This eight-story brick-and-stone building, one of many eclectic designs by Hungarian-born architect Emery Roth, is today Bancroft Hall, a residence for Teachers College of Columbia University. But in 1911, shortly after its completion, it was promoted as the Sethlow Kitchenette Apartments and the Sethlow Bachelor Apartments, adopting the name of former university president and ex-mayor of New York City Seth Low. "There is ample equipment in each apartment to prepare meals," promised one notice, "but if preferred they may be had from the restaurant on the ground floor, which is connected by dumb-waiter with each suite."
Mr. Low, however, "was not consulted about having a speculative apartment house named after himself, only finding out about this dubious honor when he saw an advertisement in a newspaper." After Low instructed his lawyers to seek an injunction, the building's name was changed to Bancroft, most likely in recognition of the historian and former Navy Secretary George Bancroft, who established the Naval Academy in 1845.
As for that "restaurant on the ground floor," it's vanished without a trace, and the dumbwaiters are surely long out of service — but dozens of bicycle-born deliveryman are just a short ride away.
Bancroft Apartments
Surviving signage, Bancroft Hall, Teachers College, Columbia University
509 West 121st St. (Broadway-Amsterdam Ave.), Manhattan
