irish immigrants. Oh, really?...No, O'Reilly!
Source: HereWas
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