CARS WALL DECORATIONS

Theater District, Midtown Manhattan

The Gerard, an exceptionally fine brick, limestone, and terra-cotta apartment hotel,
designed in 1893 by George Keister, marks a transition in both American architectural
taste and in the developmental history of the west 11idtown area. Stylistically, it
displays an unusual combination of Romanesque and Northern Gothic and Renaissance
details found on very few other buildings in America. When it was erected, this
apartment hotel was one of the tallest buildings in a predominantly low-rise residential
area and it heralded the enormous change that the neighborhood was to undergo a few
years later as it became the heart of New York City's theater district.
The Gerard was commissioned by the developers Alexander Moore and William Rankin who
employed George Keister to design the new structure. Keister is a little-known architect
who was active in New York City from the late 1880s through the first decades of
the twentieth century. Although few buildings by Keister have been identified, those
that are known form an interesting group, and examination of his work reveals Keister
as one of the more innovative and interesting architects of the period. Among Keister's
major works are the eccentrically-massed Romanesque Revival style First Baptist Church
(1891) on the northwest corner of Broadway and West 79th Street and a group of ten rowhouses
on East 136th Street in the Bronx, known as the Bertine Block (1891). These
rowhouses bear a close stylistic resemblance to the Gerard. During the twentieth
century Keister seems to have specialized in the design of theaters. These include the
German-Renaissance style Astor Theatre (1906, demolished) on Broadway and West 45th
Street, the nea-Classical style Selwyn at 229 West 42nd Street (1918), the Balasco
Theatre (originally David Balasco's Stuyvesant Theatre, 1906-07), a Colonial Revival
style building with elegant interior spaces, located next to the Gerard, and the
Apollo (1912-13), one of Harlem's great cultural monuments.
The Gerard's occupancy by respectable residents was short-lived and by the second decade
of the twentieth century the building seems to have declined into what the New York
Times euphemistically described as "a d.isorderly house. "7 By about 1920 the hotel, had
been renamed the Hotel Langwell; it later became the Hotel 1-2-3. Today, with the exception
of the ground floor commercial space, the building is vacant.

The thirteen-story Gerard has a two-story limestone base that supports eleven stories
faced with tawny brown Roman brick. The rusticated base once featured a one-story
columned portico that ran acorss most of the front facade. This was removed in 1917
at which time the stores were probably added. The second floor, with its fourteen
single rectangular window openings, remains intact. The upper stories of the building
have a strong verticle emphasis that culminates in the steep gables and tall donners. The
third through the sixth floors form a single unit. The two central bays of this sixbay
wide unit are composed in two sections. The third and fourth floors are faced with
white terra-cotta and ornamented with Ionic pilasters. The shafts of the central pilasters.
The shafts of the central pilasters are embellished with anthel'!ia. A continuous
stone balcony runs below the second floor and two round balconies project above the
fourth floor. The fifth and sixth floors of this central section are comprised of threeSided,
angular, brick bays separated by single Corinthian pilasters with decorated shafts.
Flanking the central bays are shallow, rounded, brick bays, extending up four stories.
At each floor in each bay are three rectangular windows with splayed brick lintels.
Simple terra-cotta cornices crown each bay.
The seventh floor is the focal point of the midsection of the building and serves as a
transition between the more restrained lower stories and the more complex upper stories
and ornate roof line. In the center of this floor are two broad round arches that
spring from the central pilasters described above. Three round-arched windows and two
blind roundels are set within each arch. The arch spandrels are ornately decorated with
terra-cotta foliage and a'large central anthemion. To either side of the wide arches
are four round-arched windows with simple terrotta enframements. Above these windows
rise two-story bowed oriels that rest on elaborate terra-cotta corbels. These flank
the flat eighth and ninth stories of the central section which are simply articulated
by tall Ionic pilasters. Above these pilasters is a transitional tenth floor with
short Ionic pilasters that support a cornice from which rise the spectacular central
dormers. The dormers project from a mansard roof and each contains a two-story arched
window flanked by by Ionic columns and crowned by a deep cornice tha.t by a raised arched pediment. The dormers are flanked by low pedestals supported by
pilasters. Nine urn pinnacles proj

Originally decorated with peach walls, pink velour headboard and white melamine furniture. We redecorated, re-carpeted and added new furniture and a new ensuite... aah that's better!