3 Park Avenue

also 111 East 33rd Street | Kips Bay | built 1977

Open on the map9 entries

Written with AI from the source each entry cites, then fact-checked.

  1. 1902

    February 22

    Fire destroys the 71st Regiment's Park Avenue armory on a stormy February night

    On the morning of February 22, 1902, newspapers reported the destruction of the 71st Regiment's armory at 34th Street and Park Avenue, on the block where 3 Park Avenue now stands. The cause was never found, and high winds fed the flames; only one wall and the 34th Street entrance remained. The regiment's property was insured for $20,000 and the veterans' for $10,000. A tablet for the Bull Run casualties was saved, and a cannon captured in the 1857 riot was later found in the ruins.

    Source: Daytonian in Manhattan

  2. 1904

    April 29

    Mayor McClellan lays the cornerstone of a new castle-style 71st Regiment armory

    Mayor George B. McClellan Jr. set the cornerstone of the rebuilt armory with a silver trowel on April 29, 1904, before about 3,000 spectators. The design was meant to evoke a medieval castle with turrets and a lofty tower, and Lieutenant Colonel J. Hollis Wells advised the architects, Clinton & Russell, on what a National Guard armory required. The finished armory cost $650,000, filled the Park Avenue blockfront from 33rd to 34th Street and had a 236-foot tower modeled on the town hall tower of Siena.

    Source: Daytonian in Manhattan

  3. 1913

    January 11

    The Women's Political Union's Suffrage Ball makes the armory, which holds ten thousand, look small

    The New-York Tribune reported on January 12, 1913 that the Women's Political Union's Suffrage Ball the night before had made the 71st Regiment Armory look small, in a hall that holds about ten thousand people. The suffragists had already used the armory earlier, distributing literature at the November 1912 Land Show, where pedigreed cows were milked by electricity.

    Source: Daytonian in Manhattan

  4. 1919

    December 23

    Fourteen thousand children storm the armory at the police department's Christmas party

    The police department announced a Christmas entertainment for needy children at the armory on December 23, 1919, with gifts handed out by 100 soldiers dressed as Santa Claus, and gave out 7,000 tickets. The advance publicity backfired. The Times reported that 14,000 youngsters stormed the building, police from six precincts had to be summoned, women fainted, and some children were pushed down the 34th Street entrance.

    Source: Daytonian in Manhattan

  5. 1928

    A promoter stages a talk contest in the armory to settle which sex is gabbier

    Dance-marathon promoter Milton D. Crandall organized a contest at the armory in December 1928 that pitted 36 people, 11 women and 25 men, against each other to see which sex talked more. Crandall said the idea came from a divorce case in which a husband sued because his wife insisted on doing all the talking. The winner was to be whoever logged the longest total time talking, singing, screaming or hooting.

    Source: Daytonian in Manhattan

  6. 1964

    September 1

    Robert F. Kennedy wins the Democratic Senate nomination in the sweltering armory

    At the New York State Democratic Convention held in the armory in September 1964, Robert F. Kennedy won the nomination for U.S. Senate that night. The 38-year-old Attorney General was neither a New York resident nor an enrolled member of the state party, which made the result somewhat surprising. Ethel Kennedy, expecting their ninth child, attended the convention, and the Times described the hall as sweltering.

    Source: Daytonian in Manhattan

  7. 1971

    June 26

    The 71st Regiment Armory is evacuated for demolition and a school with a tower replaces it

    The armory was evacuated on June 26, 1971; the Times noted that once the last military vehicle drove down the steps to Park Avenue, the state would lock it to await demolition by the city. It had been in a sorry state of repair since at least 1963, and a sewer gas explosion injured 18 National Guardsmen in 1964. The city built Norman Thomas High School on the site, topped by a 42-story orange brick tower designed by Shreve, Lamb & Harmon.

    Source: Daytonian in Manhattan

  8. 1973

    Shreve, Lamb & Harmon's 42-story tower rises on the former armory site

    The building at 3 Park Avenue was designed by Shreve, Lamb and Harmon, the firm behind the Empire State Building. It sits on a diagonal alignment and is faced in light brick, the same brick that paves the plaza on three sides. At the entrance stands Irving Marantz's 23-foot bronze Obelisk to Peace from 1972, his last outdoor work. The tower mixes offices with schools, and the Norman Thomas High School once occupied part of it.

    “A sculpture titled "Obelisk to Peace", created by Irving Marantz in 1972, is situated at the main entrance…”

    Source: Wikipedia

  9. 2024

    A $182 million loan on 3 Park Avenue goes to special servicing after tenants leave

    In December 2018 Citibank lent $182 million to refinance the building. Occupancy then fell from 85 percent in 2019 to 54 percent by 2023 once its two biggest tenants, TransPerfect and Icon Capital, had left. In 2024 the loan went into special servicing, and it left special servicing in 2026.

    Source: Wikipedia

Further reading

Nearby

All 16 buildings with stories in Kips Bay