French flats
The red brick corner tenement is 200 W14th St in Manhattan,although NYC property lists it as 62 Seventh Avenue.The 5-story walk-up is called the "Jeanne d'Arc" and it was built 1888-89 by architect James W. Cole,a favorite of the famous Astor family who designed most of their factories and warehouses.The building is a very early example of a "French Flats" building where the French middle-class would live whenever they were in town.Other French Flats followed later on.The NY Times and other critics of the day derided the French Flats saying that they were not that much different than the tenements the poor lived in.The luxury apartments built for the upper class for example had elevators whereas the Flats,built for the middle class,were walkups.The NY Times compared the rooms to "dark cells"because they received little light in them.
The building has two apartments per floor.On the south facing side of the building on the 3rd floor,there is a white stone statue of Joan of Arc who's clad with a helmet,breastplate,and cape and holding a sword and shield..Just underneath the statue,which you can't see here,are the letters "JEAN"with the curved bottom part of the J broken off and the additional two letters "NE" missing due to well-intentioned but poor maintenance work.See tag below for a better picture of the statue.Why they called the building the "Jeanne d'Arc" when the statue on it is of Joan of Arc is a mystery to me,but C'est la vie:-)
French flats
The red brick corner tenement is 200 W14th St in Manhattan,although NYC property lists it as 62 Seventh Avenue.The 5-story walk-up is called the "Jeanne d'Arc" and it was built 1888-89 by architect James W. Cole,a favorite of the famous Astor family who designed most of their factories and warehouses.The building is a very early example of a "French Flats" building where the French middle-class would live whenever they were in town.Other French Flats followed later on.The NY Times and other critics of the day derided the French Flats saying that they were not that much different than the tenements the poor lived in.The luxury apartments built for the upper class for example had elevators whereas the Flats,built for the middle class,were walkups.The NY Times compared the rooms to "dark cells"because they received little light in them.
The building has two apartments per floor.On the south facing side of the building on the 3rd floor,there is a white stone statue of Joan of Arc who's clad with a helmet,breastplate,and cape and holding a sword and shield..Just underneath the statue,which you can't see here,are the letters "JEAN"with the curved bottom part of the J broken off and the additional two letters "NE" missing due to well-intentioned but poor maintenance work.See tag below for a better picture of the statue.Why they called the building the "Jeanne d'Arc" when the statue on it is of Joan of Arc is a mystery to me,but C'est la vie:-)