Rediscover the UWS's Main Street! |
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"West Seventy Today" introduces you to your small business neighbors along West 72nd Street, from Central Park to Riverside Park in weekly installments.
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Meet your neighbors, NEW:
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by Claudie Benjamin
Upper West Sider Scott J. Buchanan, owner of Scott J. Aveda salon at 257 Columbus Avenue, has been in the beauty business for 40+ years. Scott maintains an office above the salon, which occupies the ground floor. He is an engaging man, very well-liked by employees and their customers whom he considers guests. He has been a staple of the Upper West Side community for 30 years and many of his guests and team have worked with him for years.
Scott’s approach to business is that if you are doing something you love, you’ll find a way to make it work. Even when faced with demanding challenges. Speaking about how he found the profession that has suited him so well, Scott says, “My mother died when I was young. I quit school and was lost for a while.” By chance, he enrolled in beauty school at Wilford Academy, then located on 6th Avenue in Midtown. “I realized then that I was good at doing hair and I loved servicing the guest. To this day, it fulfills me.”
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He started out working in his home area of Long Island and moved into the city 35 years ago. Scott bought his first salon on the UWS not far from the current 72nd Street location, which he has twice modernized over the years. His initial move in the late 1990’s, from a 750 sq. ft. space into the 2800 sq. ft. space on Columbus Avenue, also brought with it the thrill that the location had long been occupied by Charivari, a clothing boutique known for featuring hot new designers. It had brought high fashion to the Upper West Side, sharing customers with the classiest 5th Avenue and Madison Avenue shopping venues.
In the years that followed, Scott established more salons and now has a total of four in Manhattan. KEEP READING
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Dressmakers Stiffed and Dressmakers Kicked |
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by Tom Miller
Terence Farley was among the pioneer developers of the Upper West Side, the Record & Guide calling him “one of the most active builders in this city.” In 1888, he began construction on an apartment and store building on the southeast corner of Ninth Avenue (soon renamed Columbus Avenue) and West 72nd Street. The four upper floors would hold high-end apartments, the second floor six offices and a “bachelor apartment,” and there would be four stores at ground level.
The equally proficient architectural firm of Thom & Wilson had designed a blend of the Romanesque Revival and Renaissance Revival styles for the upscale building. Its residential entrance would be located at 58 West 72nd Street, with a second doorway that accessed the second floor on Columbus Avenue.
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Farley would not live to see his project completed. His business was taken over by his sons, John T. and James A. Farley who forged on with the building. The structure, called The Adrian, was completed in 1889. Upper West Side apartment buildings often were given enigmatic names—like the Viola and the Sylvia, for instance. The Adrian, however, was almost assuredly a tribute to a real deceased little boy. At the third floor on the Columbus Avenue elevation are two terra cotta plaques with touching bas relief portraits of young boys, about three years old, dressed in Victorian garb–possibly the same child. They may be a silent memorial. KEEP READING
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72 Crosstown highlights the architectural and social histories of 1/3 of the buildings along West 72nd Street. If you have a building you'd like us to prioritize, or a business you think we should feature, let us know!
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See you on West 72nd Street again, next FRIDAY! |
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LANDMARK WEST!
45 West 67th Street NY NY 10023
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