Audubon Park Historic District

AP

The contrasts between these two buildings illustrates the effects of cleaning as well as the conversion of first-floor apartments into commercial spaces.  Hispania Hall, (above on the left) is much closer to the original configuration than Audubon Hall, which now has shops stretching across its entire first floor (below on the right).  Let your eye travel up the façades, past the inset fire escapes, to the roof-line.  Hispania Hall has dentilled cornice brackets that support the sloping shingled roof, a feature that is missing on Audubon Hall.  At either end of the roof, you will find the lion’s head again, this time as ornamentation on a pier that projects beyond the roof.  In 1911, you could rent a five-room apartment in Audubon Hall for $650 or a six-room apartment for $780 – per year.  Besides fireproof construction, spacious rooms and telephone and elevator service twenty-four hours a day, as a bonus, each apartment had a wall-safe. 

Audubon Hall