Verizon - Manhattan Avenue Telephone Exchange (New York City, New York)

 office building, production, telephone exchange building

187-foot, 13-story telecom hotel/office building originally completed in 1916 with six floors. Seven new floors designed by McKenzie, Voorhees & Gmelin were added to the building in 1923. It is clad in reddish-brown brick above a cream-colored stone ground floor. The entrance is just left of center on the east facade, with recessed metal double-doors below metal louvers. They are set in a slightly-projecting stone surround with subtle panels on either side, and curved edges. Inscribed letters above the doorway read "TELEPHONE BUILDING", topped by a cornice, with a band course extending out to either side capping the ground floor. To the north the ground floor has four windows with metal mesh screens, the first three grouped together, and a metal service door at the north end. To the south are two more windows.

The upper floors on the east facade have six single-windows in the middle, and pairs of windows at both ends. They all have simple stone sills and splayed brick lintels, with each bay slightly recessed between brick piers. There are stone cornices above the 4th, 5th, & 6th floors, the middle one being larger and projecting farther out. A bracketed, white metal cornice tops the 10th floor, above which is a setback to the 11th & 12th floors, and a smaller setback to the 13th. The 11th & 12th floors have 10 bays of single-windows, and the 13th floors has nine. There are various mechanical penthouses on the roof.

The south facade on 108th Street has no openings on the ground floor. The upper floors have two paired-window bays in the middle and single-window end bays, but the western two windows and the two next to the east end bay have been bricked-in from the 2nd-6th floors. Screened metal louvers replaced the remaining windows at the other two bays on the 2nd floor, and also at the east end bay on the 3rd floor. There are the same two setbacks at the top floors.

A small shaft section on the west side extends into the alleyway behind the building, and the front of the alley is enclosed by a metal gate. There are small concrete balconies with metal railings lining the south side of the small extension. On the other side of the extension the west facade has nine single-windows. The north facade has three single-windows in the middle, beginning at the 5th floor.

It now now known as East 97th Street Central office (NYCMNY97) for Verizon.

www.co-buildings.com/ny/212/