Interaudi Bank

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6-story Renaissance-revival commercial building completed in 1900 as a 5-story mansion. Designed by Hiss & Weekes for MInnie E. Young, it is clad in rusticated white granite. At the ground floor, bronze-encased display windows flank a low set of granite steps at the central entrance, which has a portico featuring engaged Doric columns and a carved stone enfamement with a cartouche.

The 2nd floor has molded window enframements featuring scrolled bracketed, pedimented window surrounds (rounded at the middle bays, and peaked at the end bays), with balustrades at the window bases. There are rusticated piers at the 2nd-3rd floors that support a molded stone cornice that acts as sills for windows at the 4th floor. Here the windows have label molding and are flanked by recessed panels. The 4th floor is topped by a boldly projecting bracketed stone cornice. The set-back 5th floor was added in the 1960s; it was enlarge and a 6th floor added in 1993. A parged brick and concrete addition is visible at the 6th floor with small windows and a stone cornice.

In 1920 the Young Residence was converted for commercial use by architect Mott B. Schmidt for the fashionable dressmaking firm Lucille Ltd., headed by Lady Duff Gordon. Later occupants of the Minnie Young House were antiques and historic-interiors dealer Arthur S. Vernay (1923-1940) and the national headquarters for the English speaking Union (1940-1957). In 1962, it became headquarters of the Kenneth Beauty Salon, whose owner, Kenneth Battelle, was the first “star” hairdresser credited with creating Jacqueline Kennedy’s signature bouffant hair style in the 1960s.

The salon was destroyed in a fire in 1990 but aside from the loss of its historic windows and doors the building’s facade remained almost completely intact. In 1993 the setback 5th & 6th floors were enlarged when the building was altered for occupancy by the Bank Audi, now Interaudi Bank. Interaudi Bank was established in New York City in 1983.

www.interaudi.com/secondary.asp?pageID=1
s-media.nyc.gov/agencies/lpc/lp/2577.pdf