Berkshire Bank

 office building, bank, Gothic revival (architecture)

5-story Neo-Gothic office building completed in 1905. Designed by George B. Post for the Keppel & Co. art dealers, it replaced a stable. The 2-story limestone base is dominated by a 2-story pointed-arch opening. Art patrons entering into Keppel & Co.’s 2-floor gallery were watched by portrait sculptures in full relief of Rembrandt van Rijn and Frederick Keppel’s good friend, James McNeil Whistler, who had died two years earlier. The realistic sculptures burst forth from medallions below the 2nd-floor cornice. The cornice is decorated with a row of rosettes. The three upper floors are faced in beige brick, with groups of four window openings per floor outlined by limestone quoins. A carved cornice below the over-stated crenelated parapet sprouts two fearsome horned gargoyles that stare menacingly down at the street.

Upstairs from the gallery were the offices and draft rooms of the highly-regarded architectural firm of Delano & Aldrich. When Frederick Keppel died in 1912, the operation of the gallery passed to his son David. His other son, Frederick Jr., was by now Dean of Columbia College. Delano & Aldrich remained in the building until 1916. That year the United States entered World War I and the now-vacant offices were soon in use for the war effort. As the Government began the registration of German Americans, No. 4 East 39th Street also housed offices for the Committee on Aliens. With the end of the war, another architect, Henry Milliken would make the building his base. At the same time architect Robert Work’s office was here. When he moved out in 1921, he was replaced by the architectural firm of Goodwin, Bullard & Woolsey. In 1940 Keppel & Co. merged with another high-end dealer, Arthur H. Harlow Co. Inc. The newly-formed Harlow, Keppel Co. moved to 670 Fifth Avenue. Later that year, in August, America Designs, Inc. leased the entire building. IN 2005 it was converted to a bank, housing the Berkshire Bank. The entrance now has brass-and-glass doors, and a panel with metal lettering on the 2nd floor reads "THE BERKSHIRE BANK".