Roosevelt Building

The Roosevelt Building, at 13th Street and Broadway

In the early 19th century, the Roosevelt family, headed by Cornelius Van Schaack Roosevelt, grandfather to Teddy, were major landowners and investors in New York City. Their holdings included the block between 13th and 14th Streets on Broadway, where CVS Roosevelt's mansion and gardens were located. After his death in 1871, the mansion was destroyed and replaced with commercial buildings. Two decades later, the six small buildings were razed to allow the construction of the Roosevelts' most ambitious project, an eight-story building that towered over its neighbors.

Architect Stephen D. Hatch was hired to design the Romanesque Revival building, constructed of brick and Terra Cotta with a copper cornice. It was completed in 1894. Originally, it was commonly known as the Hackett Carhart building, after its earliest major tenant, a manufacturer of men's wear. The stretch of Broadway south of Union Square had become the center of menswear, lined with men's clothiers and haberdasheries, while women's clothiers dominated 6th Avenue's "Ladies' Mile". Another early tenant was Biograph Studios, where D.W. Griffith started his movie career.

Not everyone was a fan of the Roosevelt Building. The Real Estate Record & Guide referred to its "vast amount of not over-admirable decoration." This aesthetic criticism was probably a reflection of the journal's dislike of the Roosevelts' business practices.

On Feb 26, 1903, fire destroyed the top 3 floors. Seven fire fighters were injured and Capt. John T. Andariese killed. When the building had been announced, the New York Times had advertised that it would "be fire-proof throughout." After the fire, The Architectural Record & Guide tartly noted, "Nothing burns so readily as a fireproof building."

In 1912, Hackett, Carhart & Co. went bankrupt, costing the building its primary tenant, and over subsequent decades, the area steadily declined and the building deteriorated. In 2007, the current owners engaged Israel Berger Archiects to undertake a complete restoration, The firm conducted historic paint analysis to match the original, re-created the lost copper cornice, and replicated the original Terra Cotta decoration. Stanford Chan, director of restoration, said, "We treated it like a landmark even though it isn't one."


Sources:
Daytonian in Manhattan

New York Times: A Family's Legacy, Burnished Anew

Flushing Avenue

I still have many drawings from last year when I was working at the Brooklyn Navy Yard that I never got around to posting. I'm trying to get them all up in the next few weeks. This batch is all of structures along Flushing Avenue, which forms the southern boundary of the Yard.

I couldn't find out exactly what this building, between Ryerson St. and Grand Ave., was used for, but it was part of the Naval Yard Hospital campus. Up a hill beyond that fence is the main building and the Surgeon's House of the Hospital. The hospital operated from before the Civil War through World War II. The property is now controlled by Steiner Studios, which has proposed various uses for it. Nothing has come of those plans yet, and the buildings remain, hidden behind fences, shrouded in overgrown trees, intact but abandoned, and very spooky. If you're lucky, a quick visit is sometimes included in the tours run by Turnstile Tours.

Not officially part of the Brooklyn Navy Yard, this building nonetheless is an important remnant of the yard's history. During its heyday, Sands Street and Flushing Ave., forming the perimeter of the Navy Yard, were lined with dozens of stores supplying uniforms and clothing for sailors (as well as the other two businesses indispensable to sailors: bars and brothels). In Brooklyn! An Ilustrated History, Michael Faiella, the second-generation owner of Reliable and Franks, is quoted as recalling that "when the fleet was in, from the gate to the Navy YMCA at the top of Sands Street, all you could see was a sea of white hats. Some of [the supply stores] stayed open all night."

Reliable Naval Tailoring was established in September, 1927, on Sands Street by Natale Faiella. His son, Michael, took over the store in 1964, and moved it to the Flushing Ave location in 1971, when he bought out the Frank's Naval Uniforms building, hence "Reliable & Franks." Michael's son, Vincent, later took it over. This site has some 70's-era photos of the interior.

Obviously, business dropped dramatically when the Navy Yard was decommissioned in 1966. Reliable & Franks continued for some time, selling Army-Navy-style clothing to hippies, uniforms to cruise ships and private yacht crews, and costumes for the Village People's "In The Navy" video. But by 2006, the store finally closed, with the NY Times reporting that the entire stock was being moved to central New Jersey, where Vincent Faiella lives. I did see the roll gate up one day, but the windows were papered over, so I couldn't see what was going on inside.

As for M&J Navy Yard Sub, I think they just cashed in on the name. It's just a deli. 

Sculpture atop the Clinton Ave Gate. Some years ago, I was sketching in Lower Manhattan, when two people with cameras started talking to me about a documentary they were filming about all the eagle statues of New York City. I wonder if they found this one, or ever finished their film.

This structure is one of the most distinctive and iconic features of the Navy Yard. It is one of a pair of WWII-era radio antennas atop Building 1 (the cable/bridge coming from the top connects to a twin structure). The antennas allowed communication with the U.S. Naval fleet across the Atlantic. The building was constructed in 1942 as the Material Sciences Laboratory, the main site of research operations, where radio, radar, sonar, and other navigation equipment, including the navigation system for the Polaris nuclear submarine, was developed and tested. It's now part of Steiner Studios, which has the antennas lit up in blue and white at night, making it a striking landmark seen from the BQE. I drew it once before, in 2015.

Essex Card Shop

Essex Card Shop, on Avenue A between 2nd and 3rd St. It's packed full of useful items, and not-so-useful kitschy souvenirs, and all the merchandise and services advertised on its many signs.

It is co-owned by Jayant Patel, an Indian immigrant, and M. Aslam, who is from Pakistan. Mr. Patel originally ran the store on the Upper West Side, and re-located to the East Village in 2000, and was soon joined by Mr. Aslam. On the partnership of an Indian and a Pakistani, Mr. Patel said in a 2012 interview, "Politics destroy nations, not businesses. There is no politics here, just business and friendship. Normal people, ordinary people don't have those problems. It is just the leaders who care about this nonsense."

Patel wrote a memoir about his immigrant experience that was made into a movie called Desperate Endeavors. You can see the trailer here.  In that interview, he says he wanted to retire after the success of his movie. Unfortunately, Desperate Endeavors did not set the box office on fire. But the store remains. They had a second business on the next block, a copy shop, which recently shuttered. Hopefully, this store will survive, but I suspect this belongs on my "Before It's Gone" list.

Some last words of wisdom from Jayant Patel (again from that profile: "My philosophy is 'truth, love, and honesty.' It's universal. Trust is something everyone follows. If you are truthful then people will trust you. I see myself as Muslim, Hindu, Christian, all in one. If you're nice to people, people are friendly. People in New York are good. New York is a tough town, but it's full of good people if you stop and experience it. Life is hard and not always comfortable. Struggle makes you strong and I don't mind it."



Local East Village: Making It - Jayant Patel and M. Aslam of Essex Card Shop