Demolition and Preservation on East 24th & 25th Streets

This exhibit was designed to coincide with the expansion of Baruch College. The physical exhibit was installed in 2004 and together with the digital display traces the history of the Baruch College neighborhood, the Rose Hill and Kips Bay area of Manhattan.

The impetus for the exhibit was the demolition of ten buildings on this block in 1996 to clear a site for construction of the Baruch College Academic Complex. Members of the community opposed the demolition of two of the buildings, arguing they were historically significant structures that should be preserved. Although the buildings were recognized as historic, they were not given legal landmark status that would have prevented their demolition. This exhibit was installed to tell the history of the buildings and surrounding neighborhood.

The two historic structures that stood on this site were the Fiss, Doerr and Carroll Horse Company auction mart buildings, constructed in 1906 and 1913. These unique buildings were used to hold horse auctions attended by up to 1,000 people in a period when horses were an integral part of life in New York. Each had a large arched roof covering a two-story open interior space. Horses were displayed in an arena overlooked by buyers sitting on a suspended second floor gallery. The Fiss, Doerr and Carroll Horse Company sold the auction mart buildings in the 1920s before going out of business. One was purchased by the H. Kauffman and Sons Saddlery Company; the second, suffering the fate of many stable buildings in New York, was converted into a garage for automobiles. Both Kauffman’s Saddlery and the garage operated in the auction mart buildings until just before they were demolished.

Demolition and Preservation on East 24th & 25th Streets - cont.

the garage operated in the auction mart buildings until just before they were demolished. In 1986, Baruch College adopted a master plan to expand its existing campus on 23rd Street and Lexington Avenue to the blocks between 24th and 26th Streets, Third and Lexington Avenues. The master plan called for converting an existing building on 25th Street into a modern library and constructing a new academic facility on part of the block between 24th and 25th Streets. The first step was completed in 1994 when the Newman Library and Technology Center opened in the former Lexington Building, located across 25th Street from this exhibit. The second step was complicated by the need to demolish the two historic structures.

Opposition to the demolition of the auction mart buildings came from the local community board, the historic preservation community and Charles Kauffman, the fourth generation owner of Kauffman’s Saddlery. Opponents appealed to the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission, arguing that these unique buildings were historically significant vestiges of the horse trade that flourished on 24th Street in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Therefore, they believed, the buildings should be designated landmarks and protected from demolition.

The Landmarks Commission chose not to designate the structures City landmarks, but the New York State Historic Preservation Office determined that the auction mart buildings were eligible for listing on the National Register of Historic

Demolition and Preservation on East 24th & 25th Streets - cont.

Places, the United States’ official list of historic resources worthy of preservation. Because listing on the National Register is largely honorary, this action did not legally protect the buildings from demolition. However, as part of the New York State environmental review process, the State Dormitory Authority, the agency responsible for construction of the new Baruch building, studied ways to preserve the two auction marts and possibly incorporate them into the new structure. After a lengthy review, the Dormitory Authority determined that retaining and reusing the historic structures was impractical and would add substantially to construction costs. Instead, the agency proposed a study project that would document the buildings through architectural drawings and photographs. From this proposal evolved the idea for a public exhibit on the history of the auction mart buildings, the 24th Street horse market and the surrounding neighborhood.

It was decided that the exhibit should include physical pieces of the historic auction mart buildings that were the reason for its installation. Therefore, when the buildings were demolished, ornamental elements from the façade of the 1906 auction mart were salvaged. The exhibit was designed to allow these building fragments to be seen behind a transparent glass screen inscribed with historic images. The glass images include views of buildings that once stood on this block and historic images of the surrounding neighborhood. A computer based historical narrative accompanying the building fragments and glass images traces the history of the Rose Hill and Kips Bay neighborhood, of which these buildings and Baruch College are a part.