First Republic Bank (New York City, New York)

 office building, bank, commercial building

4-story Art-Nouveau/Art-Deco bank building completed in 1907. Designed by Oscar Lowinson for Joseph W. Jones's company that designed and built speedometers, the site was selected for its position on a long stretch of Broadway north of Times Square that was then known as Automobile Row. The offices of automobile makers and sellers, as well as tire companies and other related firms lined the thoroughfare for blocks. The Jones Speedometer Building contained offices, a showroom, and a garage (for installing instruments in buyers' cars).

It used a steel-frame construction to enable vast planes of glass. Lowinson then decorated the facade with striking Art Nouveau elements of copper, bronze and iron. Above the ground floor showroom was what the Record & Guide termed "an elaborate cornice extending some distance from the building, supported on ornamental brackets with ornamental grill work over the entrances." The electric lamps on the piers were giant imitations of the Jones Speedometers, the lettering of the instruments etched into the glass faces.
The upper cornice was spectacular, taking the form of a gently-arched hood on the Broadway elevation. A large frieze below was decorated with gilded discs. Corner piers upheld two other lamps over Broadway.

Jones Speedometer initially leased the showroom space to United Manufacturers. The wholesaler handled not only Jones products (like its speedometer and Jones Electric Horn), but auto accessories of a few other makers. In May 1910 it moved to No. 239 West 54th Street when it and the tenant there, the Touring Club of America swapped spaces. The club took not only the first, but the third floors in the Jones Speedometer Building. Another tenant, The Automobile Blue Book Publishing Company was in the building by 1913. In October 1924 Jones opened a new factory in the Bronx to manufacture his new product -- radios -- and eventually gave up the Broadway headquarters. The building became home to Friedner & Ebstein, Inc., sellers of furniture of interior decorations. The firm altered the ground floor, stripped off Lowinson's Art-Nouveau cornice and inventive lighting fixtures and replacing the facade with a sleek black-and-chrome Art-Deco surface. As mid-century approached Gala Record Co. was in the building. 2160 Broadway received four alterations--in 1950, 1953, 1957 and 1968 -- after which almost no trace of Oscar Lowinson's singular Art Nouveau design -- a rarity in Manhattan -- survived.

In the last quarter of the 20th century the ground floor was home to Kinsley's restaurant. The 1980's saw four restaurants come and go; followed by Bertha's Mexican restaurant in 1993, Xando Coffee and Bar in 1997, and Cosi in 2005. Today the entire building is occupied by First Republic Bank.

The wider south facade on 76th Street is organized into three wide, main bays, and very narrow end bays. The middle bays have wide tripartite windows divided by thin metal mullions. The piers are white brick and the ground floor is faced in beige-painted stone. The eastern of the main bays at the ground floor has only a narrow window at the left instead of the full tripartite installations on the upper floors. There is a small secondary entrance with a glass door at the far right. A black metal fire escape runs down the east main bay. A sideways ramp with bronze railings leads up to a glass door set in the center bay.

The smaller Broadway facade has a single bay that matches those on the south elevation. The ground floor has bronze-framed plate glass, with a glass door at the right.