Tuesday, April 12, 2022 – CHANGE THE NAME, ERASE THE HISTORY, ANOTHER N.Y. REAL ESTATE STORY

By admin

TUESDAY, APRIL 12,  2022


647th Issue

LINCOLN LOSES

HIS PLACE OF HONOR

SAM ROBERT

NY TIMES

For some years I worked in the Lincoln Building at 60 East 42nd Street. Every day Abe Lincoln sat in his grand bronze chair in the lobby looking down at all who entered.  

Not only has the building lost it’s name and now Abe is relegated to the Law Library which may be appropriate for his retirement.

Only in the New York real estate market  we can sell a president to the highest bidder.

Lincoln Loses a Tower, but He Still Has the Tunnel

By Sam Roberts

Think “Lincoln” and “New York,” and the juxtaposition would most likely conjure up the tunnel or the performing arts center. Until this year, it might have also evoked the majestic Lincoln Building at 60 East 42nd Street.

No longer.

With barely a nod to the former president, the owners of the 53-story tower, which opened 80 years ago, changed the name to One Grand Central Place, removed the bronze plaques on which the Gettysburg Address and his second Inaugural Address were immortalized, and evicted Daniel Chester French’s sculpture of the “seated Lincoln,” the model for the Lincoln Memorial, from the lobby.

The makeover occurred last year, the bicentennial of Lincoln’s birth, and after much talk that elevated President Obama to the former president’s soul mate. (Mr. Obama hardly discouraged the connection: he recited the presidential oath of office a year ago with his hand on the same Bible that Lincoln used at his inauguration in 1861.)

“First they replaced Lincoln’s Birthday with Presidents’ Day, and now this,” said Harold Holzer, a Lincoln scholar. “If this landlord took over the Lincoln Memorial, would he rename it the Temple on the Mall? The trend to the generic is not only an insult to our intelligence, it also threatens to erase national memory when perhaps we need it most.

“Lincoln talked at Gettysburg about ensuring that heroes did not die in vain. Apparently he spoke too soon.

” Image The Lincoln statue that once graced the lobby of the former Lincoln Building on 42nd Street. The Lincoln statue that once graced the lobby of the former Lincoln Building on 42nd Street.

Joshua Bright for The New York Times

If the name change means Lincoln has been supplanted as a marketing tool, the good news is that neighbors now want to share in Grand Central Terminal’s revival as not only a transit hub, but also a destination.

Fred C. Posniak, senior vice president of W & H Properties, announced the change, saying, “It confirms the building’s reputation as the premier prewar trophy property within the Grand Central district, as well as its unsurpassed location directly across from Grand Central Terminal.

” The Lincoln statue was apparently purchased by Lawrence A. Wein, who bought the building in the early 1950s. He was the father-in-law of Peter L. Malkin, the chairman of W & H Properties, which now owns it.

Anthony E. Malkin, president of W & H, said the statue was moved to improve traffic flow and installed in the building’s law library off the lobby “in respect of a president who was himself a lawyer, and as a more befitting spot in our building for a noted work of art.”

Mr. Malkin also pointed out that “when it was completed in 1930, the building was not actually named after Mr. Lincoln; it was named after the Lincoln Storage Company.”

Sort of.

The site was occupied by the Lincoln Storage Company and the Lincoln National Bank, which never shied away from its association with the former president. When the bank opened in 1882, a portrait of Lincoln, presented by his son Robert, hung in the bank president’s private office

 In 1909, the building was festooned with bunting for the celebration of the centennial of Lincoln’s birth. As recently as 1992, his birthday was celebrated in the lobby with a cake, a concert and even a Lincoln impersonator.ock

Red brick, white stone and cast iron combine in handsome contrast — photo by Alice Lum

“The foundation will be of hard quarry stone and brick,” said the article, “and the walls three feet in thickness. The front will be of dressed brick, with Ohio sand-stone trimmings. The floors will be of yellow pine, sustained by double iron columns…The building, exclusive of the lot, will cost $275,000. The architects are Messrs. J. W. and Geo. E. Harney.”

George Harney produced a five-story store and factory building of red brick with contrasting stone trim. The architect borrowed from several styles. Groups of Romanesque arched openings were supported by brick, stone or cast iron columns. Between the second and third floors, Eastlake detailing was carved into the stone course and enormous, decorative iron tie plates accented the broad, brick pilasters between the third and fourth stories.

https://www.nypl.org/events/programs/2022/04/19/rihs-lecture-backstory-long-island-city-gantries

Tuesday Photo of the Day

SEND YOU RESPONSE TO ROOSEVELTISLANDHISTORY@GMAIL.COM

MONDAY PHOTO OF THE DAY

THE FORMER TRIBORO HOSPITAL WHICH IS NOW BEING RENOVATED INTO AFFORDABLE AND SUPPORTIVE HOUSING.

Text by Judith Berdy
Thanks to Bobbie Slonevsky for her dedication to Blackwell’s Almanac and the RIHS
Thanks to Deborah Dorff for maintaining our website
Edited by Melanie Colter and Deborah Dorff

Sources

NEW YORK TIMES

FUNDING PROVIDED BY ROOSEVELT ISLAND OPERATING CORPORATION PUBLIC PURPOSE GRANTS CITY COUNCIL REPRESENTATIVE BEN KALLOS DISCRETIONARY FUNDING THRU DYCD

Copyright © 2022 Roosevelt Island Historical Society, All rights reserved.Our mailing address is:
rooseveltislandhistory@gmail.com