Photo Credit: LPC

183-195 Broadway

183-195 Broadway was part of the post-Civil War redevelopment along Broadway, which led to the creation of monumental banks and stores, changing Broadway into Williamsburg. This building’s original use was commercial, but changed to “manufacturing” for metal ware businesses after the Williamsburg Bridge was built (construction took place from 1896 – 1903). Today, 183-195 Broadway is home to administrative and executive offices for the popular Peter Luger Steakhouse.

Photo Credit: LPC

St. Barbara's Roman Catholic Church

St. Barbara’s Roman Catholic Church at 138 Bleecker Street in Bushwick, Brooklyn, began construction in 1907. The building was constructed with a Spanish Renaissance style of yellow brick and white terra cotta designed by Hermle and Huberty, a Brooklyn architectural firm. St. Barbara’s Roman Catholic Church was founded by residents of Bushwick and the Redemptorist order of the priests, otherwise known as the Congregation of the Most Holy Redeemer, a Roman Catholic organization founded in Scala, Italy in 1732 by St. Alphonsus Maria de Liguori. The establishment was created to relieve the overpopulation at the nearby church, St. Leonard’s Roman Catholic Church; funds were soon raised successfully to build a larger faculty, and St. Barbara’s Roman Catholic was completed in December 1910.

Photo Credit: LPC

Bowne Street Community Church

Bowne Street Community Church in Queens (originally the Protestant Reformed Dutch Church of Flushing) was built by Edward Richardson in 1892. The church was designed with a prominent corner tower, decorative brickwork, and opalescent stained-glass windows. Richardson mimicked the Roman Revival style with an adaptation of medieval aesthetic. One of the most popular features of this structure was the large bell tower with low squat arcade along the front elevation. The Protestant Reformed Dutch Church of Flushing later became the Browne Street Community Church after joining forces with the First Congregational Church. Today, different congregations meet and maintain the building: Reformed Church in America, the United Church of Christ, Taiwanese Zion Christian Church, the New York Yeram Church and Independent Korean Congregationist.

Photo Credit: LPC

Lakeman House

1930sLakeman House at 2286 Richmond Road, built in 1714, was one of Staten Island’s oldest one-story Dutch colonial-style house. Aaron Cortelyou, a farmer and carpenter, was a memorable owner of the farmhouse in 1751. Selected to gather militia in the county in order to defend against the British, Cortelyou instead sided with the Loyalists, and the house was used for a rebel raid. During the raid, Cortelyou was abducted. After numerous owners, the farmhouse’s structure endured until Florist Xavier Kirchhoffer purchased the property and added a second-story. Today, the property remains with the Kirchhoffer Family and is used for offices for their businesses.

Photo Credit: LPC

Brougham Cottage

Brougham Cottage at 4746 Amboy Road was built in the early 18^th century. The H-framed structural style boasted a firestone chimney wall built to prevent the hearth wall from overheating and igniting the wood cladding. Sitting on an 80-acre land, this one-story farmhouse is now a part of the Blue Heron Park, a nature refuge in Staten Island.

Photo Credit: LPC

The Excelsior Power Company Building

The Excelsior Power Company Building was located at 33-43 Gold Street in New York City’s Financial District. This property was known as the oldest commercial power generating station from Manhattan’s pioneering era for electric lightning and power. This began the lighting of arc lamps along parts of Broadway in 1880. Later, the Excelsior Power Company Building consolidated with the New York Edison Company in 1901. After the building’s completion in 1888, the power company distributed electric power to printing houses, jewelry manufactures, and industrial clients for elevators, presses, beveling machinery and other equipment. An English immigrant named Leo Daft designed and manufactured dynamos and motors for customers, including the first commercial electric power system in Boston, MA in 1884. Daft also designed and manufactured New York’s first two electric elevator motors in the Excelsior Power Company Building at the Spruce Street headquarters. Daft’s steam engines , per his own design, were also replaced by small electric systems that powered lower Manhattan. The company powered electricity and lighting for local factories and office buildings for many years. It later migrated from a generating station to a substation and is now utilized for residential purposes.

Photo Credit: LPC

Bergdorf Goodman

Bergdorf Goodman’s at 754 Fifth Avenue was originally designed by one of New York’s most essential architects Ely Jacques Kahn, to be seven separate buildings. Completed in 1928 in the Modern Classicist style, each building was designed with one façade facing Fifth Avenue. In 1923, Edwin Goodman, a partner for Bergdorf Goodman, made the retail company the first American couturier to offer ready-to-wear clothing, as opposed to women spending hours being personally fitted for the latest styles. Goodman continues to provide excellent customer service and a degree of exclusivity.

Photo Credit: LPC

412 East 85^th Street

412 East 85^th Street in Yorkville was home to the Italian-style wood framed house on the Upper East Side. Although, the architect was unknown, it was said that the property was built before 1860. The property was also one of six pre-Civil War wood framed houses that are still intact. In 1966, the house, owner De Vidos, conducted extensive reconstructive work to fix repairs and despair, and to resemble the original historic character at its first conception as shown today.

Photo Credit: LPC

The Harlem YMCA Building

The Harlem YMCA Building at 181 West 135^th Street was first completed in November 1919. YMCA (Young Men’s Christian Association) was one of the first African American YMCA buildings in New York City that became the center of intellectual and social life for African Americans. Designed by John Jackson in the Italian Renaissance Revival Style, this building boasted six stories, arched second-story windows, and an arcade on the sixth floor. African American YMCAs were created from the national organization’s policy of racial separation in the United States from 1851 to 1946. This establishment soon became home to African American literati, used to exchange ideas, communicate at lectures, and partake in music and dance performances. In 1947, baseball legend Jackie Robinson and a fellow teammate began coaching and mentoring children at the Y. In 1976, the Harlem YMCA Building changed its name to the Jackie Robinson YMCA Youth Center in order to keep the baseball legend’s  positive motives and memories alive.

Photo Credit: LPC

The former Loew’s 175^th Street Theater at 4140 Broadway in Washington Heights, opened first for business in 1930, was a movie palace that stood sixty feet tall. The theater was one of the five Wonders Theaters, and its massive size took up an entire block. Thomas W. Lamb, an architect who designed more than 300 theaters nationally, constructed the theater with Indian architectural elements in mind. The theater premiered classic films and hosted movie stars including Judy Garland, Roy Rogers, and Joan Crawford.

In 1969, due to financial issues, the Loew’s 175^th Street Theater was sold to the United Christian Evangelistic Association, and was renamed the United Palace. Reverend Frederick Joseph Eikerenkollter II grew its ministry welcoming thousands of churchgoers on a weekly basis, helping the structure to become the country’s largest congregation.