Today when one hears the word pharmacy the image that comes to mind is a place to buy medicine and “as seen on TV” products in a store that resembles a small supermarket. Before World War Two some pharmacies were quite different and quite elegant. The Broadmoor was such a place. There is nothing Art Deco about the 45 story skyscraper neo-gothic skyscraper at 295 Madison Avenue. Completed in 1930 it ended up being one of the last projects of Abraham E. Lefcourt (1876 – 1932). Lefcourt built up a Manhattan real estate empire that unraveled with the Great Depression.
Abraham E. Lefcourt (1876 – 1932). Photo from Wikipedia.
The upper floors of the Lefcourt Colonial Building (1930) at the southeast corner of Madison Avenue and 41st Street. Image from NewYorkitecture.com.
The announcement of the Broadmoor Drug company leasing space in the building hit the papers in mid-April, 1930:
The Broadmoor Drug Company leases space in the Lefcourt Colonial Buildng. New York Herald-Tribune, April 12, 1930, Pg. 11. Article from proquest.com.
Shortly after the opening of the building, the Boardmoor Pharmacy and Restaurant occupied the ground floor shop front and the basement. Architect Ely Jacques Kahn (1884 – 1972) designed the new restaurant and drug store in a restrained modern style.
Ely Jacques Kahn, circa 1935. Photograph from Columbia University Libraries.
At street level was the pharmacy counter and soda fountain. The most dominating decorative feature of the ground floor was the wall treatment. Kahn employed alternating panels of Oriental walnut creating a subdued checker board pattern. Modern style vent grills were built into the walls above the large lighted display cases. Separating the dark walls from the light plaster ceiling was a narrow wood cornice. Another cornice in plaster with graduating bands lead to the ceiling. Bands also lined the outer edges of the ceiling
Ground floor pharmacy and sofa fountain. Samuel H. Gottscho photograph, October 25, 1930. From the collection of the Museum of the City of New York.
Providing light for the ground floor, etched, frosted glass fixtures hung from the ceiling. Glass cylinders framed the rectangular center section, while stepped metal fittings capped the top and bottom of the cylinders. A glass ball finial capped the top fitting. A two-tone terrazzo floor of a light color background with darker color squares led to a marble staircase to the basement.
The marble staircase leading down to the basement tearoom and grill rooms. Photograph by Samuel H. Gottscho taken on October 25, 1930, from the collection of the Museum of the City of New York.
Terrazzo flooring covered the entire basement space of the Broadmoor. The lower lobby floor consisted of a classic pattern of two-tone squares laid out diagonally surrounded by a dark boarder. Kahn matched the ceiling treatment of this space to that of the ground floor, with the same design of graduating bands. Lighting the room was another frosted glass light fixture mounted flush to the ceiling.
Directly opposite the staircase a niche provided patrons a place to sit on two large modern style sofas while waiting for friends or a table.
Basement lobby niche. Photo by Samuel H. Gottscho taken on October 25, 1930. From the collection of the Museum of the City of New York.
More two-tone terrazzo flooring was used in the this niche. A marble baseboard framed the bottom of the smooth light colored walls. Molded walnut trim divided the top of the walls from the light colored ceiling. Rounded corners at the back of the room employed a darker color that graduated onto narrow bands in increasing lighter color to the back wall. A large rectangular mirror placed in the center of the rear hung over a modernistic table with metal legs and a highly lacquered top. Cylindrical, frosted glass wall sconces lined the walls as well as flush ceiling light.
Lower lobby columns received the same decorative treatment as the walls on the ground floor. Using the alternating grain of the Oriental walnut panels to give them visual interest.
On opposite sides of the lobby were two different dining rooms. The Grill Room received a masculine decorative scheme. Again Kahn chose walnut paneling for the wall treatment. But instead of alternating grain 15 inch squares, long panels were placed with the grain running vertically with narrow, darker color wood strips as separators. The columns in the Grill Room matched the wall paneling.
The Broadmoor Grill Room, October 25, 1930. Photograph by Samuel H. Gottscho. From the collection of the Museum of the City of New York.
Light color plaster in narrow bands separated the wood paneling and molding from the darker painted ceiling. Capping the four sides of the Grill Room columns were semi-circular frosted glass and metal sconces, decreasing in diameter as they descended.
Broadmoor’s Grill Room ceiling light detail. Samuel H. Gottscho photograph from the Museum of the City of New York collection.
Flush mounted etched frosted glass squares, surrounded by a painted, modernistic border in an octagon that in turn was surrounded by Mayan inspired animals decorated the ceiling. The Grill Room, large, open and comfortable was a perfect place for a mid-town business man to lunch or to grab a quick bite before heading home.
Across the lobby the equally large and open tearoom was a lovely spot for the ladies to have refreshments after making the rounds of the Fifth Avenue shops.
Samuel Gottscho photograph of the Broadmoor Tearoom, October 25, 1930. From the collection of the Museum of the City of New York.
The main decorative feature of the Tearoom was a very stylized, modernistic mural of a country scene wrapping around the entire room. Using metallic paint to separate the different elements of the mural (trees, hills, sky and clouds) gave it extra style. Kahn’s use of mirrors on the columns and on the walls between the panels of the mural made the room appear even larger.
Tearoom, detail. Samuel H. Gottscho photograph from the Museum of the City of New York collection.
Hanging modernistic light fixtures provided direct light through the glass base and indirect lighting from the perforated metal shade. The tables featured highly polished, vermillion, lacquered tops. After a meal one paid the cashier at a walnut veneered counter and exited under a large clock, built into the wall.
The Broadmoor, like so many other business enterprises of the early 1930s suffered financial difficulties just about a year and a half after opening. In March of 1932 the following article appeared in The New York Herald-Tribune:
The Roger Smith interests take over the lease of the Broadmoor Restaurant. New York Herald-Tribune, March 28, 1932, Pg. 30. Article from proquest.com.
For the next few years, the Roger Smith Organization kept the name, Broadmoor. Whether or not they redecorated it remains unknown. Sometime around 1935 or 1936 they dropped the Broadmoor name and for the rest of the decade it was known as The Roger Smith Restaurant. The Roger Smith Restaurant did well for most of the 1930s under the new management. Many different groups held private dinners there. The local New York newspapers occasionally announced that this company or that organization held their annual dinner at the Roger Smith Restaurant at 40 East 41st Street. Then by 1939 these announcements stopped and it must be assumed that the Roger Smith Organization closed this location. Today no evidence remains of the once elegant 1930 pharmacy-restaurant at the corner of Madison Avenue and 41st Street.
The exit from the Tearoom of the Broadmoor Pharmacy and Restaurant. On the right is the walnut veneered cashier counter and above the exit is the built in clock. Samuel H. Gottscho photograph from the Museum of the City of New York Collection.
Anthony & Chris (The Freakin’, ‘tiquen Guys)
