377 Park Avenue South (New York City, New York)

 restaurant, office building, 1914_construction

8-story Beaux-Arts office building completed in 1914, when it was known as the Hartley Building. Designed by Henry P. Knowles for the Hartley Silk Company, it is mostly clad in white marble and brown brick. The ground floor had a cast-iron storefront, but this has been replaced by a modern storefront with grey-blue French windows and door, framed to the top and left by white tiles. The south part has a dark-red granite surround at the main entrance, with a glass door, sidelight, and transom. The 2nd floor has a wide triple-window with black iron framing, short upper transoms, and a band across the top that features the carved word Towanda Building - the name of the town the Hartley Silk Company had offices in - surmounted by a stone cornice with dentils and thin, scrolled end brackets.

The upper floors have triple-windows, marble end piers, and spandrels between floors with brown tapestry brick and rows of mossy-green Arts & Crafts tiles. The 7th floor is topped by a marble cornice with end brackets, modillions, and dentils, and is capped by green copper cresting. The 8th floor is stone and has three punched windows, with carved panels above each. The facade is crowned by a stone roof parapet stepped up at the ends.

Some of the floors were quickly sub-leased to other silk companies as well. While the building continued to house mainly silk firms, by 1923 Breezy Stories magazine was being published here. It was the first of the book and magazine firms who would later essentially take over the structure. Throughout the rest of the century the varied tenant list included the Financial Marketing Group, Inc.; Advertising Services ABS; and the headquarters of the National Bowling Association, all here in the 1980s. The ground floor is occupied by Gold Bear cocktail bar.