Father Pitt

Tag: Sixth Street

  • No Tap-Dancing in Rooms After 9 p.m.

    Hotel Roosevelt

    The Hotel Roosevelt, as it appeared in a 1928 advertisement in the National Vaudeville Artists Year Book. The advertisement was designed to appeal to performers on the vaudeville circuit (which was just about to come crashing down and would be nearly extinct in five years), and it was certainly a convenient location, within a block’s walk of at least five theaters. The Roosevelt still stands today, converted to apartments, and it is still surrounded by theaters.

    The ad carries the name of L. Fred Klooz, President and Managing Director, and it includes a bit of doggerel so awful that we can only presume it was written by Mr. Klooz himself.

    Ad for Hotel Roosevelt

  • Some Details of the Fulton Building

    Light well in the Fulton Building

    The Fulton Building was one of a pair of buildings designed for Henry Phipps by New York architect Grosvenor Atterbury; the complementary but not identical Bessemer Building has long since been replaced by a parking garage. In the close view of the light well above, we can see how much thought went into sucking up every photon for the interior offices. Those bays take in light from every possible angle. In many of our prominent buildings, the light well is hidden in the back, but in the Fulton Building it is made the characteristic feature of the front that faces the river.

    Fulton Building in 2015

    The picture above was taken in 2015, before the Renaissance Hotel put a sign at the top of the building.

    Marquee

    The name on the marquee is new, but the marquee itself came with the building. It is attached to the wall with a pair of steampunk chimeras:

    Chimera

    Elaborate chains supporting the marquee are attached to these monogram brackets:

    Bracket with monogram

    Cameras: Kodak EasyShare Z981; Olympus E-20n.