It sometimes takes me multiple visits to a neighborhood before I register a particularly interesting structure. The building at the corner of Eleventh Avenue and West 46th Street is one of these. A big sign says Metropolitan Lumber, but an oversized poster also indicates that that company has left for good and can now be found in Long Island City. Few buildings in the Hells Kitchen neighborhood are as run down as this one – gentrification has already had a lasting impact. Car dealerships have moved into new or remodeled commercial buildings and have pushed out many small businesses such as body shops or that lumber and hardware company. Yet, that abandoned building fascinated me.
Tax photos reveal that Metropolitan Lumber had been there in 1980 for more than forty years. In 1930, the building at 617-621 Eleventh Avenue built around 1920 was owned by the Beakes Dairy Company, according to a map. By 1940, however, a building sign said that O’Neill Milk and Cream Company was the new owner or tenant. Obviously it looked much better than the decrepit structure of 2023. Even though heavily modified today, it has always been a two story brick building with large windows and a garage-like room behind a freight gate at its northeastern corner. Interestingly, the widely protruding cornice is interrupted right of center where the building has a third floor. Had the building not a flat roof, it could be considered as a wall dormer. Quite possibly, that single room had a hoisting beam or hook like a traditional Dutch merchant house (though there’s no photographic evidence for this).
The building adjacent to Metropolitan Lumber today on the north side is newer. The tax photos from 1940 show a Standard Oil (Esso) gas station next to it. That side of the building has no windows and is just a plain brick wall.
Prototype and Model
At the end, the aesthetician in me won and so I decided I’d scratch-build a model as per the 1940 tax photos. I also found a good spot on my layout. With its 75 feet long frontage, the structure fits well into the yet empty slot next to the Mobil gas station on my Tenth Avenue and West 27th Street block module. I’d only have to partially reduce its depth as the module includes the reverse loop. I also simplified the facade, specifically in areas with decorative brickwork. As usual, my own photos, a few measurements with my laser meter and the historical sources helped me to get a prototypically looking structure.
Design and Construction
To build the structure, I used the proved concepts of layering. Starting with 1/16″ MDF for the walls, I added .024″ laser board on top for the piers that protrude from the wall. In both the MDF and the laser board I had to engrave brick mortar lines. I then primed and painted the walls. I added a second coating of lighter paint for the bricks to match the tone as seen on the tax photos. Not having color photographs, I used Raw Sienna which I toned down with some gray and concrete paint. Even though I used the air brush, that coating got a bit too thick and began to peel after it had dried. Unintended, I welcomed this to be a nice feature that showed the aging brick walls of the facade.
By contrast, all walls on the sides and back are plain brick. I primed them all with Testors white enamel paint. I then dry brushed it with Burnt Sienna. For the mortar lines I used Robert’s Brick Mortar Formula.
Underneath the MDF layer I added the window frames that I had previously air brushed with brown paint. Once I had glued the frames in place, I gave the windows a bit more depth by adding the upper window sashes as separately cut pieces from the outside. I used thin Polystyrene from a food container as window glazing.
Roofing, Lighting and Details
For the roof I decided to use slag or gravel covered roofing. I had no photographic evidence for this, and I chose it simply to add variety. Since I used the structural floor sheets also for the window lintels, I had to add a separate layer. I simply primed the individual pieces of roofing cut from 1/16″ MDF, added a gray ballast mix, sprayed 70% Isopropyl alcohol over it and then glued it down with Woodland Scenics Scenic Cement. I also added large vent as roof detail from a Walthers Cornerstone kit on the north side of the building. The large chimney at the back is not exactly at its correct prototypical location but then I had to reinvent my entire back facade anyway to fit it into my layout.
Instead of adding lighting as a separate step after completion of the model, I included lights this time during construction. To avoid wires, I mostly used self-adhesive copper tape on the ceiling of the first and second floors. I then soldered the LEDs magnet wires to those copper tapes. The warm white 0805 LEDs I glued into small 1/10″ holes in the ceiling. The hot glue I used provides a nice lens. I avoided adding LEDs in all them rooms. On the second floor, only the room in the northeast corner and the one in the back have light.
The large billboards that the building carries today have been added after 1980, so I won’t add them. Instead, I added a slightly weathered Mobilgas decal on the large brick facade facing West 46th Street. As the final step, I created a company sign O’Neill Milk and Cream Co. using an Art Deco style font and placed it on the front facade as per the tax photo. My model was now complete.
