New York Women's League for Animals Hospital

350 Lafayette Street | also 11 Bond Street, 348 Lafayette Street | NoHo | built 1913

Open on the map5 entries

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

1. 1913

   Janes and Cordes design a Colonial Revival animal hospital on the Bond Street corner

   Elisha H. Janes and August W. Cordes designed the building for the New York Women's League for Animals in 1913. Its brick front runs fifteen bays along Lafayette Street, with a granite portico with rusticated columns, terra-cotta bandcourses and keystones, and a freight entryway at the south bay. The Bond Street side repeats the same detailing.

   Source: NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission

2. 1914

   March 14

   The Women's League for Animals opens a free animal hospital on Lafayette Street

   Ellin Prince Speyer, wife of the banker James Speyer, led the Women's League in raising $50,000 for a purpose-built hospital, described as the first of its kind in the United States. It could take 50 horses and 150 cats and dogs. At the opening, Speyer showed guests an envelope holding a $1,000 bill, given anonymously to buy the hospital's first animal ambulance.

   Source: The Bowery Boys

3. 1914

   Sick horses ride an elevator to the animal hospital's roof garden

   Most horses stayed on the second floor, where they were also operated on. The sickest ones went up in a big elevator to a roof garden to get fresh air and sunshine. Dead animals went to an incinerator in the basement, and one floor held an apartment for the chief veterinarian, Dr. Bruce Blair, and his new wife.

   Source: The Bowery Boys

4. 1965

   The animal hospital closes its doors and the building becomes a factory and offices

   The League added a rooftop penthouse in 1924, and the building kept its use as an animal hospital until 1965. That year the owner, John Challis, converted it to a factory and offices. By the time of the 1999 historic district report, a social service agency occupied it.

   Source: NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission

5. 2016

   February

   Landmarks Commission approves retail conversion of the former animal hospital and women's shelter

   After the hospital era the building became a shelter for homeless women. When an owner sought to convert it to retail, Village Preservation, the Society for the Architecture of the City and the Historic Districts Council objected to plans to remove the crenelated parapet and lower the original entry. The Commission sent the applicant back, then approved a revised design with some changes.

   Source: Village Preservation

Further reading

• America’s first free animal hospital, at 350 Lafayette Street, with a roof garden for sick horsesThe Bowery Boys

Nearby

• 7 Bond Street3 entries
• Robbins & Appleton Building1 Bond Street | 4 entries
• 19 Bond Street4 entries
• 57 Bleecker Street1 entry
• 21 Bond Street3 entries
• Bayard–Condict Building65 Bleecker Street | 12 entries

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