Langford Wine Merchants

 store / shop, office building, commercial building

7-story Italian-Renaissance office building completed in 1916. Designed by Andrew J. Thomas for developers Klein & Jackson, it was leased to the Paul G. Mehlin & Sons Piano Company. The white marble-faced façade is articulated by a large double-height pointed-arch showroom window flanked by two smaller pointed-arched entrances at the ground floor. Ornamented bands cross the facade above the side arches, lined with cherubs in rather weathered condition, and continue across the taller center arch as a gold band. A pair of wall-mounted lanterns flank the top of the center arch.

The 3rd-6th floors each have three bays, with replacement windows consisting of two narrow vertical panes topped by an upper horizontal pane. Small sill courses underline the 3rd & 4th floors, and the center bay of the 3rd floor is fronted by a projecting marble balcony at the base, supported on four brackets. Corinthian pillars flank the bay, which is capped by a double trefoil-arch, and support an entablature whose frieze is decorated by a heraldic shield flanked by garlands and a pair of cherubic figures at each end, surmounted by a dentiled cornice.

The center bay on the 4th floor has a narrower and simpler enframement, topped by a large cartouche; garlands on either side are held by lion's heads at the corners, and hang down the sides of the window opening. The top floor is set off by a band of square panels with alternating designs of crests, and has five bays of segmental-arched openings, each filled by a similar window configuration as below, only slightly smaller. The bays are divided by Corinthian columns (flat at the ends), and the top of each arch (above the windows) is filled by a darker-colored double-arch and shield. The facade is crowned by a modillioned cornice.

The front end of the west facade exactly matches the main facade. Farther back, it has bays of paired windows and is attached to the neighboring building by white metal fire escape landings spanning a narrow alleyway. Only the front edge of the east elevation is exposed, with a bay of single-windows at the front edge, on the 4th-7th floors.

The Mehlin Piano Company only stayed in the building until 1921. That year Columbia Mortgage Company moved in and immediately began referring to its new address as The Columbia Mortgage Company Building. The following year the firm purchased the building. In 1961 when the law and accounting firm of Goldstein, Lewis & Lubell took office space in the building. After the turn of the 21st century the building was inexplicitly abandoned. Boarded up (and in some areas cemented up) the gracious marble façade sat for years deteriorating and abused. The cherubs and balconies eroded from pollution and neglect and large cracks developed in the stone from lack of maintenance.

In June 2012, the firm Van Pok & Chang purchased the building for $6.3 million. While the deteriorating building could have been easily razed and replaced, the company, owned by Omega Chang, a real estate investment firm, announced it would restore the exterior and renovate the structure. The ground floor is now occupied by Langford Wine Merchants.

daytoninmanhattan.blogspot.com/2012/07/the-1916-mehlin-...
babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=mdp.39015086592048&v...
www.scoutingny.com/abandoned-on-east-43rd-street/
www.flickr.com/photos/scoutingny/albums/721576233252583...
commercialobserver.com/2014/08/the-marble-beauty-inside...