Hampton Shops Building

 Gothic revival (architecture), office/offices

140-foot, 12-story Neo-Gothic commercial building/club completed in 1916 as an office building. Designed by Rouse & Goldstone and Joseph L. Steinman for the Grand Rapids Furniture Company, it contained offices and showrooms for the Grand Rapids Furniture Company, which had many showrooms throughout the city and the eastern United States. The company, which was founded in the early 1860s, was later known as The Hampton Shops. Following The Hampton Shops’s closing 1938, the building was leased as office space for businesses in the art and design field until 1977, when the New York Health and Racquet Club moved into the building. There are also a number of dental offices in the building.

The tripartite facade is clad in grey terra-cotta that resembles granite, laid in a random ashlar pattern. The construction of the building featured tiling by Rafael Guastavino. The 1st-floor arcade has three large pointed-arches, and smaller bays at the ends. The east bay retains its original pointed-arch appearance, filled by a metal service door. The west bay has been remodeled into the main building entrance, with the arch replaces by flat, black granite cladding with a thin, stainless-steel frame, and a recessed glass door below a marble-and-steel address panel reading "18 EAST 50". The center arch of the main three is recessed, with the entrance to the New York Health & Racquet Club via glass-and-metal double doors below glass panes. The other two large arches have storefronts with plate-glass windows, topped by sloped metal roofs, surmounted by black stone infill pierced by a few metal vents. The piers flanked the center arch have metal-and-glass lighting fixtures.

At the 2nd-floor level, the end bays have smaller single-openings, filled by metal louvers, and topped by drip moldings. At the east bay, between the service door and the 2nd-floor opening, there is a stone shield wrapped by a ribbon and flanked by two smaller shields. The three main arches are topped by tracery spandrels with various Gothic elements, such as quatrefoils; at the center of these there are projecting flagpoles above the outer two main arches. Between them, the piers have recessed niches, capped at the 3rd floor by projecting tracery and pointed gables. This repeats on the next floor as well.

The upper floors have three bays of paired windows, with tracery spandrels. At the 3rd floor, there are also metal panels below the spandrels. A 3rd flagpole projects from the center of the facade at the lower part of the 4th floor. There are additional projecting elements on the piers at the 9th and 12th floors. The top floor has another set of three arches; these are segmental-arched. The roof line has a gentle peak towards the center and subtle Gothic elements at the piers and end sections.

The New York Health & Racquet Club featured a 50-foot saltwater swimming pool, two penthouse squash courts, fitness equipment, and other services. It closed in 2020.

s-media.nyc.gov/agencies/lpc/lp/2580.pdf
archive.org/details/brickbuild25unse/page/n744/mode/1up
archive.org/details/housegarden55jannewy/page/n182/mode...
hdl.handle.net/2027/mdp.39015038690031?urlappend=%3Bseq...