There's not a lot of cast iron buildings in Harlem these days so the one at 73 Lenox Avenue (between 113th and 114th Street) really stands out. The facade looks to actually be in really good condition and the verdigris colored gloss paint accents the structure quite nicely. Searching for past articles on Westminster Hall, we found out that it was some sort of formal resort space that was caught in a big scandal back in 1915 when a previous renter used it for church services but had wild gambling parties on the side:
LINK. Apparently the neighbors started noticing a lot of men who were "gaudily clad" and wearing lots of jewelry frequenting the place and the cops were called. Check out our past post for the other cast iron building on 125th Street that is now currently being restored and seeking a retail tenant:
LINK. The landmark district in downtown's Soho probably has the largest collection of these buildings with facades made of cast iron so it's nice to see that there are still some left uptown to represent this style of architecture.
‘Hall used mornings for worship, afternoons for gambling and evenings for tango’
ReplyDeleteSeems fine to me.
My grandparents were married in Westminster Hall in February , 1910. At the time there was a kosher caterer Klein and Moser who were the proprietors;
ReplyDelete