The New York Savings Bank Building is a former bank building in the Chelsea neighborhood of Manhattan in New York City. Constructed for the defunct New York Savings Bank from 1896 to 1898, it occupies an L-shaped site on 81 Eighth Avenue, at the northwestern corner with 14th Street. The New York Savings Bank Building was designed by Robert Henderson Robertson, with later additions by George H. Provot and Halsey, McCormack & Helmer. The building's facade and interior are New York City designated landmarks, and the building is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
The building's basement contains a granite water table, while the rest of the facade is clad with Vermont marble. The main entrance is through a portico on Eighth Avenue with Corinthian columns and a triangular pediment. The 14th Street facade is wider than the Eighth Avenue facade and is divided asymmetrically into three sections; the center section is topped by a pediment. Most of the building is topped by a gable roof with copper cladding, although the building also contains a dome with clerestory windows. The main feature of the interior is a triple-height banking room with a vaulted, coffered ceiling; the dome is recessed within the center of the ceiling.
The New York Savings Bank was founded in 1854 and relocated to Eighth Avenue and 14th Street in 1857. The current building was constructed in two stages, allowing the bank to continue doing business without interruption; the building was finished by 1898. As the New York Savings Bank continued to expand, Provot redesigned the main facade on Eighth Avenue in 1930. Halsey, McCormack & Helmer designed a northward annex that opened in 1942 and was demolished in 1972. Following mergers in the late 20th century, the building became a branch of the New York Bank for Savings, then the Buffalo Savings Bank, which moved out of the building in 1987. After standing vacant for several years, the building reopened in 1994 as a branch of Central Carpet. The building was a Balducci's food market from 2005 to 2009 and had become a CVS Pharmacy by the 2010s.
Site The New York Savings Bank Building is located at 81 Eighth Avenue, at the northwest corner with 14th Street, in the Chelsea neighborhood of Manhattan in New York City. The land lot covers and is L-shaped; its western section extends further into the city block than the eastern section. The building has frontage of on Eighth Avenue and on 14th Street, and it measures long along its southern lot line. The New York Savings Bank Building is near the New York County National Bank Building to the south and 111 Eighth Avenue to the north; in addition, an entrance to the New York City Subway's 14th Street/Eighth Avenue station is directly outside the building. The New York Savings Bank Building is one of several bank buildings that had been erected around 14th Street by the early 20th century.
Architecture The New York Savings Bank Building, completed in 1897, was originally designed in the neoclassical style by Robert Henderson Robertson. The exterior of the building features porticos and a dome inspired by those of ancient Roman temples, while the interior has an expansive vaulted ceiling that was intended to attract depositors. George H. Provot modified the main entrance in 1930, while the firm of Halsey, McCormack & Helmer designed a now-demolished annex to the north in 1940.
Facade The New York Savings Bank Building retains much of its original design. The 14th Street and Eighth Avenue elevations of the facade are largely clad with Vermont marble and ashlar, although the water table at the base is clad with of polished granite. The marble ashlar cladding is about thick, behind which are exterior brick walls laid in cement-and-lime mortar. The walls are freestanding, rather than party walls, and contain bluestone coping. The building's foundation extends beneath the curb. An entablature wraps around both elevations, and a dome is placed asymmetrically above the roof.
Eighth Avenue
The building's main entrance is along its narrower frontage on Eighth Avenue, where there is a triple-height portico in the Corinthian order. The portico is divided vertically into three bays, with two fluted columns on the inside and a pair of paneled pilasters with antae on the outside. These support an entablature and a triangular pediment. The columns have Corinthian capitals, while the antae are topped by egg-and-dart moldings and anthemia. On the entablature above the columns and pilasters, the name "The New York Savings Bank" was originally spelled in bronze letters. There is a small window inside the pediment, as well as a recessed limestone acroterion on the parapet atop the pediment.
The facade on Eighth Avenue is recessed behind the columns In the center bay, between the fluted columns, is a stoop that ascends to the building's main entrance. The entrance doorway is flanked by Doric pilasters, which support a cornice that stretches horizontally above the first floor. Initially, there were four doors on Eighth Avenue—depositors entered through the two inner doors and exited through the two outer doors—but these were removed in 1930. A bronze eagle is placed on the cornice above the doorway, and an eight-sided lantern is suspended from the eagle's mouth. The two outer bays of the first story, situated on either side of the entrance, feature blind panels instead of windows. In front of these blind panels are stone pedestals with vitrines; these pedestals originally contained bronze lanterns. On the second story are three rectangular windows, one in each bay. A belt course with anthemia runs above the second-story windows.
14th Street Because of its internal layout, the 14th Street elevation is asymmetrical and divided vertically into three sections. The western and middle sections each have three double-height rectangular window openings, while the eastern section is windowless. A pediment and the building's dome rise above the center of the middle section. The presence of the pediment and dome were intended as an allusion to the large banking room inside. Above all three sections is an entablature, as well as a copper cresting stretching across much of the facade.
The middle section is arranged similarly to the portico on Eighth Avenue. It is divided into three bays, each of which has a rectangular window opening framed by rosettes. Each bay contains a horizontal transom bar, with Greek-key patterns and lions' heads, which separates a smaller pane on the second floor and a larger pane on the first floor. Beneath each window sill are guttae, while above each window is an ornate architrave with molded water leaf motifs and raised circles. The bays are flanked by four pilasters, which support a pediment at the third story. The tops of the pilasters are decorated with egg-and-dart moldings and anthemia, and the outermost two pilasters contain paneling. Above the pilasters is an entablature, which originally had the bank's name in bronze letters. The entablature is capped by a pediment, which contains an opening with a bronze grille.
The eastern section is a plain marble-and-ashlar wall without window openings. A sign with a clock is attached to the facade near the corner of 14th Street and Eighth Avenue. This sign is triangular with a pair of clock faces. Each clock face is flanked by twisting colonnettes that support a horizontal molding, and a vitrine is placed below each clock face. Atop the sign is a carved beehive, the symbol of the New York Savings Bank. Within the western section are three double-height rectangular window openings, each of which has a transom bar and an ornate architrave, similar to those in the middle section. The windows in the western section are slightly narrower than those in the middle section, and there are subtle differences in the Greek-key motifs on each transom bar and the rosettes surrounding each window. Each window has a jamb with a repeating pattern, composed of two palmettes flanking a rosette. Beneath the western section's westernmost window, a flight of six steps leads to a rear doorway, topped by a lintel with acroteria.
Roof The building's banking room along 14th Street has a gabled roof, which is made of terracotta brick above steel rafters and is covered with copper sheeting. The gabled roof is made of steel, cast in pieces weighing .
Above the gabled roof is a copper domed roof. The domed roof is divided horizontally into three sections. The lowest section is the parapet, which consists of a pair of crescents (one each to the north and south), formed by the intersection of the sloping gables below and the clerestory above. The parapet is clad with copper sheeting with multiple seams. The second section is the clerestory, which contains 20 rectangular windows made of stained glass. Each window is separated by pilasters, which contain a rosette flanked by anthemia. Above the clerestory is an entablature with a frieze containing embossed disks, lions' heads, a bead molding on its lower border, and an egg-and-dart molding on its upper border. The highest section is the dome itself, which is clad with copper and is plain in design except for vertical battens. A flat circular finial with anthemia and lions' heads rises above the dome. There are catwalks surrounding the dome anda set of stepladders leading to the catwalk.
Interior Although the roof is three stories high, the interior is split into varying levels, ranging from one to three stories, with several areas incorporating triple-height spaces. Siena marble was used extensively inside the building. Robertson placed public rooms along the southern and eastern ends of the L-shaped site, facing Eighth Avenue, while the northern end contained offices for bank officials such as tellers, officers, and clerks. The main feature of the interior was the banking room accessed from Eighth Avenue.
Banking room
The former banking room is a rectangular space with a high ceiling. The walls are wainscoted in Siena marble and contain engaged Corinthian columns, pilasters, and plinths of the same material. The capitals of the columns, the entablatures atop the walls, and the vaulted ceiling are made of plaster. Most of the wall surfaces above the marble wainscoting were covered with travertine in a 1930 renovation. The banking room has a rose-gray marble floor. An L-shaped beige-marble tellers' counter was placed about away from the west and south walls. This counter had been removed by the 1990s. The banking room's ceiling is coffered and contains a transverse rib, which is supported by an engaged column on the north and south walls. This creates a proscenium-like arch that divides the room into western and eastern sections, indicating how the public areas were originally separated from the staff areas. The center of the ceiling contains a small dome.