New York County National Bank Building
75 8th Avenue | also 77 8th Avenue | West Village | built 1907
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Written with AI from the source each entry cites, then fact-checked.
- 1902
Depositors grow nervous as the New York County National Bank shows a $43,250 deficit
On September 21, 1902, depositors of the New York County National Bank, whose new headquarters would later rise on this corner, grew uneasy when it reported a $43,250 shortfall and its reserves had vanished. President Francis L. Leland refused to let the bank fail. His father had led the institution from 1857 until his death in 1885, which made it close to a family business. Within four years the bank had recovered well enough to plan a grand new building.
Source: Daytonian in Manhattan
- 1905
The bank buys a printing house next door from John Jacob Astor to double its Eighth Avenue frontage
The New York County National Bank had held the corner at 79 Eighth Avenue since 1877. In January 1905 it bought the adjacent No. 77 from John Jacob Astor, a brick printing house of three stories rented by Styles & Cash. The purchase widened the bank's Eighth Avenue frontage from about 25 feet to nearly 52 feet. Because the printers' lease ran until May 1906, building could not start sooner, and Styles & Cash meanwhile began a ten-story headquarters at 135 West 14th Street.
- 1906
Plans for the new bank shrink from eight stories to one, and the drawings carry two architects' names
In February 1906 the trade weekly Real Estate Record and Guide announced that De Lemos & Cordes would design a bank, loft and office building eight stories high, with the bank on the first two floors. By April the filing was for a one-story building with an attic, in the names of De Lemos & Cordes and Rudolph L. Daus as successor. Both offices sat at 130 Fulton Street, and the drawings at the Municipal Archives are signed so ambiguously that historians cannot say who designed what.
“Plans and drawings (at the Municipal Archives) are likewise ambiguously signed, and it is therefore difficult to determine who was responsible, and to what extent…”
- 1921
Chatham and Phenix National Bank buys control of the old New York County National Bank
After Francis Leland died in 1916, the bank he had steered through the 1902 scare lost its independence. On November 8, 1921, the Times reported that the Chatham and Phenix National Bank, under its president Louis G. Kaufman, had taken control, though the old name was not to disappear at once. It did in the 1930s, when Manufacturers Trust absorbed it. The corner building then served Manufacturers Hanover until that bank merged with Chemical in 1994.
Source: Daytonian in Manhattan
- 1988
The Landmarks Commission designates the former bank over its owner's written opposition
The Landmarks Preservation Commission designated the Manufacturers Hanover Trust Company Building on June 7, 1988, under the name of the bank that occupied it. Ten witnesses spoke in favor at hearings on September 15 and December 1, 1987, and fourteen letters backed designation. The owner did not testify but filed a statement against it. The report praises the small, monumental classical bank and its pairing with the New York Bank for Savings across 14th Street, a link between Greenwich Village and Chelsea.
“Ten witnesses spoke in favor of designation. The owner did not speak at the hearing but submitted a statement in opposition to designation.”
- 1999
A $6 million conversion turns the bank into a 499-seat Off-Broadway theater with condominiums above
After Laura Bohn and Richard Fiore bought the building in the late 1990s, the 14th Street Development Corporation spent $6 million converting it into a mixed-use complex called the Bank Building. The lower floors became a 499-seat Off-Broadway theater, and eleven mostly duplex apartments went upstairs, with a two-story penthouse added and four stories added to the 1926 annex at 75 Eighth Avenue. A men's spa called Nickel was operating downstairs by 2004. Neighboring shopkeepers complained that the construction wall hurt business.
“The lower floors of the building were converted into a 499-seat Off-Broadway theater…”
Source: Wikipedia
- 2018
The Museum of Illusions opens in the former bank after years as a theater and a spa
The Museum of Illusions opened in the former New York County National Bank Building in September 2018, filling space that had earlier held an Off-Broadway theater and a men's spa. Wealthy buyers had shown interest in the condominiums above, but few wanted to live in a rundown neighborhood, so most apartments served as pieds-a-terre until the early 2010s. Then the opening of the High Line and nearby boutiques made the area fashionable.
“The Museum of Illusions opened in the New York County National Bank Building in September 2018.”
Source: Wikipedia
Further reading
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