The Aperture Foundation, a nonprofit arts center and publisher of photography books, has purchased a new headquarters for $8.95 million on Manhattan’s Upper West Side. In 2024, the foundation will leave its fourth-floor rental space in Chelsea and move into the lower two floors of 380 Columbus Avenue (at W. 78th Street), located across the street from the American Museum of Natural History.
Aperture‘s executive director Sara Meister said of the building: “This had so many of the elements we had been hoping for — great accessibility and visibility, flooded with light, and a space that had a real historic character that resonated with my sense of the importance of Aperture’s history.” That history is rich indeed.
The Romanesque Revival building, completed in 1894, was formerly known as The Evelyn and was home to many people who appeared regularly in the society pages — including Margaret E. McCann, who in 1924 became the first woman to enter the brokerage business on Wall Street. McCann is also known for being found guilty of running what is now commonly called a pyramid scheme.
According to a 1930 article in Time magazine: five grand larceny indictments were returned against McCann. She reportedly told a friend: “I was a victim of circumstances. What I did was to take money from some to pay others. Had my creditors given me an opportunity, I would have gathered enough money in time to pay all of them.”
It would be fun for Aperture to pay homage to what Meister calls the building’s “real historic character” by spotlighting one of the real characters who lived there — and a glass ceiling smasher at that. Perhaps the new Aperture offices can find a place on the wall for the photo above of Ms. McCann, as seen in The Brooklyn Daily Eagle in 1924, exactly 100 years before Aperture moves into the building? After all, an enterprising photographer was there.
.jpg){kind=link}