Hell's Kitchen, NYC ~ The Werner Building, Part II ~ by Joe Zito

Seven Years after the Elevated Train on Ninth Avenue reached Hell’s Kitchen/Clinton, an unusual tenement was constructed at 787 Ninth Avenue between 52nd and 53rd Streets.

This is the Werner Building, of 1885, named for its original owner, Mr. Werner. Instead of resigning to the fact that the El's structure would interfere with the pedestrian's viewing it from across the avenue, the architect, Jobst Hoffmann overcame the difficulty by adapting the Werner's design to the railroad tracks, by simply placing a special architectural feature called a frontispiece in the center of it’s facade.

The frontispiece is two bays or two windows wide, in three stories with a pediment centered in the six-story building. To attract attention of the Elevated passengers, Hoffmann outlined the frontispiece window piers in three-tiers with gray-white stone to differentiate them from the plain red brick wall on either side of the centerpiece.

In viewing the Werner façade from across the avenue today – (the Ninth Avenue El was demolished in 1940 just before WW II – one can appreciate how Hoffmann, with two deft architectural strokes, created a masterpiece. In the first place, the solidity of the tiered stone piers was emphasized by contrasting them with two iron railings, black metal delicately embroidered with lace-like railings that would not be out of place on a Fifth Avenue town-house. In second place, Hoffman brought the tiered stone piers to a cool conclusion with a triangular classical pediment in white-gray stone, a classic sign of welcome.

The most remarkable architectural feature of the Werner building are the sculpted heads of six Green Men, positioned on the façade at eye-level with the passengers on the Ninth Avenue Il. The Green Man is an ancient pagan deity of fertility. Green leaves and oak leaves sprout from his mouth and ears as a sign of bountiful harvest. Carvings of the Green Men were revived in the 1880s as good luck charms over doorways, to scare away evil sprits from the building.

To entertain the passengers on the El, the six different Green Men are sculpted with highly emotional features, given theatrical appearances, performances that remind one of the famous sextet in Donizetti’s opera, Lucia de Lammermoor.

On the Werner façade, the Green Men heads have been placed with four on the second floor, of which two on the side serve as keystones on flat arches over the windows – while the center two are displayed under the two-window wide lacy railing, or cresting. On the south side to the left of the frontispiece as you look straight ahead at the Werner, we see the Green Man sticking his tongue out to make fun of his daily audience. Under the railing, the next Green Man appears to be Mr. Werner, the original owner himself, pictured as a mustachioed proper Victorian gentleman.

Separate from Mr. Werner’s head by a consoled-bracket under the railing, the next Green Man is squinting in deep dismay, with his lips tightly closed as if determined to even the score with all those trespassing on his property as they ride past a few feet away.

On the north side or the right side of the facade is a single bay window at the second floor level, where the Green Man stares in horror at what we can presume to be the huffing and puffing of a steam engine. The Ninth Avenue El was eventually electrified in the 1890’s.

But on the south or left side of the façade’s single bay at the third level, a Green Man is howling with laughter at the new contraption on wheels. On the same level, at the right side, a brooding Green Man is still longing for his native woods, unable to resign himself to his urban environment.

When you go walking, I hope you find, as I do, that the Werner building is worthy of landmark status. Not only for its extraordinary architectural frontispiece, but for its six Green Men unique to any other building in the city of New York, and for its historical heritage of the Ninth Avenue El, a perspective that has given visual pleasure to thousands of spectators every day for more than sixty years.

by Joe Zito, copyrighted, all rights reserved,originally published in the Clinton Chronicles, March 2004