{"nrhp_refnum":"80002715","name":"Scribner Building","other_names":["Old Scribner Building"],"category":"building","location":{"address":"153--157 5th Ave.","address_restricted":false,"city":"New York","county":"Manhattan","state":"NY","lat":40.740339764000055,"lon":-73.99039013299995,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1980-05-06","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Architecture"],"significance_levels":["local"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"A six-story commercial building at 153-157 Fifth Avenue in lower Manhattan, New York City, built in 1893-94 for the publishing firm Charles Scribner's Sons and designed by Ernest Flagg.","why_significant":"The nomination holds that the building is a fine example of French Beaux-Arts design applied to a relatively small commercial building. It is also associated with the eminent architect Ernest Flagg and with Charles Scribner's Sons, a noted publishing house. It remains as architectural evidence of a more elegant period in the neighborhood's history.","narrative":"Built in 1893-94 at 153-157 Fifth Avenue, this six-story commercial building was designed by Ernest Flagg as the home of the publishing firm Charles Scribner's Sons. Flagg, a graduate of the Ecole des Beaux-Arts and the brother-in-law of Charles Scribner, gave the steel-frame structure an Indiana limestone facade. Heavy rusticated stone marks the lower stories, while lighter smooth stone, large metal-framed windows and a slate mansard roof with a central stone dormer lift the composition as it rises. Inscribed dates on the parapet record the firm's founding in 1846 and the building's erection in 1893. The ground-floor bookstore once resembled an elegant home library, and its marble staircase and mezzanine survive. Scribner's moved uptown by 1913, though the family kept the building until 1951. It is valued as a fine example of Beaux-Arts design on a small scale and as a reminder of the area's more fashionable past.","period_of_significance":"1800-1899 (specific dates 1893-94)","architect_builder":"Ernest Flagg","architectural_style":"French Beaux-Arts","criteria":[],"status_note":"Condition listed as good; the ground-floor store is occupied by a toy distributor's showroom and upper floors hold offices. The storefront was modernized in 1969.","vacant_flag":false,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:50:42.328225-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/lz/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_NY/80002715.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/80002715/8c763e9bee-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/80002715/8c763e9bee-1600.webp","licence":"CC BY-SA 3.0","author":"Americasroof at English Wikipedia","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Scribner-building.jpg\" rel=\"noopener\">Americasroof at English Wikipedia</a>, <a href=\"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0\" rel=\"license noopener\">CC BY-SA 3.0</a>, via Wikimedia Commons","source_page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Scribner-building.jpg"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/75319888","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scribner_Building","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q3701950"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/new-york/manhattan/scribner-building-80002715/"}