URGENT Request for Evaluation

Re: Urgent Request for Evaluation of the Former Good Samaritan/Eastern District Dispensary, 75 Essex Street, Manhattan (Rose& Stone, architects. 1890)

Dear Chairman Tierney,

We write to implore the Landmarks Preservation Commission to calendar — without delay — 75 Essex Street, the Former Good Samaritan/Eastern District Dispensary. Landmark designation has taken on an increased importance since November 7, 2013, when the property was advertised for sale as:

“…..in a PRIME Lower East Side neighborhood TEEMING WITH NEW DEVELOPMENT, 75 ESSEX is a FREESTANDING building located literally across the street from the FJMZ train lines and the FABULOUS ESSEX STREET MARKET-a real neighborhood destination for both tourists as well as seasoned New Yorkers. This is a true DESTINATION LOCATION on The Lower East Side and the building has endless opportunities whether it be a fabulous and UNIQUE CONDO CONVERSION—akin to Nolita’s Candle Building and other area condominium conversions in high demand—or for use as an Office Building, Museum, Hotel, Movie Theater or any other of numerous possibilities.
”
As stated in our Request for Evaluation, submitted on January 14, 2013, the building is surrounded by Site 1 of the Essex Crossing/Seward Park Mixed-Use Development (see attachment for text and photos). While the building is not on the site, it is vulnerable to damage by work conducted around it or it could be diminished by inappropriate development surrounding it. The dispensary is eligible for the National Register and is noted in the Environmental Impact Statement for the development.

Standing at the northwest corner of Broome & Essex Streets, the building, which opened in 1890, is remarkably intact. The architects, Rose & Stone, are best known for their designs of the Isaac Vail Brokaw Mansion, erected 1887-1890, an enormous urban chateau, that stood across from Central Park, on the northeast corner of East 79th Street and Fifth Avenue. The outrage that followed its destruction in February 1965 played a significant role in advancing the landmarks legislation for New York City, adopted on April 19, 1965.

Rose & Stone designed Eastern District Dispensary in the style of a freestanding Italianate palazzo. The four-story building is clad in orange brick on the first story and tan brick above, laid in Flemish bond. A rhythmic series of five round-arched openings are set within the first story of the eastern façade along Essex Street. Projecting belt courses, giving the effect of rustication, radiate from the central entrance and four flanking windows. Under the belt courses, now coated with cementitious parging and painted reddish brown, is brownstone of a similar color. Above the arches is a row of nine vertical sash windows, surrounded by moulded brick, repeated at the third story, and nine arched windows at the fourth story.

The narrower southern (Broome Street) elevation echoes the design details of the Essex Street side, with a pattern of three round-arched windows on the rusticated first story and four rectangular windows on each of the upper stories. Crowning the building’s eastern and southern elevations is an intact pressed metal cornice articulated with a dentil band and console brackets. The northern and western facades are of unadorned red brick punctuated by an assortment of rectangular windows.

Eastern District Dispensary was established on Grand Street in 1832, during a major cholera epidemic, and continued to function for some 120 years in various downtown locations – offering free or low-cost care to the poor who were particularly vulnerable to life threatening contagious diseases. When erected on the northwest corner of Essex and Broome Streets, in a neighborhood composed mainly of rows of run-down tenements, it stood as an example of municipal responsibility and philanthropic concern. Eastern District and Good Samaritan Dispensaries consolidated and constructed the building at 75 Essex Street in 1890, with funding raised through contributions; annual operating expenses were funded by the city. The ground level and first floor held physicians’ offices, quarantine rooms and an apothecary dispensing medicine for a cost of ten cents. Upper floors were used for waiting areas and examination rooms. After a law was passed in 1899, that only the indigent could be treated at city-operated dispensaries, visits became a source of shame and the number of patients declined. Dispensaries gradually phased out as hospitals opened outpatient clinics. After the dispensary closed in the 1950s, the building was converted to store, office and storage space. It is currently occupied by Eisner Brothers, a sportswear retailer.

When it opened in 1890, Good Samaritan/Eastern District Dispensary, designed by distinguished architects, was one of the finest buildings in the city erected for medical care. It continued to function for more than 60 years at 75 Essex Street as a place where impoverished people of all ages could find healing and nurturing. Now that the future of the building is in jeopardy, we ask that the Landmarks Preservation Commission act quickly to consider its historic and architectural qualities and move ahead with landmark designation.
Sincerely,