Statement of Significance for the B.F. Goodrich Buildings
B. F. Goodrich, a leading American manufacturer of automobile tires and other rubber projects built 1780 Broadway and 225 West 57th Street in 1909. Located on an L-shaped lot at the upper end of what was then known as “Automobile Row,” the 12-story Broadway building served as the company’s New York headquarters, containing showrooms, corporate offices, and repair facilities. The 57th Street building was built as speculative office space and provided a service entrance for vehicles needing repairs in either building. Eight stories tall, near the top, capital letter Gs are visible, which identify the original owner. They also share a basement which contains the heating plant. The noted Chicago architect Howard Van Doren Shaw was responsible for each building’s design. These are his only known works in New York City and like many of the structures he built in the Midwest, the facades display an unusual combination of modern and traditional architectural features. Clad with mostly red brick and limestone, these tripartite facades are distinguished by abstract, stylized terra-cotta ornament that suggests the influence of Elizabethan and Jacobean sources, the English Arts and Crafts movement, and the Vienna Secession.
While Goodrich was the primary tenant in 1780 Broadway, the West 57th Street building, which was briefly named for Stoddard Dayton, an early automobile manufacturer, attracted mainly tenants from the booming automotive industry, including the Atlantic Motor Car Company, the Dorian Remountable Rim Company, the Motor and Accessory Manufacturers Association, and the Stewart Automobile School, which provided technical instruction to drivers and mechanics. Following the sale of the property in 1928, newspapers advertisements referred to the two structures as the “Goodrich Building” and they were described as having “separate passenger and freight elevators through entrances on “different streets.” While the ground floor of each building has been substantially altered and a 1948 fire did damage to both rear facades, the street elevations retain most of their original materials and ornamentation.
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