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De Vinne Press Building
The De Vinne Press Building is a commercial building and former printing plant at 393–399 Lafayette Street, at the corner of Fourth Street, in the NoHo neighborhood of Manhattan in New York City, New York. The building was designed by the firm of Babb, Cook & Willard in the Romanesque Revival style. It is a New York City designated landmark and is on the National Register of Historic Places.
The De Vinne Press Building is seven stories high, excluding the raised basement. The facade is made of brick and terracotta, with decorations concentrated on the southern and western elevations, which face Fourth Street and Lafayette Street, respectively. Each facade includes segmental arches and round-arched windows, as well as horizontal belt courses. Inside, the building has a mostly rectangular floor plan. The interiors were designed in a utilitarian style and were intended to accommodate the weight of printing presses. The load-bearing walls are made of brick, and the structure also contains cast-iron columns encased in brick piers.
The building was built in 1885–1886 by Theodore Low De Vinne, a typographer and printer who led the De Vinne Press. He originally owned a 25 percent stake in the property, while the remaining share was owned by Roswell Smith, the founder of the Century Company. The structure expanded east between 1891 and 1892. The press closed in 1922, and De Vinne's heirs sold their interest to Smith's estate in 1929. The building was sold in 1938 to the Walter Peek Paper Corporation, which sold it in the early 1980s to Edwin Fisher. The ground floor has been occupied by Astor Wines and Spirits since 2006, while the upper floors were gradually renovated and converted to offices.
The De Vinne Press Building is at 393–399 Lafayette Street, on the northeast corner with Fourth Street, in the NoHo neighborhood of Manhattan in New York City. The rectangular land lot measures 14,627 square feet (1,359 m2), with a frontage of 124.67 feet (38 m) on Lafayette Street and 117.67 feet (36 m) on Fourth Street. To the east on the same block are the Merchant's House Museum, as well as a public park named Manuel Plaza and the Samuel Tredwell Skidmore House at 37 East Fourth Street. The Astor Library Building (now the Public Theater) and Astor Place Tower are also on the same block to the north. Other nearby buildings include the Firehouse of Engine Company No. 33 one block south; 357 Bowery one block east; and the Schermerhorn Building one block south.
The building's site was historically part of the estate of German-American businessman John Jacob Astor, who acquired the land in 1803 between present-day Astor Place and Great Jones Street. Astor subsequently built his mansion and horse stable nearby. In the 1830s, the wealthiest New Yorkers started to relocate northward from the present-day Financial District of Manhattan, and settled along Lafayette Place (now Lafayette Street). At the time, the area surrounding Lafayette Place was still mostly undeveloped. Residential development in the area peaked at that time before moving northward in the 1840s and 1850s. The surrounding area became a printing hub after the American Civil War, and there were over 20 publishers nearby by the 1880s. Partly due to the presence of the Astor Library, bookbinding and publishing firms such as The De Vinne Press and J.J. Little & Co. settled around Lafayette Place.
The De Vinne Press Building was designed in the Romanesque Revival style by the firm Babb, Cook & Willard; the primary designer was likely Walter Cook, a partner in the firm. An addition to the building was completed in 1892. The structure consists of seven stories, excluding the raised basement; if the basement is counted, the building is eight stories tall. The architectural writer Henry-Russell Hitchcock compared the structure's design with that of the Marshall Field's Wholesale Store in Chicago. The De Vinne Press Building's design inspired that of another structure in Manhattan: the Tarrant Building, constructed in 1892 at 278–282 Greenwich Street.
The De Vinne Press Building is one of several journalism-related buildings in New York City that were designed in a Rundbogenstil–inspired style, with arches and brick walls. The facade is made of brick and terracotta, with decorations concentrated on the southern and western elevations, facing the street. Both elevations include a mix of segmental arches and round-arched windows, which are interspersed through the facade. Due to the arrangement of the arches, the facade's appearance resembles the design of an old Roman aqueduct. The steel-and-glass windows are recessed deeply into the facade, and elaborate terracotta decorations are used sparingly. Belt courses run horizontally across the facade. The building's gable roof has a shallow slope and is supported by iron trusses, similar to other warehouse buildings of the time.
The Lafayette Street elevation to the west is seven bays wide. Both ends of the facade are ornamented with quoins. On the first through third stories, the three center bays each feature a triple-height archway. The central archway has an arched doorway to its second story, as well as spandrel panels with interlacing patterns. Roundels above the central archway at the third story bear the initials of the building's developer, Theodore Low De Vinne, and the building's year of completion, 1885. The decorations of the main entrance archway were intended to give the building a "domestic scale"; at the time of the building's completion, most of the surrounding structures were low-rise houses. The two outermost bays on either side feature two single-height arched windows on each of the first through third stories. The outermost windows on the first and second floors are segmental arches, while those on the third floor are round arches.
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De Vinne Press Building
The De Vinne Press Building is a commercial building and former printing plant at 393–399 Lafayette Street, at the corner of Fourth Street, in the NoHo neighborhood of Manhattan in New York City, New York. The building was designed by the firm of Babb, Cook & Willard in the Romanesque Revival style. It is a New York City designated landmark and is on the National Register of Historic Places.
The De Vinne Press Building is seven stories high, excluding the raised basement. The facade is made of brick and terracotta, with decorations concentrated on the southern and western elevations, which face Fourth Street and Lafayette Street, respectively. Each facade includes segmental arches and round-arched windows, as well as horizontal belt courses. Inside, the building has a mostly rectangular floor plan. The interiors were designed in a utilitarian style and were intended to accommodate the weight of printing presses. The load-bearing walls are made of brick, and the structure also contains cast-iron columns encased in brick piers.
The building was built in 1885–1886 by Theodore Low De Vinne, a typographer and printer who led the De Vinne Press. He originally owned a 25 percent stake in the property, while the remaining share was owned by Roswell Smith, the founder of the Century Company. The structure expanded east between 1891 and 1892. The press closed in 1922, and De Vinne's heirs sold their interest to Smith's estate in 1929. The building was sold in 1938 to the Walter Peek Paper Corporation, which sold it in the early 1980s to Edwin Fisher. The ground floor has been occupied by Astor Wines and Spirits since 2006, while the upper floors were gradually renovated and converted to offices.
The De Vinne Press Building is at 393–399 Lafayette Street, on the northeast corner with Fourth Street, in the NoHo neighborhood of Manhattan in New York City. The rectangular land lot measures 14,627 square feet (1,359 m2), with a frontage of 124.67 feet (38 m) on Lafayette Street and 117.67 feet (36 m) on Fourth Street. To the east on the same block are the Merchant's House Museum, as well as a public park named Manuel Plaza and the Samuel Tredwell Skidmore House at 37 East Fourth Street. The Astor Library Building (now the Public Theater) and Astor Place Tower are also on the same block to the north. Other nearby buildings include the Firehouse of Engine Company No. 33 one block south; 357 Bowery one block east; and the Schermerhorn Building one block south.
The building's site was historically part of the estate of German-American businessman John Jacob Astor, who acquired the land in 1803 between present-day Astor Place and Great Jones Street. Astor subsequently built his mansion and horse stable nearby. In the 1830s, the wealthiest New Yorkers started to relocate northward from the present-day Financial District of Manhattan, and settled along Lafayette Place (now Lafayette Street). At the time, the area surrounding Lafayette Place was still mostly undeveloped. Residential development in the area peaked at that time before moving northward in the 1840s and 1850s. The surrounding area became a printing hub after the American Civil War, and there were over 20 publishers nearby by the 1880s. Partly due to the presence of the Astor Library, bookbinding and publishing firms such as The De Vinne Press and J.J. Little & Co. settled around Lafayette Place.
The De Vinne Press Building was designed in the Romanesque Revival style by the firm Babb, Cook & Willard; the primary designer was likely Walter Cook, a partner in the firm. An addition to the building was completed in 1892. The structure consists of seven stories, excluding the raised basement; if the basement is counted, the building is eight stories tall. The architectural writer Henry-Russell Hitchcock compared the structure's design with that of the Marshall Field's Wholesale Store in Chicago. The De Vinne Press Building's design inspired that of another structure in Manhattan: the Tarrant Building, constructed in 1892 at 278–282 Greenwich Street.
The De Vinne Press Building is one of several journalism-related buildings in New York City that were designed in a Rundbogenstil–inspired style, with arches and brick walls. The facade is made of brick and terracotta, with decorations concentrated on the southern and western elevations, facing the street. Both elevations include a mix of segmental arches and round-arched windows, which are interspersed through the facade. Due to the arrangement of the arches, the facade's appearance resembles the design of an old Roman aqueduct. The steel-and-glass windows are recessed deeply into the facade, and elaborate terracotta decorations are used sparingly. Belt courses run horizontally across the facade. The building's gable roof has a shallow slope and is supported by iron trusses, similar to other warehouse buildings of the time.
The Lafayette Street elevation to the west is seven bays wide. Both ends of the facade are ornamented with quoins. On the first through third stories, the three center bays each feature a triple-height archway. The central archway has an arched doorway to its second story, as well as spandrel panels with interlacing patterns. Roundels above the central archway at the third story bear the initials of the building's developer, Theodore Low De Vinne, and the building's year of completion, 1885. The decorations of the main entrance archway were intended to give the building a "domestic scale"; at the time of the building's completion, most of the surrounding structures were low-rise houses. The two outermost bays on either side feature two single-height arched windows on each of the first through third stories. The outermost windows on the first and second floors are segmental arches, while those on the third floor are round arches.
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