Last week, I was taking pictures of the bridge over 96th Street on Riverside Drive…
…when a detail caught my eye on the apartment building to the north…
This bit of decoration on the corner…
…featuring a buffalo skull with ceremonial decorations:
As I stared at it, I started to notice more interesting details, like two arrowhead spears flanking the skull…
…along with these very strange faces on either side:
Swinging around to the front of the building, I saw that the motif continued across the facade…
…with mountain lions (surrounded by Mayan and Aztec-inspired imagery)…
…a decorated buffalo head above the door, and even a couple of rattlesnakes if you look closely!
In fact, the entire facade is dripping with southwestern imagery. So why such a unusual theme for an art deco building in the middle of Manhattan? The answer can be found in the building’s name: The Cliff Dwelling.
In the early 1900s, people living in highrise apartment buildings were jokingly referred to as “cliff dwellers.” In 1916, when architect Herman Lee Meader, a devotee of Mayan and Aztec architecture, began designing 243 Riverside Drive, he decided to take the term literally and covered the facade with imagery inspired by Arizona cliff dwellers.
This southwestern deco combination results in some really interesting quirks, like this bit of ornamentation above the door…
…which once held a large metal and glass marquee to the building:
The Cliff Dwelling was originally an apartment hotel, offering one and two-bedroom suites to occupants wishing to stay longer than a typical hotel visit, but still having the freedom to leave at any time (fun fact: a struggling L. Ron Hubbard was a guest at the hotel in 1940, and after an argument with a steward of German descent, attempted to denounce him to the FBI as a Nazi enemy of the state). In 1932, kitchens were added and the building converted into housekeeping apartments.
Even in the brickwork, you can see the sort of patterns that one might find in, say, Navajo textiles.
The theme continues right up to the roof…
…with more zigzag patterns in the brickwork…
Look really closely, and you’ll even find several swastikas, a sacred Native American symbol that was once quite common prior to its corruption by the Nazis:
Was the interior as richly decorated as the exterior? I headed for the entrance…
Love the the font used for the etched address on the glass doors…
…especially the RSD portion:
Inside, a cast iron door features this beautiful pattern…
A close-up of the design:
But ready for the best part?
Seriously, how beautiful is that?
The floor is covered in a gorgeous pattern of reddish-orange, black, green and white tiles:
A close-up:
Meanwhile, I love how the bricks are clearly meant to have a somewhat rough-hewn feel, as though you might be in a sandstone dwelling. Below, the mailbox alcove:
The walls are accented with lines of symboled tiles:
The lamps overhead match the motif:
According to the NY Times, the lobby was once decorated in Navajo rugs and similarly themed furniture during its apartment hotel days.
Finally, there’s an equally great sitting room in one corner, with more of that southwestern tilework. Such a wonderful interior:
There’s one last unusual fact about 234 Riverside worth mentioning. If you go up to the north side of the building and peer through the fence, you’ll notice something odd…
The building is only nine feet wide! (those buildings you see are the Cliff Dwelling’s neighbor).
In fact, 234 Riverside is triangular in shape, narrowing down to a scant nine feet at its skinniest end. All of the building’s rooms face out onto Riverside (the apartments are said to be quite small; over time, many have been combined into larger units).
What a great building. Unfortunately, I couldn’t find a single historical record of the apartment hotel’s existence outside of a few address mentions – not even a newspaper ad or postcard. If anyone is able to, please email it along!
-SCOUT
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