The Story
Fourth Avenue between 11th and 12th holds a double provenance. The site first: Herman Melville rented a townhouse at 103 Fourth Avenue from 1847 to 1850, and it was in that house, demolished long ago, that he began writing Moby-Dick. The lobby of the current building stands on its plot, and a bronze plaque downstairs makes the case. The building second: in 1920 the International Tailoring Company, Tailors to the Trade and one of the largest makers of men's custom clothing in the world, raised a thirteen-story factory and headquarters here, hiring Starrett and Van Vleck, the firm behind the Saks Fifth Avenue and Lord and Taylor flagships, to give a garment works the polish of a department store.
The avenue outside was Book Row, the secondhand-book district that ran from Astor Place to Union Square. Shops lined the ground floors across the street, dealers worked out of the building itself at times, and the Strand, one block west, is the last of them standing. The factory converted to co-ops at the end of the 1970s, 172 lofts behind the original brick and terra cotta.
Inside
Residence 2FG is a west-facing duplex loft with the factory proportions intact: a living room under approximately fourteen-foot beamed ceilings, exposed brick, and six ten-foot steel casement windows that look down the avenue toward Grace Church, James Renwick Jr.'s Gothic Revival landmark. CitiQuiet interior windows quiet both bedrooms without dimming the western light.
The renovation runs to white Caesarstone counters and custom white cabinetry in the open kitchen, two renovated baths, the primary's with dual sinks and a double-wide vanity, and a custom walk-in closet. A full staircase, not a ladder, climbs to the mezzanine: a home office, a sleep alcove, and deep storage on both sides. The unit last traded at $2,600,000 in October 2022 and returns asking $2,799,000, with maintenance of $3,234 a month.
The Building
The International Tailoring Company Building keeps full-time doormen, new elevators, laundry on every floor, and two landscaped roof decks with open views in every direction. Less visible: a recent retrofit replaced the 1920 plant with a network of heat pumps, cutting the building's carbon by roughly eighty percent and clearing Local Law 97 through 2050. A bike room, private storage, and on-site parking are subject to availability; the co-op allows cats, not dogs, and carries a two percent flip tax.
