Mount Morris Bank Building
81 East 125th Street | also 85 East 125th Street, 1820 Park Avenue | East Harlem | built 1884
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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.
- 1880
Mount Morris Bank organizes as Harlem urbanizes
Mount Morris Bank is organized in December 1880, as Harlem changes from a suburb into an urban residential neighborhood linked to downtown by new elevated railway lines. The bank first rents space at 133 East 125th Street. It later moves into a purpose-built building at 81-85 East 125th Street that combines banking space with apartments.
Source: Wikipedia
- 1884
Lamb & Rich finish a mixed-use bank and apartment building
Construction begins April 3, 1883, and ends February 1, 1884, on a design by Lamb & Rich that blends Queen Anne and Richardsonian Romanesque styles. The architects use rock-faced sandstone for the bank portions and red Philadelphia brick for the apartments above. They double the building's size in 1889-90 using the lot to the north, and in 1912 architect Frank A. Rooke rebuilds the entranceways.
Source: Wikipedia
- 1913
Mount Morris Bank becomes a branch of Corn Exchange Bank
In 1913, Mount Morris Bank becomes a branch of the Corn Exchange Bank, the first New York City bank to set up local branches. Corn Exchange merges with Chemical Bank in 1954, and Chemical closes the Harlem branch in the mid-1960s. Commercial tenants and a church then use the building, and by the late 1970s it stands vacant.
Source: Wikipedia
- 2015
A derelict bank reopens after decades of decay
After sitting mostly empty for decades, the bank building is sealed up in 1987, and a 1997 fire destroys its mansard roof and the two floors beneath it. In 2009 the city demolishes everything but the basement and main floor for safety. Developer Artimus Construction buys it in 2012 and rebuilds it for commercial use, and it reopens in May 2015 with an art fair.
Source: Wikipedia
Further reading
- Mount Morris Bank BuildingWikipedia
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