After a bit of a break, we’re back in the Garment District.

This block sits on the eastern fringe of the neighborhood and is loaded with neo-Gothic lofts packed with fabric wholesalers, showrooms and vintage mom-n-poppers, but also sprouting newer specimens like hotels and boutique offices. Overall it has more of a checkerboard of small and large buildings than other blocks closer to 8th Avenue.

Regardless of the recent hotels that pull back from the streetscape, the overwhelming number of construction sheds makes it feel dark. (Maybe that’s just Manhattan in winter.) Still, it has one of the most interesting buildings in Manhattan, one of the last dedicated magazine stores, and the rare Midtown record store.

It’s an effective blend of 20th-century industry and the cloud-based economy of the 2020s, for better or worse.

(These photos were taken mostly in December.)

Streetview

18 West 37th Street | 1890s?

I’m not exaggerating when I say this is probably one of my favorite buildings in Midtown. It’s an ornate lived-in Dutch Revival building with a stepped gable and a dated renovation jammed into the first two floors. Inside is a Korean barbershop, spa, psychic, garment wholesaler, and god knows what else.

You can see the evolution of the neighborhood here pretty well. Daytonian in Manhattan traced the well-heeled tenants of this building through the early 20th century when it became more of a commercially-focused building.

420 Fifth Avenue | 1989

At some angles, this building on the corner of Fifth Avenue looks like a postmodern tribute to the Empire State Building’s podium. It’s fine. A long time ago, this was the site of a beautiful gothic mansion in what was then the country and later, a church.

The massively influential Rockefeller Foundation is based here. If you’re lucky enough to get an invite you can see pieces from the permanent collection.

The Girl Scouts of the USA also has offices here, with a store nudging up against the public plaza. Wait. Hey, do you think they sell—-

Oh. It was worth a try.

1 West 37th Street | 1912

Over the years 1 West hosted a garment factory, a piano showroom, and headquarters of a fierce anti-Communist importer. In 2013, some investors were induced to put $1.7 million toward the purchase of this building as part of an alleged fraudulent investment scheme.

By the time EssilorLuxottica—an Italian eyewear company which owns probably every glasses seller you’ve ever heard of—bought and remodeled the building in 2019 it was “well worn, abandoned, and in a complicated legal situation that hindered its acquisition.”

Their showroom features Meta’s AI glasses that can record your day-to-day interactions—soon with the help of facial recognition—which unnerves me. They can also live-translate your conversations, which I’ll begrudgingly admit is nice. They sold more than 7 million of these things last year, according to CNBC. This is the future, I guess.

Also, there’s a cool clock.

Some stores

As we keep shopping, your new Meta Ray-Bans might have a hard time decoding the facial signature of some of these ladies.

Back to Analog

The dedicated magazine store has almost completely disappeared from Manhattan. But here, Magazine Cafe, open since 2005, sells anything from mainstream stuff, niche fashion titles, or $28 oversized glossy journals from elegant European capitals which you can’t tell are about DJing, traveling, being a model, or generally just about having money. And there’s even a couple of zines thrown in there. Love it.

I bought an issue of New York Magazine, because I’m basic.

Also nearby is Rock & Soul, which sells DJ equipment, vinyl and soundsystem gear, and claims that Mark Ronson, the Wu-Tang Clan, and Grandmaster Flash as early customers, according to the New York Post. Also Harrison Ford, “because his son wanted to be a DJ,” the store’s CEO told the tabloid. It opened in 1975, but moved to this location in 2023.

44 West 37th Street | 2020

Um. Okay, first things first. This is a really nice, sleek boutique 15-story office building that stands out from the rest of the typical brick, stonework, and lumpy hotels. It’s stylish and has some balconies with nice views.

Some of the tenants are a Japan-based fabric seller and a luxury home goods and clothing web company called Mytheresa which sells beautiful products. Their site makes for good scrolling until you see that backgammon set costs how much?!

Now that’s out of the way, we get to discuss how this is apparently the first “first-ever non-fungible token (NFT) of a New York City high-rise” according to a 2022 press release.

To be clear, you can’t use your memecoins to buy part of this building, nice as it is. In practice what this really seems to mean is that the owner of the NFT (the building’s developer) has access to “images, 3D scans, plans, virtual tours, and location reports instead of physical property.” This “digital twin” is pretty common in the industry, but the fact that the developer owns the digital building documentation is now, uh, on the Blockchain.

This street has a half-dozen or so recent hotels that all are set back from the street. This seems to be a style of Midtown in the 20s and 30s blocks. I’m not sure what in the zoning code calls for this, but it's generally no friend of mine.

Here’s the one that stands out the most, the interesting¹ SpringHill Suites:

About 150 years ago here stood the “rather pretentious house” of socialite Anne Botta, who hosted dignified guests such as Ralph Waldo Emerson, according to this 1936 New Yorker article. The writer would preside over “elevated” breakfasts with everyone “striving to stay on the same high intellectual plane with Mr. Emerson.” One morning, in a devastating faux pas, “a young woman ran into the room to ask the hostess if she’d ever tried baking macaroni with stewed tomatoes and a liberal sprinkling of Parmesan.”

Now, that’s improper! Not sure what the vibe is like at the continental breakfasts today.

Today, there are a few ghost signs on the older buildings here. This one advertises Baar & Beards, a store that opened in the 1940s and primarily sold women’s scarves and neckwear.

20 West 37th Street | 1912

This 12-story terracotta-clad loft building seems lost in the mix. This is a cool old building that apparently was home to lace and textile factories, and until it recently went out of business, a high-end costume jewelry firm.

There seems to be a little life here, but right now, the pigeons seem to be the most active tenants:

So, what’s going on? Crains New York tried to solve the mystery three years ago:

Whether the building’s darkened state is a consequence of a weak market or poor management by the owner, Neuss Group, an Argentinian company that purchased the building in 2006 for $25.5 million, is not entirely clear. An email sent to Neuss seeking comment was not returned. But personal tragedy may have played a part. In fall 2020 company Principal Jorge Neuss murdered his wife, Silvia Saravia, before killing himself.

What’s Good: A real-life magazine store in 2026. And a record store, too? You should really try the Spicy Fish Filet Box lunch special at Cafe China.

What’s Not: So much scaffolding, so many blech hotels. And no cookies.

Block Rating: 6.5/10