Thursday, November 4, 2010

More on 35 Cooper Square

Just a quick follow-up on our post yesterday about the sale of 35-39 Cooper Square...

First, Goggla passed along this photo from 1909 of Copper Square between Seventh Street and Sixth Street from the New York Public Library database .... on the right, you can make out just a little bit of the building that was on the now-vacant corner...



Also, in July 2008, Jeremiah presented a thorough history of 35 Cooper Square... Here's just a portion of the building's history:

"In the 20th century, it became a home for artists. Painter and photographer J. Forrest Vey lived there after WWII. He rented the upstairs dormer rooms for $5 apiece to people like Joel Grey, star of Cabaret, and Claude Brown, author of Manchild in the Promised Land.

Mr. Vey once broke into the attic, which had been sealed ever since a man hanged himself there. He found Civil War newspapers, a stove-pipe hat, a sign that said '5-cent Hot Whiskey,' and a noose."


Appreciate 35 Cooper Square while you can... soon, it will be swallowed up by more glass and steel.

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

Isnt this the location of the new (glass and steel) cooper union building?

EV Grieve said...

That's correct, anon...

Laura Goggin Photography said...

Wow, thanks for the history!

I think it's pretty amazing how this particular block has changed. In this photo, the building to the north is the only one still standing. It was built for the Metropolitan Savings Bank in 1867 and was one of the first fire-proof buildings in the city. I hope it lives at least another 100 years...

anonymoose said...

thank for posting the link and pictures! I live on Cooper Square--here's hoping whatever goes up isn't another terrible monstrosity.

anonymoose said...

BTW, I got to clicking around in the NYPL gallery. Here's another nice image for Cooper Square if anyone is interested:

http://digitalgallery.nypl.org/nypldigital/dgkeysearchdetail.cfm?trg=1&strucID=1041310&imageID=1557890&total=44&num=20&word=%227th%20street%22&s=1&notword=&d=&c=&f=&k=0&lWord=&lField=&sScope=&sLevel=&sLabel=&imgs=20&pos=32&e=w

if the link doesn't work, Image ID: 1557890

Laura Goggin Photography said...

@Anon 3:59 -

Great photo! And, look at that nice building north of Cooper Union, where the ugly vacated engineering building now sits. I wish we still had the trolleys.