Pythian building in my hood

Another gem one street over from the Gotham Den. This is one amazing building (look at the detail!) and I just couldn’t believe I hadn’t noticed it until a week or so ago. Well thank god I wasn’t losing my mind as I was told it had been under scaffolding for the past year or so which is why I hadn’t noticed.

Well this was totally confirmed today when I chatted with an older gentleman who lives in the building. I’m assuming I got his attention when I was taking photos as he crossed the street to ask me if I had questions about the building. (He told me he had been looking at the scaffolding for 16 months to be exact!)

But first, I must tell you, as I approached the building I heard someone playing the violin. The music flowed through the street below enticing everyone that walked by to look up wondering where the beautiful music was coming from. Anyway, the gentleman was quite impressed with my existing knowledge of the building and I didn’t have the heart to tell him I had just googled today to learn more about it. 🙂

So the history… built in the 20’s as a meeting place for the 120 Pythian lodges of NYC. As the organization’s popularity declined, the space was leased in the 50’s to Decca Records. Bill Haley and his Comets recorded their album Rock Around the Clock, as well as others such as Buddy Holly, Sammy Davis Jr., and Billie Holiday. Today, the building is mainly luxury apartments and the gentleman went on to tell me that most all the apartments have the original wood floors from the 20’s and most are 2 bedrooms. Can you only imagine? Luxury…pure luxury.