Landmarks PFeservation Commission Apl!"~l :J\.2, 198~ Designation List 164 LP-1.239 SOFIA BROTHERS WAREHOUSE (originally Kent Automatic Parking Garage), 34-43 West 61st Street, Borough of Manhattan. Built 1929-20; Firm of Jardine, Hill & Murdock. Landmark Site: Borough of Manhattan. Tax Map Block 1114, Lot 1. On May 19, 1981, the Landmarks Preservation Commission held a public hearing on the proposed designation as a Landmark of the Sofia Brothers Warehouse and the proposed designation of the related Landmark Site (Item No. 5). The hearing had been duly advertised in accordance with the provisions of law. Five witnesses spoke in favor of designation. There were five speakers in opposition to designation. DESCRIPTION AND ANALYSIS The Art Deco Sofia Brothers Warehouse was designed by the firm of Jardine, Hill & Murdock as one of two Kent Automatic Parking Garages. Built in 1929-30, the garage used a patented automatic parking system in which an electrical "parking machine" engaged cars by their rear axles and towed them from the elevator platform to park ing spots. As the use of automobiles increased after the First World War, the crea tion of parking facilities became a necessity in urban areas and the design of garages a new field for architects.l However, in September of 1931, the Kent garage enterprise failed, and the company was reorganized without the Kent Brothers. The building was operated as a garage until 1943, when the Central Savings Bank (holder of the mortgage), sold it to the Sofia interests, who removed the garageapparatus blocked up the original vehicular entrance on Columbus Avenue, and converted the building to a storage warehouse. The architect of the alteration was George S. Kingsley. The Sofia Brothers Warehouse occupies a prominent site on Columbus Avenue near the southern edge of the Upper West Side. It was only towards the end of the 19th century (in the 1870s) that the development of New York City extended north of 59th Street into the then-rural Upper West Side. Though the rectangular street grid had been superimposed over the entire island as early as 1811, it wasn't until the con struction of the Ninth Avenue El that the Upper West Side experienced large-scale urban expansion. While older village centers existed at Harsenville near 72nd Street and Bloomingdale at 86th Street, rowwuses for aff.luent residents were built near public improvements such as Riverside Park and Drive. Other houses and tenements were cmnstructed near the elevated railway stops at 72nd , 81st and 93rd Streets. Throughout much of the 19th century, the West Side, south of 60th Street, was the home of Manhattan's black population. By 1900, the black community had spread as far north as 64th Street, west of Broadway. The area between 60th and 64th Streets, consist ing mostly of dilapidated tenement housing, small industrial buildings, and groups of stables, was known as Columbus Hill because of its proximity to Columbus Circle until it became the scene of bloody racial riots involving veterans of the Spanish American War and was renamed "San Juan Hill." This this area served as a transitional zone to the more exclusive rowhouse blocks to the north. The continued presence of the Ninth Avenue El did not enhance the desirability of the San Juan Hill neighborhood as a place to live. An attempt was made to change the neighborhood's image by changing the names of Ninth and Tenth Avenues to Columbus and Amsterdam Avenues.

-2- As the 20th century progressed, the neighborhood changed to light industrial uses. The 1936 tax map shows gas stations, garages, auto dealerships, and factory service centers lining the streets from West 59th to West 70th Streets, especially between Amsterdam and West End Avenues. The Sofia Brothers Warehouse, then the Kent Parking Garage, was er~cted adjacent to the Packard Motor Car Company warehouse and showrooms. The area retained its fragmented character until the erection of Lincoln Center in.the 1960s just t

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