From Making Money To Making Art

From Making Money To Making Art. 190 Bowery. This impressive Beaux Arts-style structure of 1898-99 was the third Bowery home of the Germania Bank, which was established in 1869 by local businessmen of German extraction. The area along and east of the Bowery – known as Kleindeutchland (Little Germany) was the country’s major German-American center during the second half of the 1800s. The building’s German-born architect, Robert Maynicke. attended Cooper Union, about ten blocks to the north., The building’s most ornate façade element is its verdegris copper crown, which continues to punctuate the historical streetscape. Often visited and photographed for its graffiti-covered exterior, it once housed the studios of artists Roy Lichtenstein and Adolph Gottlieb. In 1966 photographer Jay Maisel purchased the building for $102,000 and used it as his family’s home and studio until 2014 when it was acquired by developer Aby Rosen’s RFR Realty for $55 million., - Mitchell Grubler, Landmarks Committee Chair, Bowery Alliance of Neighbors