Hampton Shops Building
18 East 50th Street | also 20 East 50th Street | Midtown | built 1916
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The city photographed every building for its tax records around 1940 and again in the 1980s. NYC Municipal Archives.
Written with AI from the source each entry cites, then fact-checked.
- 1916
Rouse & Goldstone's neo-Gothic showroom for Hampton Shops is completed
Plans were filed in February 1915 for a $200,000 steel-frame loft building at 18 East 50th Street for the furniture firm later known as Hampton Shops. Rouse & Goldstone and Joseph L. Steinam designed it in a neo-Gothic style meant to suit St. Patrick's Cathedral, which the building faces. Bing & Bing began construction in June 1915, and work finished in mid-January 1916. Small shields above the entrance show the company's initials with images of chairs and tables.
- 1938
Hampton Shops goes bankrupt and its stock is sold at auction
After 22 years at 18 East 50th Street, Hampton Shops declared bankruptcy in 1938. Its entire stock of antique-style furniture and reproductions was sold at public auction that December. The building was later subdivided and leased to businesses in the art and design fields.
- 1945
Carrier Corporation acquires the former Hampton Shops building as its New York office
The air-conditioner maker Carrier Corporation acquired 18 East 50th Street in 1945 to serve as its New York office. In 1948 it was followed by A. M. Corporation, a British importer, which bought it as an investment. Other tenants included the Museum of Costume Art, a forerunner of the Metropolitan Museum's Costume Institute, which leased a floor from 1943 to 1946, and the design firm George Nelson & Co. from 1956 to 1962.
- 2016
The city designates the Hampton Shops Building a landmark
The Landmarks Preservation Commission designated the Hampton Shops Building at 18-20 East 50th Street an individual landmark on November 22, 2016. The commission noted its 11-story facade of gray terra cotta resembling granite. The building was acquired in 1977 by the owner of the New York Health and Racquet Club, which now occupies the lower four floors, with offices above.
Further reading
- 18 East 50th StreetWikipedia
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