by Christopher Gray, July 22, 2007
In 1909, the Belnord, designed by Hiss & Weekes, went up on the block from 86th to 87th from Broadway to Amsterdam Avenue. It, too, had a court, which was reached from 87th Street, and the two side-by-side main entrances faced 86th.
The New York Times wrote that the 94-by-231-foot courtyard was accessible via “a double driveway of oaken blocks” leading to “a grassy lawn big enough for a score of children to romp on, and a central palm-bordered fountain.”
An early photograph of the courtyard shows only four small areas of turf surrounded by stout privet hedges and interrupted by glass-covered vaults lighting the delivery yard below. Apparently someone thought better of romping children.
