Louis Abramson

Louis Allen Abramson (also known as Louis Abrahamson{{Cite journal |last=Reuben |first=Jeff |date=2016 |title=Revisiting the Bronx's Early Twentieth Century Charitable Residences: Home of the Daughters of Jacob |journal=The Bronx County Historical Society Journal |volume=LIII |issue=1 & 2 |pages=15–16}}) was born in New York City in 1887. He and his wife Pearl had two daughters, Anita Claire and Judith. Abramson did not have a traditional architecture education; he attended Cooper Union as a civil engineering student and then the Mechanics Institute but did not graduate from either. His introduction to architecture came when he took a job as an office boy and later a draftsman for John H. Duncan, a well-known New York City architect.{{Cite report |url=https://s-media.nyc.gov/agencies/lpc/lp/1051.pdf |title=Upper East Side Historic District Designation Report |date=1981 |publisher=New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission |page=1176}} After leaving Duncan's employ, Abramson moved to Seattle but did not stay there for many years. Upon his return to New York, he took extension courses at Columbia University and was hired by Louis Gerard as a draftsman where he learned to appreciate the Beaux-Arts style.{{Cite report |url=https://anthonywrobins.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/09/Interviews.pdf |title=Everyday Masterpieces; Memory & Modernity |last1=Serra |first1=Joselita Raspi |last2=Bollack |first2=Françoise Astorg |date= |publisher=Edizoni Panini |pages=212–215 |last3=Killian |first3=Tom |access-date=November 10, 2024}}

By 1917, Abrams had opened an office of his own at 220 Fifth Avenue, in Manhattan.{{Cite journal |date=February 3, 1917 |title=Community Center in 86th Street |url=https://rerecord.library.columbia.edu/document.php?vol=ldpd_7031148_059&page=ldpd_7031148_059_00000172&no=1 |journal=Real Estate Record and Builders Guide |volume=99 |issue=2551 |pages=164 |via=Columbia University Libraries Digital Collections}} Early in his career, Abramson developed an appreciation of the work of McKim, Mead & White, being especially fond of the University Club and Penn Station. When interviewed in 1980, Abramson said:

{{Blockquote|text=When they started to destroy the Penn Station I used to go over there and cry. To me it was perfection, perfection. And then I'd walk, at times I'd commute to Grand Central. I had admiration for it, but in a totally different sense. Penn Station was ... I don't know how I can really say it. I felt meek in the presence of that building.}}

He was particularly impressed with the spacing of the bronze letters on the Seventh Avenue side of the building, which inspired him to study architectural lettering. Abramson also admired the work of Cass Gilbert, saying that he "admired [Cass's] modernity, if one may use that expression, his breakaway from the classical school".

In 1936, Abramson submitted a sketch to a design competition for the 1939 New York World's Fair. The competition asked for designs of "a typical building" which could be used for applied arts exhibits, with limits on interior and exterior dimensions, and intended to be sited with two other exhibit buildings grouped together in a three-sided plot. In a review of the submissions, Pencil Points editor Kenneth Reid described Abramson's design:{{Cite journal |last=Reid |first=Kenneth |date=December 1936 |title=World's Fair Competition |url=https://usmodernist.org/PA/PP-1936-12.pdf |journal=Pencil Points |pages=653–677}}

{{Blockquote|text=Louis Allen Abramson was given a mention but his plan has the obvious fault of forcing visitor to retrace steps against traffic to see entire show or else go through whole group and return – a foot-weary scheme. Elevations are simple but apparently resulted from desire to be modern.}}

File:Daughters of Jacob Building, circa 1920.jpg

In 1916, Abramson designed the Home of the Daughters of Jacob on 167th Street between Findlay and Teller Avenues in the Bronx. The building consists of eight wings arranged radially around a central core, and has been described as "novel in design, being in the form of a wheel".{{Cite news |date=October 30, 1916 |title=Lay Stone for New Home |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1916/10/30/archives/lay-stone-for-new-home-thousands-attend-ceremonies-of-the-daughters.html |access-date=November 11, 2024 |work=New York Times |pages=8}} The property consists of 36 lots which were previously part of Gouverneur Morris's estate; at the time of purchase by the Daughters of Jacob, it was still occupied by Morris's 1812 house which was torn down to make room for the new building.

File:Daughters of Jacob building, Bronx, New York (aerial photograph).png

The central core contained administrative offices and was topped by a tower, which at the time of its construction was the highest point in the Bronx. The eight wings were residences for more than 1,000 elderly men and women, replacing the existing home run by the Daughters of Jacob at 301 East Broadway in Manhattan, which could only house 200 people. The plans for the new building included a synagogue with seating for 1,000 people, a 600-seat dining room, as well as a hospital, library, and a Turkish bath, with construction costs estimated to be $300,000 (equivalent to ${{Inflation|index=US|value=.3|start_year=1916|r=1|fmt=}} million in {{Inflation year|index=US}}).{{Cite journal |date=November 3, 1916 |title=From Coast to Coast: New York, Cornerstone for New Home Laid |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=CHkzAQAAMAAJ&dq=%27:Daughters+of+Jacob%27+home&pg=PA806 |journal=The American Jewish Chronicle |volume=1 |issue=25 |pages=806}}

By 1973, the building was deemed no longer fit for its original purpose, owing to new health codes. Abramson, then 84 years old, was part of the design team which modernized the building, connecting it by pedestrian bridges to new buildings on the opposite sides of Findlay and Teller Avenues. Abramson told the New York Times, "At the time it was designed, it was philosophically right in that institutions felt they fulfilled their obligations to the elderly by providing them with bed and board. It was a question of providing wards with no recognition of individual dignity or privacy."{{Cite news |last=Horsley |first=Carter B. |date=January 7, 1973 |title=Home for the Aging reaffirms its Roots |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1973/01/07/archives/home-for-the-aging-reaffirms-its-roots-home-for-the-aging-reaffirms.html |work=New York Times |pages=1 (Section 8: Real Estate)}}

Abramson designed a number of Jewish Centers, including the first one in Manhattan, not all of which contained that exact wording in their name. Historian Anthony Robbins describes this type of building, sometimes called a "shul with a pool" as a place for both religious and secular activities:{{Cite journal |last=Robbins |first=Anthony W. |date= |year=2009 |title=A Shul Grows in Brooklyn (and Queens) |url=https://nylandmarks.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/CommonBondv23.pdf |journal=Common Bond |publisher=The New York Landmarks Conservancy |volume=23 |issue=1 and 2 |pages=4–11}}

{{Blockquote|text=A new, and particularly American, synagogue innovation ... which served not only as a place of worship, but also as a center of community life. Besides a sanctuary, a Jewish center would include classrooms and social halls and, in larger synagogues, even gymnasiums and swimming pools.}}According to Jewish historian Jacob J. Schacter, the Jewish Center was an invention of wealthy Jews living in New York's fashionable Upper West Side and Yorkville neighborhoods in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.{{Rp|pages=211–212|page=}} New York Rabbi Mordecai M. Kaplan envisioned transforming the synagogue:{{Rp|pages=215–216|page=}}

{{Blockquote|text=From being only a house of worship to encompassing the physical and social dimensions of the human experience as well; from solely a place of prayer to also a place of recreation: from a congregation to a Jewish center ... a place for Bible and basketball, Gemara and games, learning and luncheons, prayer and ping-pong.}}In addition to buildings he designed himself, Abramson's influence can be seen in the Ocean Parkway Jewish Center, designed by Samuel Malkind and Martyn Weinsten; Malkind had worked in Abramson's office early in his career, and followed Abramson's lead "combining neo-Classical ornament with Judaic symbols".

File:West 86th Street Jewish Center 1918 architectural rendering.pdf

Abramson designed the Jewish Center at 131 West 86th Street in Manhattan. Built in 1917–1920, this 10-story brick and stone building is part of the Upper West Side / Central Park West Historic District{{Cite report |url=https://www.landmarkwest.org/1990UpperWestSideCentralParkHDVol3.pdf |title=Upper West Side / Central Park West Historic District Designation Report |date=April 24, 1990 |publisher=New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission |volume=III (Building Entries) |page=600 |access-date=December 12, 2024}} and has been variously described as being in the Neo-Renaissance style or Italian Renaissance styles. As this was an Orthodox synagogue, the seating areas for men and women were to be separated from each other. The arrangement commonly used at the time had women seated in an upstairs gallery; in this case, however, the men and women were on the same level, separated by a partition known as a mehitza.{{Rp|page=236}} In addition to a large synagogue the building was to include a second smaller one, an auditorium, clubrooms, handball and squash courts, a swimming pool on the sixth floor, and space for a possible Turkish bath to be installed later. File:West 86th Street Jewish Center 1918 photo.jpgIn a February 1917 report, the building was described as being planned to be 8 stories tall, {{Convert|66 x 100|ft}} on a {{Convert|77 x 100.8|ft}} lot which had been purchased the previous April. At that time, the structure was estimated to cost $350,000 (${{Inflation|index=US|value=.35|start_year=1917|r=1|fmt=}} million in {{Inflation year|index=US}}) after purchase of the land. The cornerstone was laid on August 5.{{Cite news |date=August 6, 1917 |title=Lay Cornerstone of Jewish Centre |url=https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1917/08/06/issue.html |access-date=2024-12-29 |work=The New York Times |pages=11 |language=en |issn=0362-4331}} By February 1918, when the building was almost finished up to the fourth floor, construction costs were said to have been $150,000 (${{Inflation|index=US|value=.15|start_year=1917|r=1|fmt=}} million in {{Inflation year|index=US}}), and the lot as being {{Convert|60 x 100|ft}}. Planned future work included addition of the gymnasium, pool, baths, sleeping accommodations, as well as a banquet hall and associated kitchens and pantries.{{Cite journal |date=February 23, 1918 |title=Creating Jewish Social Center |url=https://rerecord.library.columbia.edu/document.php?vol=ldpd_7031148_061&page=ldpd_7031148_061_00000572&no=3 |journal=Real Estate Records and Builders Guide |volume=101 |issue=2606 |pages=242–243 |via=Columbia University Libraries Digital Collections}} A temporary Certificate of Occupancy was issued on March 1, 1918, noting that the remaining construction was to be completed within five years. The first services were held on March 22–23, 1918, with the building officially dedicated on March 24.{{Cite book |last=Schacter |first=Jacob J. |url=https://repository.yu.edu/server/api/core/bitstreams/8fb442ea-e3f2-4b7c-9d8a-b2b1541983ab/content |title=A Century at the Center: Orthodox Judaism & the Jewish Center |publisher=Toby Press |editor-last=Eleff |editor-first=Zev |chapter=A Rich Man's Club? The Founding of the Jewish Center}}{{Rp|pages=236–238}} The expansion to the originally planned full height of 10 stories was announced in July 1919, with six additional stories to be added at a cost of approximately $175,000 (${{Inflation|index=US|value=.175|start_year=1919|r=1|fmt=}} million in {{Inflation year|index=US}}).{{Cite journal |date=July 26, 1919 |title=Halls and Clubs: Manhattan |url=https://rerecord.library.columbia.edu/document.php?vollist=1&vol=ldpd_7031148_064&page=ldpd_7031148_064_00000670 |journal=Real Estate Record and Builders Guide |volume=104 |issue=4 |pages=128 |via=Columbia University Libraries Digital Collections}}

File:667 Eastern Parkway, Brooklyn Jewish Center.jpg

The Brooklyn Jewish Center at 667 Eastern Parkway between New York and Brooklyn Avenues was built in 1922, designed by Abramson in collaboration with Margon & Glasser. Francis Morrone, an architectural historian, describes it as being a long building, suitable to the site:{{Cite book |last=Morrone |first=Francis |title=An Architectural Guidebook to Brooklyn |publisher=Gibbs Smith |year=2001 |isbn=1-58685-047-4 |edition=First |publication-place=Salt Lake City |pages=283}}

{{Blockquote|text=The lower portion is fully rusticated, as are the end bays of the upper portion, creating exactly the kind of rhythm that is so necessary along a wide, long boulevard [...] As a building tailored to its location, it could hardly be improved.}}

Morrone compares the design to the nearby Catholic High School, which he says similarly fits into the Eastern Parkway environment. The building, which included a synagogue, gymnasium, catering facilities, classrooms and a swimming pool, was built on 11 lots.{{Cite web |title=History |url=https://brooklynjewishcenter.org/history.php |access-date=2024-11-12 |website=Brooklyn Jewish Center}}

File:Young Israel of Flatbush 1.jpg

Built in 1923, Abramson's Young Israel of Flatbush building at 1012 Avenue I in Brooklyn used a "Semitic" or Moorish revival style popular in the 1920s and was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2009.{{Cite report |url=https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/lz/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_NY/10000011.pdf |title=National Register of Historic Places Registration Form: Young Israel of Flatbush |date=December 16, 2009 |access-date=December 29, 2024}} Featuring moorish influences, this style was also used for contemporary Jewish buildings in Brooklyn by Shampan & Shampan in their 1920 Temple Beth-El of Borough Park at 4802 15th Avenue, and by Tobias Goldstone in his 1928 Kol Israel at 603 St. Johns Place. Anthony Robbins describes the style as:

{{Blockquote|text=... combining Moorish ornament with Judaic motifs, a phenomenon that can be traced back to mid-19th century Europe and a belief that the Moorish represented a more “Eastern,” and therefore more culturally appropriate style for Jewish buildings, as opposed to styles based on church architecture}}

Moorish details in Abram's design included slender minarets, arches in both ogival and horseshoe styles, and polychromatic tile and brick. The Avenue I fasçade uses purple, red, and brown brick laid in irregular geometric patterns. In addition to these Moorish details are more traditional Jewish motifs including the Magen David (six-pointed star of David) and Hebrew inscriptions.

An entrance vestibule and the synagogue office are on the first floor. The second floor includes a public space and classrooms. The main sanctuary on the third floor is two stories tall with large polychromatic leaded glass windows including both geometric patterns and the names of the twelve tribes from Jewish tradition to provide light. The basement was built as a gymnasium and in later years doubled as an auditorium.

File:Astoria Center of Israel, 27-35 Crescent Street, Astoria (Queens), New York. Shot on 9-30-2012. Center Shot. (adjusted).jpg

Abramson designed the Astoria Center of Israel, a synagogue located at 27-35 Crescent Street in Astoria, Queens. The two-story building was built in 1925–1926 as a religious school and community center associated with the adjacent Congregation Mishkan Israel synagogue and continues to be used for its original purpose. The building was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2009; the registration form describes it as "a two-story building faced in Flemish-bond striated red brick with faux limestone cast-stone trim and a masonry foundation" and notes that the design "is typical of 1920s American synagogues, combining classical detailing with Judaic symbols".{{Cite report |url=https://anthonywrobins.com/National%20Register%20nominations/Astoria%20Center%20of%20Israel%20-%20NR.pdf |title=National Register of Historic Places Registration Form: Astoria Center of Israel |date=August 28, 2009 |access-date=November 10, 2024}}

116 John Street is an Art Deco 35 story office building in a sub-section of Manhattan's financial district where many insurance companies have their offices. The building is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. In 1930, developer Julian Kovacs purchased adjacent lots totaling {{Convert|11000|sqft}} with existing low-rise structures and hired Abramson to design an office tower.{{Cite news |title=Builder Enlarges Downtown Plot |url=https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1930/05/20/96130876.html?pageNumber=57 |access-date=2024-12-22 |work=The New York Times |language=en |issn=0362-4331}}{{Cite web |author= |date= |title=116 John Street |url=https://npgallery.nps.gov/GetAsset/fc5357f1-6961-4919-902e-5ab2e3bedcc4 |access-date=21 December 2024 |work=National Park Service: National Register of Historic Places |language= |quote=}} Despite the stock market crash a year earlier, real estate development was ongoing in this area, with Art Deco designs being popular, as they "were considered an elegant and stylish form of Modernism". Abramson's design "reflect[ed] the geometric influences of Cubism and Futurism", featuring "chevron patterns and organic abstractions" typical of the style, with setbacks as required by New York City's 1916 zoning code.

File:116 John Street relative to Burling Slip.png

Shortly after construction began, however, a lawsuit was filed by the owners of the adjacent 111 John Street claiming that the setbacks were insufficient. Based on the width of the street, the suit claimed that the first setback should be at approximately {{Convert|130|ft}} instead of the planned {{Convert|250|ft}}. The developers of 116 John Street claimed that the setbacks were appropriate based on proximity to the wider public space at Burling Slip. By this time, the foundation had already been completed, contracts for 90% of the required steel had already been issued, and a number of leases had been signed. The suit was dismissed on the basis that it had not been filed soon enough and the cost to correct the problem would be excessive, but the judge did comment that the law should be clarified to prevent future disputes of a similar nature. A 1988 lawsuit during the construction of 108 East 96th Street cited similar concerns.{{Cite news |last=Gray |first=Christopher |date=July 31, 1988 |title=Deja Vu in Zoning Dispute |url=https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1988/07/31/756688.html?pageNumber=252 |access-date=2024-12-22 |work=The New York Times |page=8 (Real Estate, section 10) |pages= |language=en |issn=0362-4331 |quote=The argument over the height of 116 John Street, which was built 58 years ago, sounds just like the current zoning dispute case at 108 East 96th Street, a dispute that has caught the public's attention because it is so unusual.}}

Abramson designed two restaurants for Horn & Hardart in 1931; one on West 33rd Street in midtown Manhattan, the other on West 181st Street in Washington Heights. These were both automats done in a modern style to meet Horn & Hardart's preference. The first had "a terra-cotta faced, modernistic, two-story facade with the blocky modern reliefs, abstract grillework, stylized floral patterns, and dramatic indirect lighting so typical of the period." In a 1980 interview, Abramson said he had not understood what the client was asking for, so he "simply designed what he liked". The second restaurant was described as "one of the most extravagant of all New York's Automats". The interior featured "extravagant colored glass ceilings" in which "the Chrysler and Empire State Buildings [...] rose towards each other, their spires meeting electrically over a central schematic diagram of the Manhattan street grid".

Starting in 1934, Abramson designed six restaurants for the Longchamps chain in collaboration with artist Winold Reiss. Abramson worked on the exteriors with Reiss producing images related to New York City for the interiors. American Architect and Architecture magazine wrote of the collaboration:{{Cite journal |date=December 1936 |title=Restaurant Longchamps / New York City |url=https://usmodernist.org/AMAR/AMAR-1936-12.pdf |journal=American Architect and Architecture |pages=63–66}}

{{Blockquote|text=For fhe past two years the happily collaborative talents of an architect and a painter have resulted in better appearance and better business for a well established chain of New York restaurants. Fairly standard in basic elements of form, each restaurant is decorated around a different theme. The most recent in this group uses as its central motif the historical contrasts of New York City. The faqade, mainly of plate glass and satin finished chromium, has its structural parts decorated with glass mosaics in blue, silver and off white.}}Abramson designed the Brass Rail restaurant at Idelwild Airport (later renamed John F. Kennedy Airport), located in the "temporary terminal building", a quonset hut type structure.{{Cite web |last=Spampanato |first=Jerry |date=2024-04-17 |title=Before JFK, There Was Idlewild |url=https://metroairportnews.com/before-jfk-there-was-idlewild/ |access-date=2024-12-22 |website=Metropolitan Airport News |language=en-US}}{{Cite interview |last=Abramson |first=Louis Allen |interviewer=Anthony W. Robins |title=Art Deco Automats in 1930: An Interview with Louis Allen Abramson |url=https://www.artdeco.org/art-deco-automats |work=Journal of the Art Deco Society of New York |issue= |date=Spring 2018 |pages=7-9}} Metro Airport News described it as "a restaurant ahead of its time". He also designed, in collaboration with Voorhees, Gmelin & Walker, the Brass Rail concessions at the 1939 New York World's Fair.

File:Ben Marden's Riviera Postcard (front).jpg

A 1937 commission was the Riviera nightclub in Fort Lee, New Jersey, built for entertainment entrepreneur Ben Marden. The club was atop the Palisades, with views of the Hudson River, the George Washington Bridge, and Manhattan. Seating capacity was variously reported as 800 or "over 900" people. Despite the engineering difficulties presented by the solid rock of the Palisades, Marden insisted on the building having a full basement, requiring the use of dynamite to blast "a jagged crater estimated to be 13 feet [{{Convert|13|ft|disp=output only}}] deep, about 200 feet [{{Convert|200|ft|disp=output only}}] in length, and 150 feet [{{Convert|150|ft|disp=output only}}] in width" which was finished with reinforced concrete.{{Cite book |last=Austin |first=Tom |title=Bill Miller's Riviera: America's Showplace in Fort Lee, New Jersey |last2=Kase |first2=Ron |publisher=The History Press |year=2011 |isbn=978-1-60949-456-8 |location=Charleston, South Carolina |pages=40-46}} The basement was required for the mechanical and hydraulic equipment which operated a revolving stage and bandstand on the floor above. It also housed a large kitchen with extensive refrigerated storage space, a wine cellar, a barber shop, a massage parlor, and a tailor shop. Construction costs were estimated at $250,000 (${{Inflation|index=US|value=.25|start_year=1937|r=1|fmt=}} million in {{Inflation year|index=US}}).

The main floor of the building was designed with a nautical theme, and was said to "resemble the bridge of an ocean liner". The building itself was of masonry construction, with the exterior walls made from reinforced block and concrete, covered in stucco. The front of the building was at the edge of the Palisades cliff, with the art-deco entrance at the rear, elevated five steps above a sweeping driveway. The semi-circular building included unbroken expanses of glass to take advantage of the views and the roof of the building could be opened to the sky on clear nights. A year after the club opened, Abramson added a series of abstract murals widely attributed to Arshile Gorky. Tom Austin and Ron Kase, however, note in their 2011 book that the oils, watercolors, and murals were actually done by Saul Schary, who shared Gorky's abstract impressionist style. Gorky had done some paintings for Marden's previous club, also called the Riviera, which was lost in a fire. Marden had asked Gorky to paint the murals for his new club, and Gorky produced some drawings, but it was Schary who ultimately did the work.{{Cite news |date=1978-05-31 |title=Saul Schary, Illustrator and Daniel Group Painter |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1978/05/31/archives/saul-schary-illustrator-and-daniel-group-painter.html |access-date=2025-03-26 |work=The New York Times |language=en-US |issn=0362-4331}}

The building was rumored to contain an illegal hidden gambling parlor.{{Cite web |last=Nelson |first=Eric |date=January 2006 |title=Remembering “America’s Showplace" |url=https://www.njpalisades.org/rememberingAmericasShowplace.html |access-date=2025-03-26 |website=Palisades Interstate Park in New Jersey |publisher=Palisades Interstate Park Commission}} According to Austin and Kase, those in on the secret would enter through a janitor's closet; a mechanism therein would retract a wall, exposing a winding staircase leading to another level of the building where the casino was located. The club was closed in 1953{{Cite news |last=Kelley |first=Tina |date=2002-12-12 |title=Bill Miller, 98, an Impresario In the Golden Age of Las Vegas |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2002/12/12/arts/bill-miller-98-an-impresario-in-the-golden-age-of-las-vegas.html |access-date=2025-03-06 |work=The New York Times |language=en-US |issn=0362-4331}} and demolished in 1954 when the Palisades Interstate Parkway was built.{{Cite news |date=October 7, 1953 |title=Riviera, At Top of Coin-Making Career, Fades Away, Victim of New Highway |url=https://archive.org/details/variety192-1953-10/ |work=Variety |pages=2, 70}}{{Cite magazine |last=Klara |first=Robert |date=May 1995 |title=Exit Ramp: The Riviera of Dreams |url=https://www.robertklara.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/03/Riviera-of-Dreams.pdf |access-date=March 6, 2025 |magazine=New Jersey Monthly |pages=114-116}}

File:Architectural illustration of proposed New Israel Hospital.png

In 1919, Abramson designed a four-story building for the Israel Hospital in Brooklyn, to be located on Tenth Avenue, occupying the entire {{convert|200|ft|adj=on}} block between 48th and 49th streets.{{Cite news |date=May 11, 1919 |title=To Start Work Next Week on New Israel Hospital |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/times-union-new-israel-hospital/158787721/ |access-date=November 10, 2024 |work=Times Union |location=Brooklyn |pages=12}} The building, with capacity for 200 patients{{Cite news |date=May 18, 1919 |title=Break Ground this Afternoon for New Israel Hospital |url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/556051553/?match=1&clipping_id=158803855 |access-date=November 10, 2024 |work=The Brooklyn Daily Times |pages=4}} was to provide expansion space for the New Utrecht Dispensary, which later became Maimonides Medical Center. By this time, Abramson had acquired a reputation for designing hospital buildings. Construction cost was originally estimated in May 1919 to be about $250,000 (${{Inflation|index=US|value=.25|start_year=1919|r=1|fmt=}} million in {{Inflation year|index=US}}).{{Cite news |date=September 28, 1919 |title=New Israel Hospital |url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/686946724/?match=1&clipping_id=158804182 |access-date=November 10, 2024 |work=Brooklyn Eagle |pages=6}} This grew to $400,000 (${{Inflation|index=US|value=.4|start_year=1919|r=1|fmt=}} million in {{Inflation year|index=US}}) by September of that year.{{Cite news |date=September 28, 1919 |title=Israel Hospital Plans Raise Cost to $400,000 |url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/544240673/?match=1&clipping_id=158807009 |access-date=November 10, 2024}}

Abramson designed this 1926 nine-story apartment building in the Tudor style with "a ... facade of irregular brick, peaked gables, and stucco panels framed by wooden strips".{{Cite news |last=Gray |first=Christopher |date=October 5, 1997 |title=78th Street Between Amsterdam Avenue and Broadway; 1887 Property Restriction Gives Block a Rare Charm |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1997/10/05/realestate/streetscapes-78th-street-between-amsterdam-avenue-broadway-1887-property.html |archive-url=http://web.archive.org/web/20171228090149/http://www.nytimes.com/1997/10/05/realestate/streetscapes-78th-street-between-amsterdam-avenue-broadway-1887-property.html |archive-date=2017-12-28 |access-date=2024-12-12 |work=New York Times |page=5 (section 9) |language=en}} It was built at a time when Manhattan's West Side was undergoing extensive development and replaced houses previously numbered 206–212. The previous year, Schwartz & Gross had designed another nine-story building facing it across the street at number 215, which similarly replaced houses at 211- 217. Both of these buildings were set back {{Convert|5|feet}} from the standard building line, complying with a covenant dating back to 1887.

File:NYPL Countee Cullen Branch.jpg

In 1941, Abramson designed an Art Moderne addition to 103 West 135th Street, which at the time was known as the West 135th Street branch of the New York Public Library.{{Cite document |title=Virtual Tour of Malcolm X Boulevard |type=pdf |publisher=New York City Department of City Planning |at=Site 51: Countee Cullen Branch, New York Public Library}} This doubled the size of the original 1905 McKim, Mead & White building, extending it to 104 West 136th Street, occupying the site of two townhouses previously owned by Madam C. J. Walker. The cornerstone was laid on October 28, 1941, with construction expected to be completed in early 1942 at a cost of approximately $200,000 (${{Inflation|index=US|value=.2|start_year=1941|r=1|fmt=}} million in {{Inflation year|index=US}}).{{Cite news |date=1941-11-01 |title=Cornerstone for Extension to 135th Street Branch Public Library |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-new-york-age-cornerstone-for-extensi/160860834/ |access-date=2024-12-13 |work=The New York Age |pages=1}} {{As of|2024}} this is known as the Countee Cullen Library, honoring American writer Countee Cullen, and is part of the larger Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, which was designated a New York City landmark in 1981.{{Cite web |title=About the Countee Cullen Library |url=https://www.nypl.org/about/locations/countee-cullen |access-date=2024-12-12 |website=The New York Public Library |language=en}}{{Cite web |date=2018-06-21 |title=Manhattan Carnegie Library, Schomburg Collection for Research in Black Culture |url=https://hdc.org/buildings/new-york-public-library-schomburg-collection-for-research-in-black-culture/ |access-date=2024-12-12 |website=Historic Districts Council |language=en-US}}

Abramson bought a property on Indian Hill Road in Yorktown, New York, in 1945 for his personal use as a country retreat. The property came with an undistinguished Cape Cod–style house, which he incrementally expanded to include stone walls, stairways, and porches which provided better views of the surrounding area. Abramson sold the property in 1984. In 2017, the house was listed as a Home of Historic Distinction by the Yorktown Landmarks Preservation Commission.{{Cite news |date=April 27, 2017 |title=Home of architect Louis A. Abramson |url=https://www.yorktownny.gov/sites/default/files/fileattachments/heritage_preservation_commission/page/20751/louis_a._abramson_ha_170427_1yn_018.pdf |access-date=November 10, 2024 |work=Yorktown News |page=18}}

Abramson died on January 15, 1985, at St. Vincent's Hospital and Medical Center in Manhattan at the age of 97.

{{Reflist}}

• {{Cite magazine |last=Scarr |first=Cindy |date=November 30, 2021 |title=When Zaidy Was No Longer Young: The Story of the Home of the Daughters of Jacob - |url=https://mishpacha.com/when-zaidy-was-no-longer-young/ |access-date=November 11, 2024 |magazine=Mishpacha |language=en-US}}
• {{Cite web |author= |date= June 22, 2021|title=Louis A. Abramson's 1926 210 West 78th Street |url=https://daytoninmanhattan.blogspot.com/2021/06/louis-abramsons-1926-210-west-78th.html |access-date=12 December 2024 |work=daytoninmanhattan.blogspot.com |language= |quote=210 West 78th Street}}
• {{Cite web |author= |date= |title=The Jewish Center - 131 West 86th Street |url=https://daytoninmanhattan.blogspot.com/2023/05/the-jewish-center-131-west-86th-street.html |access-date=29 December 2024 |work=daytoninmanhattan.blogspot.com |language= |quote=}}
• {{Cite web |title=Louis Allen Abramson |url=https://nyjewishimprints.info/A/Abramson.htm |website=New York Streets: Jews in Monuments and Names |language=ru}}
• {{Cite web |title=Museum of the City of New York - New York World's Fair 1939 |url=https://collections.mcny.org/CS.aspx?VP3=DamView&VBID=24UAYWDA9ZVP1&PN=14&DocRID=2F3XC545K4R&FR_=1&W=1082&H=1221 |access-date=2024-12-22 |website=collections.mcny.org}}

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Category:Architects from New York City

Category:1887 births

Category:1985 deaths

Category:20th-century American architects

Category:Cooper Union alumni