439 West 14th Street (New York City, New York)

 warehouse, Romanesque (architecture), movie / film / TV location, 1893_construction

3-story Romanesque-revival warehouse completed in 1893. Designed by Thomas R. Jackson as a stables building for William Waldorf Astor, and leased to the New York Biscuit Company. It runs through the block to West 15th Street, with the same facade design at either end.

The building is clad in red brick with a triangular pediment at the center of the roof line, capped by a copper cornice. A stone band course separates the ground floor, and each of the four window bays are slightly recessed. The 2nd-story windows are segmental-arched, separated by brick pilasters running down the center. The outer 3rd-story windows are the same, while the inner two are individually round-arched, with each pair grouped under a larger brick arch.

The newly formed (1890) New York Biscuit Co. had recently completed its huge bakery and office complex at Tenth Avenue and West 15th Street, which became the world's largest. This stable was built to support that facility. In 1898, the New York Biscuit Co. merged with its competitor, the American Biscuit Co., acquiring the Fig Newton and Premium Saltine brands and becoming the National Biscuit Co., renamed Nabisco in 1941.

In the 1920s, this building was converted to a garage for the company's trucks, as well as a warehouse with offices. Nabisco moved to New Jersey in 1958 and the building was sold the following year to the Industry City Realty Co. It was apparently used as a warehouse for years. Behind the handsomely-restored facade, Ceco Studios operates the High Line Stages, touted as Manhattan's two largest sound stages.


The exterior was used as a filming location for S1E1 of the Starz Network series "Power" as the site of the Truth nightclub.

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