The Sofia (Kent Automatic Garage)

45 Columbus Avenue | also 43 West 61st Street, 41 Columbus Avenue | Lincoln Square | built 1930

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

  1. 1928

    October 31

    Kent Automatic Garages announces a 25-story automatic garage on the site of a 61st Street apartment house

    Before the garage, the corner of 61st Street and Columbus Avenue held an apartment house at 43 West 61st Street, where the Times in 1910 called one floor-through unit luxuriously furnished. After the site was bought, Kent Automatic Garages announced on October 31, 1928 a 25-story copy of its 43rd Street garage next to the Packard showrooms. Milton A. Kent planned a chain of 'car hotels' where machines, not attendants, parked the cars.

    Source: Daytonian in Manhattan

  2. 1930

    July 30

    The Kent garage opens, parking cars with electric carriages that grab the rear axle

    The garage opened on July 30, 1930, nine months after the stock market crash. A driver left the car at street level, an elevator lifted it to a floor, and an electric carriage on a belt pulled it into a space and returned to the elevator. Parking cost 50 cents an hour at first, dropping to 5 cents an hour after two hours, and patrons could use lounging rooms on the second floor.

    Source: Daytonian in Manhattan

  3. 1930

    Jardine, Hill & Murdock's only known Art Deco design is the Kent garage, with Aztec-inspired terra cotta

    The Landmarks Commission describes the Kent garage as the only known Art Deco design by Jardine, Hill & Murdock, a firm known for Renaissance-style office buildings. The two-story car entrance on Columbus Avenue is framed in polychrome terra-cotta chevrons and medallions drawn from Aztec motifs. Above, orange brick is banded in black, and setbacks at the upper floors are capped in cream and royal blue terra cotta.

    “The Kent Garage on Columbus Avenue of the following year is the only known design by the firm in the Art Deco style.”

    Source: NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission

  4. 1943

    The Central Savings Bank sells the failed Kent garage to the Sofia family, who turn it into a warehouse

    The Kent garage venture collapsed in September 1931, and a reorganized company took over without the Kent brothers. The building stayed in use as a garage for years, until the Central Savings Bank, which held the mortgage, sold it in 1943 to the Sofia interests. They removed the parking machinery, blocked the old car entrance on Columbus Avenue and turned the building into a storage warehouse, with George S. Kingsley as architect.

    Source: NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission

  5. 1956

    The Foster Parents' Plan office in the Sofia building becomes a drop-off for Hungarian refugee aid

    In the 1950s the Foster Parents' Plan had offices in the Sofia Brothers warehouse. In April 1956 its Munich director spoke to reporters here about German war victims, and months later it launched a drive for scarves and mittens for children in Europe. After the Soviet invasion of Hungary, the State Department directed New Yorkers to this office to leave donations as refugees began arriving.

    Source: Daytonian in Manhattan

  6. 1971

    Manhattan Cable's studio in the building starts a two-way cable TV system

    By the 1970s the old garage housed media firms, including Folkways Records and Service Corporation and Sterling Movies USA, which distributed movies for television. In 1971 Manhattan Cable Studios, based in the building, began a two-way cable television system. The film distributor De Luxe Pictures had already rented a full floor in 1954 to store and distribute motion picture films.

    Source: Daytonian in Manhattan

  7. 1984

    The warehouse becomes condos marketed as 'at Lincoln Center' until Lincoln Center objects

    In August 1983 developers paid $9.3 million for the building and turned it into 94 condominiums with offices below. The project was first marketed as 'Sofia at Lincoln Center,' but Lincoln Center's president Nathan Leventhal pointed out that outside buildings could not use the name, so it became 'Sofia Opposite Lincoln Center.' About four-fifths of the apartments were sold by October 1984.

    “After the performing arts complex's president Nathan Leventhal pointed out that it was illegal to brand structures outside Lincoln Center as being "at Lincoln Center…”

    Source: Wikipedia

Further reading

Nearby

All 48 buildings with stories in Lincoln Square