Carter's Review

This very attractive, pre-war rental apartment building at 98 Morningside Avenue on the southeast corner at 123^rd Street in Harlem has 48 apartments and was erected in 1910.

It is 7-stories high and is owned by Thor Equities.

Renovated apartments were redesigned by C3D Architecture PLLC.

The building is near several subway lines and is across from Morningside Park.

Bottom Line

A lovely red-brick, mid-rise, fenced building with an impressive lobby is marred only by its fire escapes and is across from Morningside Park with its pond and waterfall.

Description

This was the northern section of a magnificent complex of two very ornate and very impressive mid-rise buildings on Morningside Avenue between 122^nd and 123^rd Streets.

According to a December 26, 2009 commenter at harlembespoke.blogspot.com, Marcus Retter signed a power of attorney letter in 2002 to sell this building and its sister building at 92 Morningside Drive on the northeast corner of 122^nd Street to Baruch Singer.

On the same webpage, another commenter wrote May 11, 2011 that “The FBI raided 92 Morningside Drive on the morning of April 20, 1980 in search of fugitive Black Panther Party member Assata Shakur” but did not find her.

In 2002 the south building was seriously damaged by a fire that also affected some units in the north building.

The south building was subsequently purchased by Renaissance Realty Group in 2013 for $18 million, and neighbors tried unsuccessfully to convince the Landmarks Preservation Commission to designate it an individual landmark and require the restoration of the damaged cornice, according to an article by Emrys Fitzgerald at 6sqft.com March 21, 2016. 

ND Architecture, of which Nataliya Donskoy is a principal, designed the renovation, which added a two-story high roof addition on the avenue frontage and a three-story roof addition on the side-street that are modern and do not relate to the building’s very ornate Beaux-Arts façades that is among the most handsome in Harlem.

This building retains its cornice.

Both buildings have one-story limestone bases and very elaborate and handsome two-story-high entrance surrounds.  The second stories have five horizontal limestone bands while the 3^rd through the 7^th floors have 7 limestone quoins per floor with arched windows on the 6^th floor and rounded corners.  There are bandcourses above the second and sixth floors.

Amenities

The building has an intercom and a live-in superintendent.  Pets allowed up to 75 pounds.

Apartments

Apartment 74 is a three-bedroom unit with a very long entry foyer that leads to a 15-foot-long living room with a kitchen with an angled window and a breakfast bar.  The two bathrooms have windows.

Apartment 56 is a two-bedroom unit with a 19-foot-wide living room with an angled windowed and a partially enclosed large kitchen with a small pass-through.