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Chelsea, Manhattan

144 West 14th Street is a grandly-proportioned Renaissance Revival-style loft building. Faced with limestone, tan brick and terra cotta, it was designed by the architects Brunner & Tryon in 1895-96. Seven stories tall, the street facade is articulated through a series of monumental arches, embellished with handsome classical details. Brunner, who began his career in the office of the noted architect George B. Post, designed many institutional structures in Manhattan, including synagogues and hospitals, as well as buildings on the campuses of Barnard, Columbia, and City College.

During the mid-1890s, the firm designed a series of commercial buildings in Manhattan, reflecting the influence of the World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago and the rise of the City Beautiful movement. 144 West 14th Street was built for the real estate developer Joseph L. Buttenwieser, who sold it in 1897 to Frederick Hill Meserve, an early collector of fine art photography, who conveyed it to his uncle, Seth M. Milliken, of the textile firm Deering, Milliken & Company, in 1899.

Since its completion, many commercial tenants have occupied various floors, including R. H. Macy’s, which produced flags and silk underwear here, the silversmith Graff, Washbourne & Dunn, as well as Epiphone, a leading manufacturer of stringed instruments. In 1941, the noted American jazz guitarist Les Paul assembled a “solid-body” electric guitar in the company’s workshop; it became the prototype for many electric guitars played today. 144 West 14th Street was acquired by Pratt Institute in 1999. Restored by Ehrenkrantz, Eckstut & Kuhn Architects, it now serves as the school’s Manhattan campus.

Development of West 14th Street

144 West 14th Street is located on the south side of 14th Street, midway between Sixth and Seventh Avenues. Among the various streets envisioned by the Commissioner’s Plan of 1811, 14th Street was one of the most southerly. Opened between the Bowery and the Hudson River in 1828, it developed into a mostly residential thoroughfare, lined with fine private homes. At 146 West 14th Street originally stood the home of merchant Richard P. Dana, constructed in 1854.2 Immediately to the west was the Church of the Annunciation (1846) where the exhumed body of United States President James Monroe (1758-1831) lay in state in 1858 before its final reburial in Virginia.

West 14th Street became increasingly commercial during the last quarter of the nineteenth century. An elevated railway began service along Sixth Avenue in 1880, and various stores clustered where it intersected with 14th Street, such as the R. H. Macy’s and B. Altman Dry Goods Stores. Streetcars also served the area, including a cross-town line that delivered passengers to the Hudson River waterfront and the Upper (Hoboken) Ferry. These transit routes made West 14th Street an ideal location for both retail stores and manufacturing.

Toward the close of the nineteenth century, New York City became a leading distribution center for the dry-goods trade, attracting numerous warehouses, factories, and showrooms. Passage of the New York State Factory Act in 1892 made home production more difficult, leading to the creation of larger workshops and the need for new structures to house these operations. With few lots available for development in lower Manhattan, manufacturers looked north and a new loft district took shape in midtown, chiefly between 14th and 42nd Streets. Close to suppliers and public transit, these facilities were typically built with freight elevators, open and flexible floor plans, high ceilings, and large windows.3

Joseph L. Buttenwieser

In early 1895 the church and the adjoining Dana house were acquired by Joseph L. Buttenwieser (1865-1938).4 Born in Philadelphia to Lemmmlein and Leah Heller Buttenwieser, the family moved to New York City in 1873. His German-born father was a professor of languages, who taught in the public school system until 1886. Joseph received his bachelor of arts degree from City College in 1883, and a law degree from New York Law School in 1887. He began his fifty-year career as a “real estate operator” in the late 1880s, focusing his activity on property transactions and construction in midtown and lower Manhattan. A major philanthropist, he supported the Citizen’s Union, the Hebrew Technical Institute, and the Federation for the Support of Jewish Philanthropic Societies. Many of these activities involved architectural projects; as a member of the Associated Alumni of City College he helped raise funds to erect a new library, and as a trustee of the Hebrew Sheltering Guardian Society he oversaw construction of the society’s buildings in Pleasantville, New York.5

Brunner & Tryon, Architects

To develop his West 14th Street property, Buttenwieser hired the architects Brunner & Tryon. During the early 1890s, this firm designed many buildings for Jewish institutions and it is likely tha

I just cannot achieve the look I want with this image....not how I imagined it to look....maybe if I changed the wood floor to a solid color...maybe if I had her facing the window differently to get better light. but I knew I only had a moment to snap away as she was awaking soon after I laid her down