New York Telephone Murray Hill central-office complex — leading candidate
A corrected street number turns a dead end into a strong Murray Hill lead.
Photographed as the leading candidate site for the 1959 Telephone Building entry, not as the confirmed job. It is not the later 240 East 38th Street tower.
Current view · 2021 · Photo: Tdorante10 · Wikimedia Commons · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Source
Why this project matters
- Project identity
- Very strong
- Kelly connection
- Family source
- Masonry scope
- Probable
Rita’s list
Transcription: Telephone Building - 38 St. — 1959
Recorded by Rita Bartscherer · Bartscherer family record
KM-030
1 of two
“Telephone Building - 38 St. — 1959”
A 1959 court opinion records an extension of New York Telephone's building on East 38th Street—the same year and street on Rita's list.
The handwriting correction creates a contemporary legal-paper trail and a strong candidate without overstating the still-unproven Kelly scope.
What Kelly did here
Family source
Probable
If the Murray Hill complex is the correct project, likely Kelly work would have involved brick/block walls, equipment-space or shaft walls, fire separations, and/or exterior infill associated with the building extension. The 1959 court opinion assigns the subsurface conduit work to Empire City Subway, so the conduit must not be attributed to Kelly.
This scope is recorded as probable, not documented. It is a disciplined reading of the building and the trade practice of the period, not a contract-level record of Kelly’s work.
The construction team
- 01Owner / client
New York Telephone Company
What happened to it
Still standing / altered (leading candidate)
221–235 East 37th Street / East 38th Street, New York, NY
Sources
4 citedOpen →
- 01law.justia.com
9 ad2d 236
- 02nyc.gov
grand central subdistrict
- 03nyc.gov
152 11 BZ
- 04commons.wikimedia.org
File:Queens Midtown Tunnel td (2021 06 15) 06 Verizon (221 East 37th Street).jpg
- Tdorante10 · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Wikimedia Commons · 2021-06-15
221 East 37th Street, the leading Murray Hill central-office candidate, photographed in 2021.
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