A mystery, of sorts. Some time ago I ran across an article about a vault in the basement of the New Yorker Hotel, 481 8th Avenue. References for the building include http://www.emporis.com/buildings/113943/new-yorker-hotel-new-york-city-ny-usa and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Yorker_Hotel and http://www.newyorkerhotel.com/default-en.html.
The article is currently at http://travelupdate.boardingarea.com/nyc-wyndhams-bank-heist/ and includes these three images:
The space is being converted into a bar called Bar Below and possibly a restaurant, scheduled for opening in November 2015 (see http://www.newyorkerhotel.com/dining-en.html and http://www.nytimes.com/2014/09/03/dining/bars-opening-soon-in-new-york.html?_r=1). The door looks like a Herring-Hall-Marvin with what I call a “twisty” mechanism. Sadly the time lock is gone and the door looks rather rusty and shabby. The safe deposit boxes will be removed to gain about two feet of space per wall but the doors apparently will be re-installed for decor.
Pretty neat so far.
HOWEVER …
I spotted the following postcard on eBay –
At first it looks like the same location. 34th Street and Eighth Avenue would be the New Yorker Hotel (or the three other corners). The door looks the same and even the interior, as far as I can tell, is the same. The bothersome part is that the New Yorker was built in 1930 and the card is postmarked 1911. Hmmm. Even the postage stamp is consistent with a 1911 date (that stamp was produced until about 1922) and 1930 photos should look better than that.
So, either the postcard is of a different building at that corner, or the New Yorker preserved the old vault during demolition of its predecessor and worked it into the new building. I’m leaning toward the latter but I can’t quite convince myself.
Any thoughts from fellow vaultophiles?
