UPTOWNflavor

In the wake of recent battles over landmarking Harlem sites like The Renaissance, The Corn Exchange Bank building continues to sit dormant alongside the tracks near the 125th Street Metro-North station.

Designed by Hugh Lamb and Charles Rich and completed in 1884, the bank was a showcase of Queen Anne and Romanesque Revival architecture, with its red sandstone base, Philadelphia brick facade and terra-cotta detailing. Originally, the Mount Morris Bank & Safety Deposit Vaults occupied the ground floor, with six grand apartments of French design filling the four stories above it. Lamb & Rich gained fame for their Shingle Style mansions, gothic churches and eclectic row houses, with many works listed on the National Register, including Sagamore Hill, Theodore Roosevelt’s Long Island country house.

Numidian marble:

In 1889, Lamb & Rich expanded the building, doubling the length of the Park Avenue facade, and architect Frank A. Rooke rebuilt the entrances and removed the front stoops in 1912. The following year, Mount Morris Bank became part of the Corn Exchange Bank. In 1954, it merged with Chemical Bank, which kept a branch here until the mid-1960s. In the early 1970s, the building was abandoned. Only the exterior has landmark status, so developers needn’t worry about restoring the old interior’s mahogany, Numidian marble or bronze fixtures.

Despite two fires, rampant vandalism and general neglect, the building continues to stand, as the earth tries to reclaim it by planting roots into it’s structure.

One of the primary hold ups with restoring this building is the fact that community activists don’t see eye to eye with the developers. At the helm is Ethel Bates, the force behind preserving Marcus Garvey Park. Mrs. Bates envisions the site being the home of an affordable culinary school, however securing the funding for financing the project has become a source of frustration for both developers and the preservationists. “Bates insists the culinary school should pay only $20 per square foot for the office space.”

Adding an even more interesting twist to this drama is the fact that a potential tenant in the restored building is “Michael Weinstein, president of Ark Restaurants Corp., who says he told Bates years ago he could use space in the building for an uptown version of his popular Columbus Bakery on the Upper West Side. ” Weinstein, if you recall, was formerly a partner with B. Smith before she decided to strike out on her own.

If the Renaissance could finally get their project off the ground then the Corn Exchange should be able to make some concessions that would allow for the preservation of the structure while still making a positive impact on the surrounding community. We’ll be keeping our eyes on this one.

Source: Daily Herald via Bloomberg

Related: Corn Exchange sits Dormant ::