View of 146-150 West 63rd Street from north east, Courtesy NYC Municipal Archives
146-150 West 63rd Street – The Universal Motor Truck Building
by Tom Miller
In May 1910, the New York Protestant Episcopal City Home Society sold the property at 146 through 150 West 63rd Street to the Municipal Realty Company. In reporting the sale, the New-York Tribune remarked that the firm “contemplates erecting an automobile building,” adding, “Negotiations are pending for the leasing of the proposed structure by one tenant.”
The proposal to erect an “automobile building” in the neighborhood made sense. A block away, Broadway was quickly earning the nickname Automobile Row, as more and more automobile-related companies made the thoroughfare home. But the Municipal Realty Company quickly changed its mind. A month later, on July 26, The New York Times reported, “Another large automobile fireproof building is to be erected in the Lincoln Square vicinity.” Motor Age explained that Henry D. Trush, Sr. was planning, “a garage to be erected at 146-150 West Sixty-third street. It will cost $75,000 and will possess several unique features, among them two entrances connecting with a circular driveway to the coach stand in the rear of the structure.” Henry D. Thrush, Sr. did not have to look far for his architect. The Record & Guide reported the plans were be designed by Henry D. Thrush, Jr.
But that plan, too, abruptly ended. A year later, on October 28, 1911, the Record & Guide reported that Amos R. E. Pinchot had purchased the property and now architect Walter Haefeli was designing a “three-story brick garage” to cost $85,000 (around $2.8 million in 2025 terms). This time the project went forward.
He accused the firm of not paying him the 5 percent commission he owed on two ten-ton trucks he sold.
Haefeli most likely worked closely with the future tenant, who had already signed the lease—the Universal Motor Truck Company based in Detroit, Michigan. The three-story garage and service station was clad in white terra cotta and must have gleamed among the brick and brownstone tenements on the block. The building was completed the following year, and on August 8, 1912, The Motor World reported, “The Universal Motor Truck Co. has taken possession of the service station erected for its occupancy at 146-150 West 63rd street, New York.” Automobile Topics added, “It will be used as a service building where the company will take care of its customers’ trucks.”
The company had hardly moved in before it was sued by an employee, George W. Kayton. He accused the firm of not paying him the 5 percent commission he owed on two ten-ton trucks he sold. Each was priced at $2,800. In response, according to The Motor World on September 26, 1912, because of litigation in which it “became embroiled,” the Universal Motor Truck Co. of Detroit “cancelled the agency contract and hereafter will conduct its business in New York as a factory branch at 146-150 West 63d street, where its service station is located.” The Detroit and New York operations were now “separate and distinct corporations.”
As its name implied, unlike the tenants along Automobile Row, Universal Motor Truck Co. dealt only with heavy-duty vehicles. An advertisement in January 1913, promised it could sell a purchaser, “a One, Two or Three ton truck on terms less than daily rental and a year’s guarantee.”
Universal Motor Truck Co. left around 1914. By 1915, the building was operated as the Sixty-third Street Garage. Then, in July 1916, the Pinchot Estate leased the building to the Chevrolet Motor Company of New York, Inc. Before it moved in, Walter Haefeli was brought back to renovate the building.
By 1927, portions of the building were being sublet. The Ohmer Fare Register Company occupied space, and in 1930 the Police Department Taximeter Laboratories tested the accuracy of taxicab meters here.
Tenants continued to come and go. On November 12, 1936, The New York Sun reported that The Pierce-Arrow Sales Company of New York, had leased the structure. The article explained, “The building was originally constructed as an automobile sales and service station and will now be used as the main service station for Pierce Arrow cars and the distribution of parts in Manhattan.” The firm had been under the controllership of Studebaker Motor Company since 1928, and by the early 1940s, the signage on 146-150 West 63rd Street reflected both companies.
The Mayor’s Slum Clearance Committee approved the San Juan Hill neighborhood “for urban renewal” on April 21, 1955.
The end of vehicle firms in the building came in 1943. That year in October, the Jean Vivaudou Company, Inc. signed a four-year lease. The firm manufactured and distributed “cosmetics and perfume novelties,” according to The New York Sun. In reporting on the transaction, the article mentioned, “the structure contains about 22,000 square feet of floor space.”
After owning the property for more than three decades, in June 1946 the Pinchot Estate sold it to real estate developer Frederick Brown. The New York Sun remarked that any plans he might have would need to wait a few weeks, since the Jean Vivaudou Company’s lease did not expire until August 31.
If Frederick Brown purchased the property with intentions to redevelop it, that did not come to pass. Instead, the city’s Lincoln Square Redevelopment Plan took care of that. The Mayor’s Slum Clearance Committee approved the San Juan Hill neighborhood “for urban renewal” on April 21, 1955. The next year the Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts Inc, was incorporated, and on May 14, 1959 construction started, with President Dwight D. Eisenhower presiding at the ground breaking. The 63rd Street block where Walter Haefeli’s terra cotta garage stood ceased to exist.
Tom Miller is a social historian and blogger at daytoninmanhattan.blogspot.com
