By Brian J. Pape, AIA
THEN: On May 4, 1927, Hudson Street, in this view looking south from West 14th Street, shows the Herring Lock and Safe Company Building on the right (c.1849; northern third, c.1854-60). It was a five-story “Flatiron-type” factory, built in “Vernacular/Neo-Grec” style for Col. Herring, which is still virtually intact. The Wing Building behind it, at the southwest corner of West 13th Street, was demolished around 1931, about the time the elevated tracks and station at Ninth Avenue and West 14th Street (on the far right) were replaced with subway lines. Note the canopies added to the taller buildings on the left and the wide sidewalks for produce and meat-handling purposes. Photo courtesy of NYPL Archives, P.L. Sperr Photography Collection.
NOW: Looking south on Hudson Street, the Herring Building (on the right), now occupied by restaurants, galleries, and offices, fronts the Gansevoort Meatpacking NYC Hotel (completed in 2004). Historic buildings on the left have been converted to business and residential uses; they are not in an NYC Historic District. Note the street work restoring wider sidewalks and adding pedestrian plazas to better handle the larger crowds on foot. Photo by Brian J. Pape, AIA.
