111 Fourth Avenue; 101-111 Fourth Avenue; 98-106 East 12th Street | Block : 556-2 | Lot #44

Description & Building Alterations

This 13-story terra cotta and brick building was completed in 1919, on a site purchased that year from Mathilda E. R. Stuyvesant. It was designed by Starrett & Van Vleck Architects as manufacturing lofts for the International Tailoring Company, as well as a retail ground floor. At the time, the International Tailoring Company was one of the country’s most prominent clothing manufacturing companies. In 1938, an adjoining three-story building on the northeast corner of the lot was demolished by the W.P.A. and turned into a loading dock. In 1955, the dock gave way to a parking lot. In the 1960s and 70s the building housed Praeger Publishing, which running counter to the tide in the area published anti-Communist works and was linked to the CIA.

Architect Goldwin Starrett had worked previously in Chicago as a principal assistant to Daniel H. Burnham. In 1901, he and his brothers formed the Thompson-Starrett Construction Company in New York. Their projects included the Algonquin Hotel (1902) on West Forty-Fourth Street. In 1907, Goldwin Starrett formed a partnership with Ernest Van Vleck. This firm was particularly renowned for its department store designs, including Lord & Taylor (1914) on Fifth Avenue between Thirty-Eighth and Thirty-Ninth Streets, and Saks Fifth Avenue (1922-24), on Fifth Avenue between Forty-Ninth and Fiftieth Streets. The former was the company’s first department store commission, which is now a designated New York City Landmark. Starrett & Van Vlock Architects’ building at 111 Fourth Avenue has many similarities to the Everett Building (1908) at the northwest corner of Park Avenue South and Seventeenth Street, also designed by the firm.

This building housed the Dorsky Gallery in the 1970s, showcasing the work of Richard Hunt, William Crutchfield, Richard Lindner, Nathan Oliveira, and Henry Moore. The Art & Fashion Gallery, focusing on rare books, fashion, and photography, opened here in 2003. 

Herman Melville lived in a town home on this site at 103 Fourth Avenue from 1847 to 1850 and in 1850 began his seminal work, Moby Dick.