Up on 134th Street and Riverside Drive is a curious building, reminiscent of a Greek temple, which houses a Manhattan Mini Storage. Although it currently has one of Manhattan Mini Storage’s famous billboards (this one: Stop showering at the gym because your skis are in the tub.”), the facade of the building has a Greek pediment, fluted and non-fluted engaged columns and other Neoclassical ornamentation. There’s also a faded ad behind the billboard which include the word “MOVING” on it. We thought these details, put together, suggest a prior history likely going back before the moving companies. Here’s what we found: City documents regarding the Manhattanville Rezoning for use by Columbia University gives a brief history of the building, which was always a “temple” of commerce. It was built in 1927 as the Lee Brothers Storage Building and designed by George Kingsley, a Chicago architect who seems to have had a specialty in… Read More