2056 Fifth Avenue, The former Fifth Avenue Hall

An attractive if unusual confection, 2056 Fifth Avenue consists of a highly-detailed Beaux Arts Building and a penthouse floor addition in a seeming Viennese Expressionist style.

Constructed as Fifth Avenue Hall in 1917, the original building served as a center for New York’s Finnish community, which settled extensively in Harlem during the 1910s and 1920s.  Ostensible headquarters of the (at that time extensive) Finnish Socialist Party, the club was also used by non-affiliates for recreational purposes, which included billiards, a library, a restaurant and a dance hall.

Later purchased by the Gospel Temple Church in the 1970s, 2056 Fifth Avenue was converted into residences in 2005 by BKSF Architects, who have designed numerous high-profile projects in Tribeca.

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