Once upon a time, in a land close, close by, there was a city known for its stories. Some were grand, epic adventures, but in the metropolis of 8.5 million there were also smaller dramas that played out every day.
Consider the stories of the people you saw today: the dirty man who smiled as he petted a dog on the street corner, and the bent-with-age shop owner who scrubbed the windows of her cluttered store. Though it’s all too easy to forget the tiny narratives that flow around us each day, here in New York City we have the incredible fortune to be surrounded by structures that create lasting stories of their own.
Here are five buildings that can be found in our magical city that tell their own fairy tales.
- Corbin Building
Photo Credit: 'FultonSt_8068' by MTA NYC under CC BY 2.0
In the depths of the Corbin Building in the Financial District lies a vaulted tile subway entrance and a hoard of buried treasure protected by the dragons that guard the building’s exterior.
Built in a two-year span between 1888 and 1889, the Corbin Building is a nine-story Romanesque Revival that used to be one of the tallest buildings in the city. However, instead of growing higher to match the rest of the city, it grew deeper into the ground.
In 2014, the city turned the underground vault of the Corbin Building into a subway entrance, but bringing the cast iron and masonry structure up to modern standards required them to build a separate annex to house an emergency staircase and they had to add underpinning to support the escalators for Fulton Center.
The 20-foot wide lot made it impossible to complete necessary excavations with mechanical tools, so the deep foundations had to be dug by hand with picks and shovels. The building was covered with motion sensors to ensure that it didn’t lean during the remodel. Then, deep below the surface, the crews discovered the dragon’s hoard.
Though the trove wasn’t as impressive as Smaug’s, the excavation team found a stone-lined well, a carved clay pipe, a pince-nez case, and a small collection of old ledger books and invoices. The dragons must have fled the excavation, because they weren’t there.
Find It: The Corbin Building is easy to reach. It’s at 13 John Street at the corner of Broadway and can be identified by its brick, brownstone, and terra-cotta exterior with bright-red, painted, cast-iron window bays. You’ll have to look carefully to find the dragons, but they’re there in the terra-cotta work… and presumably in the subway as well.
- Belvedere Castle
Photo Credit: 'Belvedere Castle' by sarahtarno under CC BY-NC-ND 2.0
Built as a folly in Central Park and now one of NYC’s top bird watching destinations, Belvedere Castle looks as if it grew naturally from the rocks it sits on, and has been home to at least one official vampire. (One vampire! Ah ah ah!)
“Belvedere” means “beautiful view” in Italian, and since 1869, Belvedere Castle has been living up to its name by featuring an incredible rooftop vista of Central Park and the skyline. Originally created as an open-air structure with uncovered doors and windows, the castle was remodeled to safely house meteorological equipment when the Weather Bureau took over the building in 1919.
When the weather service relocated to Rockefeller Center in the 60s, Belvedere Castle was closed to the public and quickly fell into graffiti-covered disrepair. The castle reopened in the 80s and became an observatory focused on teaching kids about the natural world, as well as the home of Count von Count, the counting vampire from Sesame Street. (The castle was used for exterior establishing shots on the show.)
Belvedere Castle will be closed this fall to restore and repair the masonry and wood pavilions, and to make the structure ADA accessible. We’re hoping that means they’ll finally replace the narrow, curved stairway in there too.
Find It: Belvedere Castle houses the Henry Luce Nature Observatory in Central Park. It’s next to the Turtle Pond and the Delacorte Theater. If you look west from one of the Met’s rooftop bars, you’ll see the turret of Belvedere peeking out barely above the tree line.
- Pomander Walk
Photo Credit: 'P20020525_150536_0052' by warsze under CC BY-NC-ND 2.0
The hidden enclave of Tudor-style cottages on the Upper West Side contains tiny homes and romantic gardens along an enchanting walkway. With its old-fashioned, away-from-the-city feel, it’s not surprising that this micro-neighborhood was based on a play.
Created in 1921, the 27 buildings in Pomander Walk are a recreation of the set from a popular Broadway play of the same name. Painted in bright reds, greens, and blues, the exposed-timber cottages edge a quiet walkway. Residents say that living there is “like being in a small town.”
In fact, Pomander’s tenants play up their fairy-tale living arrangements, which look much like the dwarves’ cottage in Snow White and the Seven Dwarves, but the story that Pomander Walk tells is much happier than the dark ending Snow White originally held.
“The Walk,” as locals call it, was a thriving, tight-knit community of artists and actors who mostly rented the old buildings at impressively low rates. In the 80s, a developer purchased the lot and planned to resell the charming townhouses, but a curious architectural choice saved the tenants: the picturesque properties all share the same furnace and boiler, which classifies them as a multi-tenant apartment building built horizontally instead of vertically.
Find It: Pomander Walk covers a short block from West 94th to 95th Street and Broadway to West End Avenue. The main entrance is on 94th Street, but unless you know someone who lives in one of the 27 houses that edge The Walk, all you’ll be able to do is peek through the gate at the miniature gardens and colorful houses inside.
- Alwyn Court
Photo Credit: 'Alwyn Court 2-of-2' by Rob Nguyen under CC BY-SA 2.0
This 12-story apartment building in Midtown Manhattan oozes decoration with elaborate terra-cotta work considered a little too decorative for early-1900s sensibilities. Perhaps that’s why its crowned dragons burnt the building shortly after it opened.
Alwyn Court was built in 1907-08 as an in-town playground for the elite featuring massive, 14-room, 5-bath apartments fitted with music rooms, libraries, conservatories, and galleries. The exterior is covered in painstakingly detailed embellishments, including fire-breathing, crowned dragons that guard the entrance.
Only the city’s richest families could afford to live there, so by 1910 only five of the two-dozen apartments had been taken. That’s when the dragons apparently decided to step in.
When a fire started in an empty apartment on the ninth floor, the building went up like “a huge torch” because it had no fire escapes, no fire doors, and a narrow staircase that spread the fire quickly. The building plans also neglected to include a central standpipe, so firefighters had to thread hose through the building floor by floor to put out what the Tribune called the “Great Blaze.”
The building was swiftly repaired and restored to its former opulence, and was occupied in the 1910s and 1920s before being gutted during the Depression.
Find It: If you’re ready to admire one of history’s most lavish, dragon-covered apartment buildings, head over to 180 West 58th Street on the corner of Seventh Avenue, just one block south of Central Park. Alwyn Court currently houses 75 apartments, so you may be able to get a tour and see the mural that creates an optical illusion on the walls of the interior courtyard. Just beware that the dragons don’t burn you.
- The Gingerbread House
Photo Credit: 'Gingerbread House' by Charlie under CC BY-SA 2.0
Though not as exciting as other houses on this list, the “Gingerbread House” in the Bay Ridge area is a lovingly restored, highly extravagant 15-room fairy tale abode worthy of its own movie.
We debated before we put this house on the list, but the century-old storybook home was just too much of a fairy-tale lookalike not to include. The six bedroom, six bathroom house features thick, uncut boulder walls, a roof crafted to look as if it’s thatched, and an interior that looks “like a museum.” Of course, no fairy-tale house would be complete without the included Chauffer Room and Fountain Room that are, naturally, included in the plans.
Find It: Located in Bay Ridge at 8200 Narrows Avenue, the Gingerbread House is easy to find. Simply type the address into your GPS app and, when you get near, look for Hansel and Gretel’s house. It’s unmistakable.
What’s the Story Behind Your Buildings?
New York City has some of the most fascinating buildings in the world. With a little bit of searching, it’s likely that you’ll find exciting and interesting facts on at least one of the buildings you’ve worked with. Take a look through the archives to see what your building’s original purpose was, who it was built by, and who lived there (or in the neighborhood) throughout the years. When you stumble across a great tale, we’d love to know about it.
Immerse yourself in local stories about the buildings you love here in New York City. Subscribe to Insights for more fascinating reads, published regularly.
