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251 West 13th Street
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251 West 13th Street
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251 West 13th Street, unknown date. 251 West 13th Street was originally the Jackson Square Branch of the New York Free Circulating Library. It was built in 1877 by the legendary Beaux-Arts architect, Richard Morris Hunt, who also designed the main entrance of the Metropolitan Museum of Art. The library opened in one year later with a gift of over 6,000 books from the collector and philanthropist George W. Vanderbilt At the height of the library's popularity, it attracted over a hundred visitors every day and circulated about 126,000 volumes annually. The library closed in 1908 when presented with the challenge of disinfecting books that could transfer communicable diseases. In 1967, the performance artist Robert Delford Brown acquired the former library, which he dubbed "the Great Building Crack-Up." During Brown's tenure, the venue hosted various art events and performances and became the international headquarters of Brown's "Orthodox Pagan" First National Church of Exquisite Panic, Inc. Since 1995, television producer Tom Fontana has lived and had his offices here.
Greenwich Substation
Post
23 West 13th Street, c. 1994 Substation 235, located at 23 West 13th Street on at the intersection of Greenwich Avenue and Horatio Street. The structure was built in 1932 during the construction of the IND Eighth Avenue Line, a project that lasted from 1932 until 1940. A substation is fed power from a central station that is converted from high voltage alternating current (AC) into low voltage direct current (DC) to power the subway. This substation and others constructed for the IND line were the first to be non-manually operated. Greenwich Substation was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2005 as a unique piece of New York City's transit history. The masonry structure's footprint, a chamfered rectangle, reflects the infill lot's geometric condition at this bustling intersection. The facade is adorned with limestone, brick, and aluminum; its loading dock doors are framed by Art Deco motifs and sunburst patterns, not uncommon of substations and telephone buildings of the era. The human-scaled entrance is decorated more modestly and located at the level of the sidewalk.
The Great Building Crack-Up
Story
In 1967, neo-Dada artist Robert Delford Brown performed one of his greatest pieces of all time, which he titled "The Great Building Crack-Up." The performance was meant to evoke a collision of the new and the old. The site of the performance was the elegantly designed brownstone by Beaux-Arts master Richard Morris Hunt. It was a meeting of Avant-garde minds between Brown and the architect Paul Rudolph. This is the story of a building that has lived many lives.
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251 West 13th Street
\[IND electrical substation, 253 West 13th Street, and 251 West 13th Street.] 251 West 13th Street was originally the Jackson Square Branch of the New York Free Circulating Library. It later became the Great Building Crack-Up and international headquarters of the First National Church of Exquisite Panic, Inc., when artist Robert Delford Brown moved there in 1970.
Greenwich Substation
Greenwich Power Sub-Station at 13th Street and Greenwich: 8th Avenue Line (IND) Roll of negative documents conditions of the Greenwich Power Sub-Station for the Eighth Avenue Line (IND). Shows loading dock and door of sub-station, decor around door, brick walls, sidewalk, intersection of West 13th Street and Greenwich Avenue, billboard advertisement painted on one side and parking lot.
Greenwich Substation
\[IND Electrical Substation.]
Greenwich Substation
\[IND Electrical Substation.]
Greenwich Substation
\[IND Electrical Substation and 251 West 13th Street.] 251 West 13th Street was originally the Jackson Square Branch of the New York Free Circulating Library. It later became the Great Building Crack-Up and international headquarters of the First National Church of Exquisite Panic, Inc., when artist Robert Delford Brown moved there in 1970.
251 West 13th Street
Manhattan: 13th Street (West) - Greenwich Avenue 13th Street, at and adjoining the N.E. corner of Greenwich Avenue, showing the city subway power sub-station and ventilator and the Jackson Square branch of the New York Public Library at 251 West 13th Street. May 19, 1933. P.L. Sperr.
251 West 13th Street
Manhattan: 13th Street (West) - Greenwich Avenue (1) 251, 249-247-245 West 13th Street, adjoining the N.E. corner of Greenwich Avenue. No. 251 is the Jackson Square branch of the New York Public Library. May 19, 1933 P. L. Sperr. (2) The same view, as seen from the roof of No. 2 Horatio Street. March 16, 1933. P. L. Sperr.
251 West 13th Street
Manhattan: 13th Street (West) - Greenwich Avenue (1) 251, 249-247-245 West 13th Street, adjoining the N.E. corner of Greenwich Avenue. No. 251 is the Jackson Square branch of the New York Public Library. May 19, 1933 P. L. Sperr. (2) The same view, as seen from the roof of No. 2 Horatio Street. March 16, 1933. P. L. Sperr.
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