2. 836 Broadway
836 Broadway is the oldest of the seven individual landmarks of south Union Square that were designated in 2019. The building, designed by architect Stephen Decatur Hatch, stands at the former site of a townhome owned by J. and Cornelia Roosevelt, the great-uncle and great-aunt of President Theodore Roosevelt, Jr. Occupying an irregular L-shaped lot, the building has two cast iron facades, one on Broadway and the other on East 13th Street.
The Broadway facade is painted red with black accents, while the 13th Street facade is all white. Both sides of the building also feature a slate-shingled mansard roof, but again, the one on the Broadway side is much more fanciful. The building’s first tenant was the manufacturing company Mitchell, Vance & Co. They made light fixtures, clocks, and ornamental metal. Its current ground-floor tenant is Hyde Park Antiques.
