A Holdout

In January 1958, Angelo Rizzuto took this photo from the east side of Lexington Avenue, between 53^rd and 54^th Streets, looking west toward Park Avenue. The block bounded by those four streets was at that time entirely empty except for this old rowhouse at 620 Lexington. It was demolished soon after, and that block is the site of 399 Park Avenue, completed in 1961.

Holdouts like this are not very common, but they happen. In this case, it was the pharmacy that insisted it was going to stay until the end of its lease; it’s hard to tell if the apartments above were still occupied at this point. You can see that excavation has begun on the north half of the site, to the right, which must have been annoying for anyone in 620 Lexington and difficult to manage for the construction workers.

I find that I’m ambivalent about holdouts. In this case, the new building was obviously going to be built one way or another, with the entire rest of the site cleared. Large new buildings have been constructed around holdouts, which looks terrible and is not really good for anyone. I sympathize for the pharmacy owner, who probably resisted being bought out because they couldn’t find an equivalent space nearby, but it’s hard to believe that being surrounded by an active construction site for three years would have been good for them. In any case, the time for a preservation battle is before all of the surrounding buildings have been demolished.

A few details: we have the ghost of 618 on the side wall of 620, which is not surprise. 620 would have originally had a stoop, and most likely the first and second floors were lowered when they were converted to retail use. Most of the street fence along Lexington is made of old doors, probably salvaged from the other rowhouses that had been demolished. Due west is the Lever House, the first glass-facade building constructed on Park Avenue; the masonry facade of the Racquet and Tennis Club is to the left. The high-rise on the far left is the Seagram Building, which had just been completed when this photo was taken.