Keller Hotel

Greenwich Village, Manhattan, New York City, New York, United States

 

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The Keller Hotel was constructed in 1897-98 to the Renaissance Revival style design of Julius Munckwitz. He was Supervising Architect and Superintendent of Parks in New York City and maintained an architectural practice in Harlem. Most of the buildings that Munckwitz designed have been demolished.

 

The building was built by William Farrell, a prominent coal merchant. The hotel was operated by several proprietors including Fritz Brodt, who had a contract with the United States government to provide food to immigrants at Ellis Island. The hotel was located near ferry and transatlantic cruise ship docks where thousands of visitors arrived. By at least 1935, it housed transient sailors.

 

After the decline of the maritime industry on the Hudson River, the Keller Hotel became a single-room occupancy hotel and the Keller Bar at the corner storefront became a popular bar catering to a gay clientele.

 

The building is currently vacant, but the interior is being altered to convert the upper floors to residential use. The building has two cast-iron storefronts at the ground floor of the West Street façade, which feature a continuous cornice and columns with a stylized floral design at the capitals. The upper floors are constructed of brick with stone trim and feature a restrained use of classical and Renaissance-inspired ornament.

 

It is one of the last surviving turn-of-the-century Hudson River waterfront hotels.

 

The building, situated along the Hudson River, is a significant reminder of the era when the Port of New York was one of the world’s busiest and the section of the Hudson River between Christopher and 23 Streets was the heart of the busiest section of the Port of New York.

 

DESCRIPTION AND ANALYSIS

 

The Port of New York and the Greenwich Village Waterfront

 

By the early nineteenth century, New York City developed as the largest port in the United States and in the early twentieth century emerged as one of the busiest ports in the world. In Manhattan, South Street along the East River had been the primary artery for maritime commerce, but West Street became a competitor in the 1870s and supplanted the former by about 1890.

 

The construction, by the New York City Department of Docks, of the Gansevoort Piers (1894-1902) and Chelsea Piers (1902-10, Warren & Wetmore) between West 11 and West 23 Streets, just north of Barrow Street, had a profound impact on this section of the Hudson River waterfront.

 

These long docks accommodated large transatlantic liners. This area was described in 1914 as “in the heart of the busiest section of the port, adjacent to the transatlantic liners, coast and gulf vessels, between Christopher and 23 Streets, surrounded by 5,000 seamen of all nationalities” of the half a million seamen that come into the harbor each year.

 

By 1939, the Federal Writers’ Project’s New York City Guide described this “most lucrative water-front property in the world” as follows:

 

Although the western rim of Manhattan is but a small section of New York’s far-flung port, along it is concentrated the largest aggregate of marine enterprises in the world.

 

Glaciers of freight and cargo move across this stripe of … waterfront.

 

It is the domain of the super-liner, but it is shared by the freighter, the river boat, the ferry, and the soot-faced tug … Ships and shipping are not visible along much of West Street. South of Twenty-third Street, the river is walled by an almost unbroken line of bulkhead sheds and dock structures …

 

Opposite the piers, along the entire length of the highway, nearly every block houses its quota of cheap lunchrooms, tawdry saloons and waterfront haberdasheries catering to the thousands of polyglot seamen who haunt the “front.” Men “on the beach” (out of employment) usually make their headquarters in barrooms, which are frequented mainly by employees of lines leasing piers in their vicinity.

 

The Keller Hotel is one of last surviving turn-of-the-century Hudson River waterfront hotels. In addition to the Keller Hotel, the only other surviving waterfront hotels in Greenwich Village are the Great Eastern Hotel (180-184 Christopher Street aka 386 West Street, highly altered to combine three existing buildings and façade altered, 1888, John B. Franklin), the Holland Hotel (305 West 10 Street aka 396-397 West Street, 1904, Charles Stegmayer, located within the Weehawken Historic District), the American Seamen’s Friend Society Sailor’s Home and Institute (113-110 Jane Street aka 505-507 West Street, 1907-08, William A. Boring, a New York City designated landmark), and the Strand Hotel (455-53 10 Avenue aka 500-502 West 14Street, 2-4 11 Avenue, façade altered, 1908, Richard R. Davis).

 

Concern about the welfare of sailors in the port of New York goes back to the early 19century. In May 1828, the American Seamen’s Friend Society was established in New York City as one of a number of 19 century religious organizations concerned with improving the social and moral welfare of seamen throughout the United States and abroad.

 

The Society opened its first home for sailors in Manhattan in 1837 as an alternative to the “dives, dance, halls, saloons, and the sailors’ boarding houses” that line the waterfront.

 

So great was the concern about the welfare of sailors, that the legislature of the State of New York enacted laws in 1866 and 1882 to require sailors’ hotels and boarding houses in Manhattan and Brooklyn to be licensed by a Board of Commissioners.

 

The Keller Hotel was used as an accommodation by transient sailors and was listed as such along with the Seamen’s Institute and another hotel in Manhattan in the Emergency Relief Bureau directory of October 19, 1935.

 

The Architect: Julius Munckwitz

 

Julius F. Munckwitz was born in c.1829 in Leipzig, Germany and immigrated to the United States in 1849.

 

He held the post of Supervising Architect and Superintendent of Parks in New York City and resigned from the Parks Department in 1885.

 

His son, Julius F. Munckwitz, Jr., succeeded him as Architect to the Parks Department.

 

The senior Munckwitz maintained an independent architectural practice by 1862 until his death in 1902.

 

He was a prominent architect who designed commercial buildings (E.D. Farrell Furniture Company, West 125 Street, Manhattan, 1891, demolished), hotels (Marie Antoinette Hotel, West 66 Street, Manhattan, 1895, expanded in 1903 by

 

C.P.H. Gilbert, demolished), office buildings (three at Broadway and 65 Street, 1901-02, all demolished) and multi-family residential buildings (126 Riverside Drive, 1900, demolished; northwest corner of 56 Street and Park Avenue, 1888, demolished).

 

Munckwitz also designed the Lincoln Square Arcade at the northwest corner of 65 Street and Broadway (1902, altered in 1931 by John L. Miller, Jr., demolished).

 

In connection with his position at the Parks Department, he designed the Boathouse in Central Park (1872-76, designated New York City Landmark) with Calvert Vaux and Jacob Wrey Mould, Riverside Park (1875-1900) with Samuel Parsons and Calvert Vaux based on the plans of Frederick Law Olmsted, and the stone retaining wall at Morningside Park (1881-87) with Jacob Wrey Mould and Montgomery Kellogg. He was a member of the New York Chapter AIA, and elected a Fellow in 1864.

 

Knickerbocker and Keller Hotels

 

The large number of people that came through the Hudson River section of the Port of New York, especially between Christopher and 23 Streets with its ferry and transatlantic cruise line docks, included both travelers and sailors and created a demand for hotels along the Hudson River waterfront.

 

William Farrell, a prominent coal merchant, was born in Ireland c. 1827 and came to this country as a young boy.

 

He opened a coal yard at 144, 146, 148 and 150 Barrow Street in 1875, a branch yard at 622-628 Greenwich Street in 1884 and another yard at 129 Street and the Boulevard in 1887.

 

Farrell bought five lots comprising 385 West Street, 384 West Street aka 150 Barrow Street, 144, 146 and 148 Barrow Street from John S. McLean on December 10, 1890.

 

He built the hotel building on two of the lots in 1897-98 at an estimated cost of $68,000.His coal business continued in operation after his death in 1910 with Thomas F. Farrell as the president.

 

The first hotel to operate in the building was called the Knickerbocker Hotel.

 

It remained in business until about 1910.

 

Thomas F. Farrell, a merchant who operated a coal business at the same address on Barrow Street as William Farrell, was the proprietor of the hotel until 1903.

 

After 1903 Thomas F. Farrell continued in business as a successful coal merchant.

 

In 1903, Fritz Brodt (aka Fred Brodt) took over as proprietor of the Knickerbocker Hotel under a sub-lease from Thomas F. Farrell.

 

He ran the hotel and a saloon on the premises until about 1910. Brodt was born in France in 1845. From 1908 to 1910, Brodt had a contract with the United State government to furnish food to immigrants being detained at Ellis Island.

 

His contract was terminated by the Commissioner of Immigration William Williams after the Commissioner accused Brodt’s employees of coercing immigrants to purchase expensive packages of food.

 

The hotel operated under the name New Hotel Keller from about 1911 to about 1929, by the New Hotel Keller Co., Inc. with Joseph P. Mullarkey as the president.

 

The New York Telephone Directories list the hotel as the Keller Abington Hotel from 1929 to 1993 and as the Keller Hotel from 1993 to 2000.

 

The hotel was located directly across from the Hoboken ferry and close to other ferries and transatlantic cruise ships. In this location it could have attracted travelers who were newly arrived by ship or who had come by ship for a short stay, as well as sailors.

 

The Emergency Relief Bureau directory of October 19, 1935 listed the Keller Hotel as one of three hotels in Manhattan for transient sailors.

 

In the 1980s the Keller Hotel became a single room occupancy hotel in which the City housed indigent people.

 

It is now vacant but the interior is being altered to convert the upper floors into residential apartments.

 

Later History of the Greenwich Village Waterfront

 

After 1960, with the introduction of containerized shipping and the accompanying need for large facilities (space for which could be accommodated in Brooklyn and New Jersey), the Manhattan waterfront rapidly declined as the center of New York’s maritime commerce.

 

In addition, airplanes replaced ocean liners carrying passengers overseas.

 

Most of the piers and many of the buildings associated with Manhattan’s Hudson River maritime history have been demolished.

 

By the early 1970s, the western end of Christopher Street and adjacent blocks along West Street, long established with waterfront taverns, had become a nucleus for bars catering to a gay clientele.

 

The June 1969 rebellion by patrons of the Stonewall Bar, 55 Christopher Street, against police harassment, helped to launch a renewed national gay rights movement and made Christopher Street the social and cultural center of New York’s lesbian and gay community.

 

Subsequent History

 

The Keller Hotel building was owned by William Farrell’s estate until 1946 when it was sold to Sophia Lent.

 

Subsequent owners of the building include Montceil Realty Corp., who acquired it from Sophia Lent in 1950; William Gottlieb, who then purchased it in 1985 from Montceil. William Gottlieb (c. 1935-1999), a real estate investor, owned hundreds of buildings in Greenwich Village, Gansevoort and the Lower East Side and was known not to sell or re-develop his real estate properties.

 

Upon his death, his holdings passed to his sister, Mollie Bender.

 

The corner storefront at 384 West Street had been occupied as a restaurant, bar or saloon since at least the 1930s by a succession of tenants (Renee Tavern, 1939-1949, Charles Bar & Grill, 1950-1955, Keller Bar 1956-1998). The Keller Bar was reputed to be the oldest gay “leather” bar in the City.

 

The northern storefront at 385 West Street has been occupied by a number of different businesses, including John Dees, billiards (1940), Bering Marine Service Corp. field office (1945), Jerome Jawitz, electrical engineer (1950), Eastern Tire and Supply Company (1953-58) Lou Berg, seamen supplies and work clothes (1959-1970) and QQFS, catering (1973-1975).

 

Design and Construction

 

The Keller Hotel is a Renaissance Revival style masonry building with cast-iron storefronts. Classical and Renaissance-inspired architecture gained favor beginning in the 1880s, lasting into the 1920s.

 

The styles were popularized by American architects and patrons who had visited Europe or had seen pictures of European buildings, and were familiar with the masterpieces of classical, Renaissance, and neoclassical architecture.

 

These styles, which were used for all types of buildings, including commercial and residential, feature classical design forms and detailing used in various combinations and degrees of restraint or exuberance.

 

Julius F. Munckwitz, as a native of Leipzig, Germany, would have had first hand familiarity with Renaissance and neoclassical architecture. The Keller Hotel is an example of an elegant, restrained use of Renaissance-inspired ornament concentrated at the entrance door of the hotel and around the window openings.

 

The string courses between each floor, entrance portico with classical-inspired Corinthian columns and simple cornice with classical and Renaissance-inspired ornament are characteristic of the style.

 

Cast-iron storefronts can be found in New York City as early as 1825 and continued to be constructed long after cast-iron fronted buildings ceased to be constructed at the end of the 19century.

 

The use of cast-iron in the construction of storefronts permitted large display windows. The two storefronts at the Keller Hotel feature a continuous cornice and columns with a stylized floral design at the capitals.

 

Description

 

The six-story (plus basement) Renaissance Revival style Keller Hotel is located on the southeast corner of Barrow and West Streets. It has 48 foot frontage on Barrow Street and 70 foot frontage on West Street.

 

The building is clad in light-colored brick laid in stretcher bond with two cast iron storefronts at the West Street façade. There are five bays at upper floors of the West Street façade and six bays at the Barrow Street facade.Each bay at the Barrow and West Street façades has a single window at the second through six floors, except the western-most and eastern-most bays at the Barrow Street facade, which have paired windows.

 

The window configuration at the upper floors is square-headed one-over-one double-hung.

 

All the windows have aluminum replacement sash. The ground floor has an entrance to the hotel on Barrow Street and two storefronts on West Street, one of which is a corner storefront with two bays at the Barrow Street facade. Stone stringcourses between all the upper floors, a metal cornice at the ground floor and a projecting cornice, with modillions, frieze with circular designs and dentils, at the roof wrap around both street facades.

 

The upper floors have remnants of red paint. A metal hotel sign is located at the corner of the street facades at the second floor. It was installed prior to 1939-1941 on the West Street façade near the corner and was re-installed at the corner of the two street facades prior to 1964.

 

The building is substantially intact except for the removal of the entrance portico and infill at the storefronts. Barrow Street façade The entrance to the hotel had a square-shaped stone portico with Corinthian columns that was removed between 1964 and 1979.

 

A paneled wood door reveal and paneled wood and glass double-doors with a segmental arch-headed transom remain; however, the left leaf has been replaced or altered by the addition of metal cladding. There is a segmental arch-headed stone door surround with a cartouche flanked by stone Corinthian pilasters.

 

A stone platform at the entrance has been covered with concrete.

 

A non-historic metal awning frame and light fixtures have been installed above the entrance doors. The ground floor is constructed of brick, which has been painted a light color, and has a metal cornice, except above the entrance door where the portico was located. The ground floor has three square-headed window openings with quoined stone surrounds and lintels with keystones and a small round window opening with a stone surround with keystones.

 

The basement has two segmental arch-headed openings at the basement with stone lintels with keystones.

 

The ground floor window openings and the basement openings have non-historic infill.

 

The stairs to the basement openings have been covered by diamond plate. Wrought-iron railings that flanked the basement entrances have been removed. The windows at the upper floors have stone window surrounds with triangular pediment lintels at the second floor, square lintels at the third and fifth floors and segmental arched lintels at the fourth floors.

 

The lintels at the second, third and fourth floors are bracketed.

 

The paired windows at the eastern-most and western-most bays have shared lintels at the second through fifth floors.

 

Rooftop railings at the West Street and east facades, rooftop mechanical equipment and a one-story rooftop addition with white cladding are visible from the south on West Street. West Street façade The ground floor has two storefronts with cast-iron columns, a continuous metal cornice and recessed door openings with transoms.

 

The columns have capitals with a stylized floral design. The southern-most storefront is located at the corner of the building and has two bays on Barrow Street.

 

Both storefronts are boarded-up.

 

The windows at the upper floors have stone window surrounds and lintels that are identical to the ones on the Barrow Street facade. A rooftop railing is visible from Hudson River Park. East facade The east facade is visible over the adjacent one-story garage.

 

It is constructed of red brick and has four bays of square-headed window openings with stone lintels and sills.

 

The cornice wraps around the corner from Barrow Street.The window configuration is one-over-one double-hung.All the windows have aluminum replacement sash. The window openings at the two center bays have been altered. There is a fire escape at the two center bays and a fire stairs at the south end of the facade. There is a white gutter with a white downspout at the north end of the façade. A rooftop railing and the one-story rooftop addition with white cladding are visible over the east wall.

 

- From the 2007 NYCLPC Landmark Designation Report

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