In Between

I promised I’d discuss the other fireproof building (in 1903) on the block between 15th and 16th Streets east of Union Square and here it is: the Swannanoa. It’s an apartment house constructed in 1900 and pretty much unchanged at the exterior. Here’s the map from 1903 again, with the Swannanoa on the lower left:

The tan indicates fireproof construction, which was required in Manhattan for a ten-story building. Elevators and stairs are in the middle, with apartments front and back. And this is where easy categorization ends.

The building was constructed the year before the revised Tenement House Act (the “New Law”) really reformed NYC housing. In 1900 there were basically two forms of multiple dwellings recognized by the city: hotels (including residential hotels) and tenements. No matter how fancy an apartment got, under the old law it was a tenement or a hotel. The plan shape of the Swannanoa therefore conforms to the rules for a tenement, with light courts on the sides. Under the New Law, or today, the rear yard would be bigger and the shape might be different.

I came across the building while researching for The Structure of Skyscrapers. It meets my criteria for an early skyscraper – ten stories and substantially complete before the end of 1900 – so it’s included. That said, at 124 feet high, this is not anyone’s idea of a skyscraper now and not really in 1900 either. If it were two to three stories shorter, it would blend into a vast sea of similar buildings. If it were four stories shorter, it would have squeezed under the height limit for fireproof construction and would have most likely have been built with wood-joist floors.

The name, incidentally, is apparently an English corruption of “Shawnee” and is shared by a reasonably famous mansion in Virgina (built later than this apartment house) and at least one town.

In summary: it’s not really a tenement, it’s not properly an apartment house as defined today, it’s not really a skyscraper, and its name is not really a word. On the other hand, the fact that it’s still standing suggests that it may be a nice place to live.