Lefcourt Clothing Center

275 7th Avenue | also 165 West 25th Street, 160 West 26th Street | Chelsea | built 1928

Open on the map4 entries

The lot about 1940
About 1940. Via 1940s.nyc
The lot about 1985
About 1985. Via 80s.nyc

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.

  1. 1928

    Ely Jacques Kahn designs an Art Deco tower for the garment trade

    Abraham E. Lefcourt, a former clothing manufacturer turned developer, helped establish the Garment District along Seventh Avenue after World War I. He built the Lefcourt Clothing Center, designed by Ely Jacques Kahn of Buchman & Kahn in 1927 and completed in 1928. The 27-story Art Deco tower is decorated with terra cotta and inventive brickwork, and it begins a series of large setbacks at the 18th floor, as 1916 zoning required.

    Source: Daytonian in Manhattan

  2. 1929

    December 19

    Armed robbers steal a $5,600 payroll from a men's clothing firm

    Bashowitz Brothers & Co., a men's clothing maker that employed 275 people in the building, was preparing its $5,600 weekly payroll in cash when three armed young men burst into its office. One grabbed the tray of pay envelopes and all three fled down a staircase. They were never caught.

    Source: Daytonian in Manhattan

  3. 1945

    The ILGWU buys the building to expand its union health center

    The International Ladies' Garment Workers' Union bought the tower for $2.5 million in October 1945, saying the purchase would let it expand its Union Health Center. The center had moved into a full floor of the building in 1935. In 1947 the union began a $1 million expansion that grew the clinic to five and a half floors.

    Source: Daytonian in Manhattan

  4. 2025

    May 20

    The city designates the building an individual landmark

    The Landmarks Preservation Commission considered the Lefcourt Clothing Center as an individual New York City landmark on May 20, 2025. It said that changes to the storefronts did not take away from the building's brickwork and massing. The commission described Ely Jacques Kahn as one of the city's foremost Art Deco architects.

    Source: Daytonian in Manhattan

Further reading

Nearby

All 72 buildings with stories in Chelsea