Tuesday, January 24, 2023 – THE BRONZED DOORS THAT GRACE A GAP STORE
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What the figures on the doors of a Third Avenue Gap store tell us about the building
The front doors caught my eye first. Heavy and bronze, these two doors at the entrance of the Gap store at Third Avenue and 85th Street feature intricate carvings and curious allegorical figures reminiscent of ancient Greece.
On one door, a woman balances a locomotive engine in her left hand and grips a caduceus in the right. Behind her is a sailing ship, and beside her head are the words “commerce and industry.”
The man on the opposite door holds a staff with a beehive at the top. In his other hand is a key, and at his feet a cornucopia. “Finance and savings” is inscribed at his shoulder.
FROM THE ARCHIVES
Classical figures like these are pretty much the last thing you’d expect to find as you walk into the Gap. But the same set of doors also exist on the 85th Street side of the building, and the allegorical images offer a solid clue about what this unusually dignified building in the heart of Yorkville was built for.
The building was once the home of Yorkville Bank—an Italian Renaissance Revival structure built to serve this growing middle- and working-class immigrant neighborhood in 1905, according to a 2012 Landmarks Preservation Commission report.
The cast-bronze doors, fabricated by John Polachek Bronze & Iron Company of Long Island City, arrived after a renovation in the 1920s.
Four stories of limestone, brick, terra cotta, and granite, the building has the imposing, fortress-like look of a typical bank building from turn of the century New York City—when savings bank failures weren’t uncommon and financial institutions wanted to instill a sense of trust and strength to entice potential customers.
The allegorical figures are part of this strength and trust. The train the woman holds is a symbol of industry; the caduceus suggests commerce, according to the LPC report. The key in the man’s hands represents prudence, and the cornucopia is a sign of plenty.
Four stories of limestone, brick, terra cotta, and granite, the building has the imposing, fortress-like look of a typical bank building from turn of the century New York City—when savings bank failures weren’t uncommon and financial institutions wanted to instill a sense of trust and strength to entice potential customers.
The allegorical figures are part of this strength and trust. The train the woman holds is a symbol of industry; the caduceus suggests commerce, according to the LPC report. The key in the man’s hands represents prudence, and the cornucopia is a sign of plenty.
Thankfully the Gap kept the doors, as well as the charming “YB” (Yorkville Bank, of course!) inscription above them.
Bank buildings all over New York City have been repurposed for other businesses—here’s one on the Upper West Side that now serves as a CVS, and another on Lafayette Street that’s become a Duane Reade.
[Fourth image: NYC Department of Records & Information Services]
PHOTO OF THE DAY
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WEEKEND PHOTO OF THE DAY
FROM ANDY SPARBERG:
Aerial view of City Hall (left foreground) in Lower Manhattan. Domed building to the right is the New York World newspaper office.
I’m not 100% sure, but I am guessing that the photo is taken from the top of 15 Park Row, a building completed in 1899 that was then the tallest in the world at 391 feet (31 stories). It originally was an office building; today it still stands, repurposed as an apartment building.
More info from Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Park_Row_Building
FROM ED LITCHER:
pre-1900 aerial view of New York City Hall Park and the surrounding buildings, including City Hall, the New York County (Tweed) Courthouse behind City Hall and to the right, the buildings of Park (Newspaper) Row, the World (the copper domed building) the Tribune and the New York Times.
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
All image are copyrighted (c) Roosevelt Island Historical Society unless otherwise indicated
EPHEMERAL NEW YORK
Tags: Former Bank Buildings in New York City, Repurposed Bank Buildings NYC, Yorkville Bank Building Third Avenue, Yorkville Bank Gap Store, Yorkville Bank Third Avenue 85th Street
Posted in Fashion and shopping, Random signage, Upper East Side
[Fourth image: NYC Department of Records & Information Services]
THIS PUBLICATION FUNDED BY DISCRETIONARY FUNDS FROM CITY COUNCIL MEMBER JULIE MENIN & ROOSEVELT ISLAND OPERATING CORPORATION PUBLIC PURPOSE FUNDS.
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