Health Building (125 Worth Street)

85 Centre Street | also 45 Lafayette Street, 125 Worth Street, 130 Leonard Street | Civic Center | built 1934

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.

1935
The city completes Charles B. Meyers's $5.5 million Health Building on Worth Street after three years of work
Work on the Art Deco Health Building began in 1932 and finished in 1935; the price tag was $5.5 million, and Charles B. Meyers was the architect. It takes up the full block between Worth, Centre, Leonard and Lafayette Streets. Besides the city's health department and the Health and Hospitals Corporation, the building also houses the Sanitation Department.
Source: Internet Archive
1935
Metalworker Oscar Bach designs the bronze grillwork and health-themed medallions at the entrances
Oscar Bach designed the bronze grillwork and the health-themed medallions at the front and side entrances of the Health Building. His studios in the city also supplied ornamental metal for the Woolworth Building, the Chrysler Building and the Empire State Building, and for Riverside Church and Temple Emanu-El.
Source: Internet Archive
1935
Art Deco lanterns borne on the backs of male figures greet visitors on the Centre Street side
Along the Centre Street frontage of the 1935 building, large Art Deco lamps are borne on the backs of male figures. Ephemeral New York describes the structure as fortress-like, with bronze grillwork and health themes across the facade, and notes that the names of great scientists and medical figures are carved into it, recalling its public-health mission.
Source: Ephemeral New York

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