place

The Sofia

1930 establishments in New York City1984 establishments in New York CityApartment buildings in New York CityArt Deco architecture in ManhattanCommercial buildings completed in 1930
New York City Designated Landmarks in ManhattanResidential buildings completed in 1984Residential buildings on the National Register of Historic Places in ManhattanUpper West SideUse American English from July 2022Use mdy dates from August 2022
The Sophia winter late PM jeh
The Sophia winter late PM jeh

The Sofia (formerly the Kent Automatic Garage and the Sofia Brothers Warehouse) is a condominium building at the corner of Columbus Avenue and 61st Street on the Upper West Side of Manhattan in New York City. It was constructed from 1929 to 1930 and was designed by the firm of Jardine, Hill & Murdock in the Art Deco style for Kent Automatic Garages. The Sofia is 27 stories tall; the first nine stories above the ground level are used as offices, while the top 17 stories contain residential condominiums. The building is a New York City designated landmark and on the National Register of Historic Places. The building originally functioned as a 1,000-spot garage, with a gas station at the corner of Columbus Avenue and 61st Street. The ground level contains multiple entrances, surrounded by multicolored pieces of terracotta. There was a vehicular entrance on Columbus Avenue and an exit on 61st Street. On the upper floors, the facade is made largely of orange brick, interspersed with bands of black brick, and there are several setbacks with terracotta parapets. The building contains an extremely strong steel superstructure inside. Originally, the building had large vehicular elevators, as well as electric trolleys on each floor, which automatically transported vehicles to parking spots. Since the 1980s, the building has contained 94 apartments, ranging from studio apartments to three-bedroom units. Kent Automatic Garages bought the site from automobile company Packard in 1928, and the garage opened on July 30, 1930. Kent obtained various loans to finance the building's construction, but it lost the building to foreclosure within a year. The building was then acquired by the Central Savings Bank in 1936 and by the Sofia Brothers Warehousing Company in 1944. The Sofia family converted the building into a warehouse, though the structure also housed offices and studios. Aaron Green and Growth Realty Companies bought the building for $9.3 million in August 1983 and converted it into a residential and commercial condominium over the next year. College Board occupied the commercial portion of the building from the 1980s until 2015, when Fordham University acquired the commercial space.

Excerpt from the Wikipedia article The Sofia (License: CC BY-SA 3.0, Authors, Images).

The Sofia
West 61st Street, New York Manhattan

Geographical coordinates (GPS) Address Nearby Places
placeShow on map

Wikipedia: The SofiaContinue reading on Wikipedia

Geographical coordinates (GPS)

Latitude Longitude
N 40.770555555556 ° E -73.983333333333 °
placeShow on map

Address

The Sofia

West 61st Street 43
10023 New York, Manhattan
New York, United States
mapOpen on Google Maps

The Sophia winter late PM jeh
The Sophia winter late PM jeh
Share experience

Nearby Places

Hurrah (nightclub)

Hurrah was a nightclub located at 36 West 62nd Street in New York City from 1976 until 1980. Hurrah was the first large dance club in NYC to feature punk, new wave and industrial music. The in-house DJ's at Hurrah were Sara Salir, Bill Bahlman, Bart Dorsey and Anita Sarko. Under the management of Henry Schissler, and later Jim Fouratt, it became known as the first "rock disco" in New York, and pioneered the use of music videos in nightclubs, placing video monitors around the club, over a year before the launch of MTV. The club was owned by Arthur Weinstein (who also created The World and the afterhours clubs The Jefferson and The Continental) and his partners, who opened the club in November 1976, months before Studio 54.With Ruth Polsky as booking agent, Hurrah became known as a place for new wave, punk and post-punk bands to play, featuring many of the British bands' first American performances. Bands playing the club included the Pop Group, the Cure, Human Sexual Response, Colin Newman (of Wire), Bush Tetras, Delta 5, Liquid Liquid, Blurt, Suicide, the Skids, the Fleshtones, Ultravox, Johnny Thunders, the Only Ones, the B-52's, the Student Teachers, Klaus Nomi, Tuxedomoon, the Units, the Sleepers, 8-Eyed Spy (with Lydia Lunch), ESG, the Fuzztones, Tina Peel, Mission of Burma, Simple Minds, the Slits, the Specials, Bauhaus, the Screamers, Magazine, the Bongos, and the Feelies. After the suicide of Ian Curtis, the members of Joy Division regrouped and played their first American gig in New York City as New Order at the club on September 26, 1980, opening for A Certain Ratio.On April 16, 1978, the Tom Eyen comedy play The Neon Woman, starring Divine, opened at Hurrah. It ran for 84 performances, closing on July 15, 1978.The club became notorious for an incident in December 1978, where during a Skafish gig, Sid Vicious got into a fight with Todd Smith (brother of Patti Smith,) resulting in the incarceration of Vicious for two months in Rikers Island. David Bowie was filmed in the club for his music video for the song "Fashion" in 1980.Famed New York club doorman Haoui Montaug worked as the doorman for Hurrah.

Colonial Theatre (New York City)

The Colonial Theatre in New York City was at Broadway and 62nd Street in what was then the San Juan Hill neighborhood on the Upper West Side, Manhattan. Originally named the Colonial Music Hall, it was opened in 1905 by Frederic Thompson and Elmer "Skip" Dundy. Designed by George Keister, the theater had a seating capacity of 1,293.Thompson and Dundy operated the theater for only a few weeks before selling it to Percy G. Williams, who changed the name to Colonial Theatre. It functioned exclusively as a vaudeville house during Williams' stewardship. In 1912, under the management of B.F. Keith, the name was changed to Keith's Colonial Theatre. Five years later the theater was under the management of E.F. Albee, who renamed it the New Colonial Theatre.During the early 1920s, the New Colonial Theatre was a venue for many African-American musical revues such as Eubie Blake and Noble Sissle's show Chocolate Dandies and James P. Johnson's Runnin' Wild. The latter show premiered at the theater on October 29, 1923, and was instrumental in making an international dance craze of the Charleston.From 1925 to 1932, the theater was named Hampden's Theatre, and under the management of actor Walter Hampden it presented Shakespearian fare and classic drama. In 1932, as the RKO Colonial Theatre, it became a movie house. After 1951 the theater was owned by NBC who used it to develop color television equipment (the TK-40 color television camera) and studio techniques, and functioned as a television studio until 1971. Rebekah Harkness subsequently purchased the theater, renovated it, and reopened it in 1974 as the Harkness Theatre. After presenting a sporadic schedule of ballet and legitimate theater, it closed in 1977, and the building was razed later that year.