The three brownstone buildings on the corner of 122nd Street and Lenox, in the past couple of years, have seen various stages of construction but the one further north seems to be coming along the most. A reader informed us recently that they saw windows being installed at number 245 Lenox Avenue (at right with scaffolding) and we recently walked by to take the above photo. This is also the building with the grey scratch coat finish on the surface which indicates that a smooth brownstone stucco finish will restore the facade in the near future. Records shows that the 19 foot wide building was purchased in 2007 for $895K, and the 5 story building is in the process of being converted from an SRO status to a 4 family with possible retail on the ground floor. The building that is of most concern is house number 243 at the right of the photo. There seems to have been work made recently to shore up the structure but it appears that the owner is just letting the property sit in decay since there are no job filings to be found for the restoration of the building. It is still unclear why the government hasn't stepped in to rectify a situation where the property owner is letting a local landmark blatantly deteriorate. Does anyone have anymore details on either building? Photo by Ulysses
Well, I pass it every day and there is certainly a lot of activity on that one building. Would love to see the corner building restored though.
ReplyDeleteDid you know they used that corner for a scene in American Gangster? In the movie they had a cafe scene set up there. I was trying to figure out if they actually used the corner building itself (if you peak through the boardings you can see what looks like a disused retail store of some kind).
Wished they would have left Lucille's cafe there from the American Gangster set. It would have done well!
ReplyDeleteThese buildings are massive relative to traditional brownstone scale, the apartments will be very nice and in a great location. My hope is to see some restaurants occupying the garden level under the stoop and alfresco dining on the huge sidewalk.
ReplyDeletewhen that stretch of gorgeous tall brownstones are restored it could be Lenox Boulevard, not Avenue. Would be a wonderful Sunday afternoon stroll.
ReplyDeleteWe went into 245 a couple weeks ago. They were waiting on Landmarks to authorize the work on the façade. Landmarks has to specify the exact color and then they have to wait for a day when the temperature is high enough that the finish will cure properly.
ReplyDeleteInterior work was pretty far along. Kitchens were in, there were just a few final details before the last parts of the walls were closed up.
One thing I found interesting was that the newel posts on the stoops for all those townhouses weren't cast iron - they were brownstone. We had been wondering why we and our neighbors had stucco covered brick posts at the bottom of our stoop - now we realize they were original.
The owner of the corner house has said he is suing his contractor who made off with money, and is waiting for a judgment, last i heard.
ReplyDeletei live down the block and that cornor building with the perpetual scaffold is a real eyesore, as is that other dog next to it. I was hoping the third building undergoing reno. would take over the other two derelicts and make it into a massive condo or something. one of these days the scaffold will collapse and someone will have hell to pay.
ReplyDeletewell i can tell you first hand that the apartments of 245 lenox are outstanding.the contractor did a wonderful job on fixing up this past eye sore. all we have to do now is get the losers who own the other two buildings next door to man up and fix their buildings.
ReplyDeleteCan anybody help me out here.im hearing that Malcolm X himself lived at 245 lenox can anybody tell me if this is true.
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