Roosevelt Building (New York City, New York)

 office building, place with historical importance

8-story Romanesque-revival office building completed in 1893. Designed by Stephen D. Hatch, the building is named for Cornelius Roosevelt, Teddy's grandfather, who owned the lot and lived up the block until his death in 1871, after which the property passed to his heirs. It has a notable rounded turret at the corner.

The building has a 2-story base with rusticated, rough-faced limestone piers, with five bays of three windows each on Broadway, and another five bays on 13th Street, with an additional single-window bay at the west end. The original design of the ground floor has been obscured by more recent storefronts, but the top of the red granite entrance arch remains at the 2nd floor. It has a keystone with a carved head, and is surrounded by red terra-cotta ornament. The 2nd-floor windows in each bay are divided by slender cast-iron columns with small Corinthian columns, above cream-colored cast-iron spandrels. The piers have intricate red terra-cotta capitals featuring faces, and the base is topped by a broad terra-cotta cornice with more faces and carved foliate patterns.

Above the base, the wall is a tapestry of thin orange Roman brick, punctuated by bursts of floral relief sculpture. On the Broadway side, the bays each have four slightly narrower windows, while on 13th Street, they remain 3-window bays, except for the far eastern bay, with also has four windows. All the 3rd-floor bays have slender red columns with spirals and small Corinthian capitals dividing the windows. On the Broadway side of the 3rd floor, the piers are overlaid with projecting terra-cotta panels with female figures; these panels are topped by triangular pediments. At the rounded corner, there is a large cartouche at the top of the 3rd floor.

Above paneled brick spandrels, the bays of the 4th-6th floors have cream-colored cast-iron pilasters. The 5th-floor bay windows project out at an angle, with foliate designs in the cast-iron spandrels below. The top of these angled bays are ornamented by wrought-iron railings, and the 6th-floor has arches capping each bay, with ornate capitals at the piers. The 4-windowed eastern bay on 13th Street follows the same pattern, while the 3-windowed other bays have rounded brick pilasters at the 4th & 5th floors. The 6th-floor bays are the same as on Broadway, with the same capitals on the piers.

The top two floors are set off by a projecting cornice with console brackets. The 8th floor has round-arched windows, and the roof line is marked by brick corbelling below a green copper roof cornice, with projections above the piers, and a copper ornamental acorn shape topping the corner turret.

A fire at the building in 1903 engulfed most of the upper stories, and led to a collapse of the top floor. After a partial restoration, the Roosevelt Building and others of its era suffered a slow, steady downward slide in the 1930s and 1940s. The building was finally fully renovated in 2008. Earlier it was the location of the American Mutoscope and Biograph Film company from 1896-1908 and sported a revolving roof-top stage so there would always be light shining from the right direction. The ground floor is occupied by Cosi Cafe, Cohen's Fashion Optical, and Max Brenner Chocolate By The Bald Man.