The Raymond Building over on 125th Street and Madison appeared to be going under a restoration which included a partial demolition to expand the building. Walking by this corner of East Harlem in the past weeks, one might notice that partial is a pretty generous word used in this case. At the lower photo, the old building's current state can be seen and most of the structure has basically been gutted with only the base of the building standing. The good news here is that this long abandoned building will finally get a second life but at the expense of losing much of its historic charm.
aw, what a blood shame.
ReplyDeleteIt was such an eyesore though. Glad that part of 125th is being revitalized.
ReplyDeleteFor a while this looked like the Parthenon with it’s perimeter of white columns, sorry to see this distinctive building demolished. This is a very good location and has an underutilized far (floor area ratio) value, hopefully it will not be replaced with another low rise building.
ReplyDeleteI am willing to bet money that this will be replaced by a generic glass and aluminum shoebox.
ReplyDeleteLong abandoned? Manna's was in it not too long ago. I assumed Manna's was kicked out for the building to be "partially" demolished.
ReplyDeleteBefore Manna's it was a furniture store for a long time that probably used the upper floors just for storage, so it's easy to see how they would have fallen into disrepair over the years and be abandoned by the owner just trying to earn a quick buck on a retail tenant without putting any money into the building.
Carmilo Jose Vergara photo from 1988: http://invinciblecities.camden.rutgers.edu/files/1401.jpg