Marc Eidlitz (21 January 1826 – 15 April 1892) was a builder active in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the U ...

, where he was prominent in the construction industry, in partnership with his son Otto Eidlitz (1860–1928).

Biography

(King1893NYC) pg842 MARC EIDLITZ & SON, 487 AND 489 FIFTH AVENUE

Marc was born Markus to a Jewish family in

Prague Prague ( ; cs, Praha ; german: Prag, ; la, Praga) is the capital and largest city in the Czech Republic, and the historical capital of Bohemia. On the Vltava river, Prague is home to about 1.3 million people. The city has a temperate ...

, Bohemia. He emigrated to the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 U.S. state, states, a Washington, D.C., federal district, five ma ...

in 1846 with his mother Judith Eidlitz after the death of his father Abraham. Having served a four-year apprenticeship, he set up in business for himself in 1852 - the year of his marriage - and founded the construction firm, Marc Eidlitz & Son in New York City. The firm built the

St. Regis Hotel St. Regis Hotels & Resorts is a luxury hotel chain owned and managed by Marriott International. History In 1904, John Jacob Astor built the St. Regis New York as a sister property to his part-owned Waldorf-Astoria Hotel. Exhibiting luxury and ...

and many other projects. Through his influence, the Masons Builders' Association of New York played a major role in founding the National Association of Builders. In New York, he was President of the Building Trades' Club and of the Germanic Savings Bank. Eidlitz made his home at 123

East 72nd Street 72nd Street is one of the major bi-directional crosstown streets in New York City's borough of Manhattan. The street primarily runs through the Upper West Side and Upper East Side neighborhoods. It is one of the few streets to go through Cen ...

, where he died. He had four sons and a daughter. His son Otto Eidlitz took over the business after he died. His brother

Leopold Eidlitz Leopold Eidlitz (March 10, 1823, Prague, Bohemia – March 22, 1908, New York City) was a prominent New York architect best known for his work on the New York State Capitol (Albany, New York, 1876–1881), as well as "Iranistan" (1848), P. T. Bar ...

was a well-known architect, as was Leopold's son,

Cyrus L. W. Eidlitz Cyrus Lazelle Warner Eidlitz (July 27, 1853 – October 5, 1921) was an American architect best known for designing One Times Square, the former New York Times Building on Times Square. He is founder of the architecture firm presently known a ...

. Marc converted to

Catholicism The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...

and kept close ties to the German immigrant community, becoming president of Germania Bank in 1888.Kathryn E. Hollida
''Leopold Eidlitz: Architecture and Idealism in the Gilded Age.''
New York: W. W. Norton, 2008, pp. 29–30, 69

Selected commercial commissions

The following structures erected by Eidlitz were all in New York City, unless otherwise identified. *A mission on 20th Street, commissioned by

William Colgate William Colgate (January 25, 1783 – March 25, 1857) was an English-American soap industrialist who founded in 1806 what became the Colgate-Palmolive company. Early life William Colgate was born in Hollingbourne, Kent, England, on January 25, ...

* Broadway Tabernacle (1857–58) *

Lord and Taylor Lord & Taylor was the oldest brick and mortar department store in the United States, in business from 1826 to 2020. The brand was purchased during former owner Le Tote's 2020 liquidation bankruptcy and relaunched by new owner, Saadia Group, as a ...

Building, Broadway and Grand Street *The German Hospital (now

Lenox Hill Hospital Lenox Hill Hospital (LHH) is a nationally ranked 450-bed non-profit, tertiary, research and academic medical center located on the Upper East Side of Manhattan in New York City, servicing the tri-state area. LHH is one of the region's many univ ...

at another site) * Saint Vincent's Hospital *Home of the Sisters of Bon Secours *Church of the Incarnation, Madison Avenue and 35th Street * Temple Emanu-El, former building at Fifth Avenue and 43rd Street *St. George's clergy house, 16th Street *

Astor Library The Astor Library was a free public library in the East Village, Manhattan, developed primarily through the collaboration of New York City merchant John Jacob Astor and New England educator and bibliographer Joseph Cogswell. It was primarily me ...

Steinway Hall Steinway Hall (German: ) is the name of buildings housing concert halls, showrooms and sales departments for Steinway & Sons pianos. The first Steinway Hall was opened in 1866 in New York City. Today, Steinway Halls and are located in cities such ...

*Gallatin Bank * Metropolitan Opera House ( J. Cleaveland Cady, architect, 1883) * Seamen's Savings Bank *Eagle Fire Insurance Company *

Schermerhorn Building The Schermerhorn Building at 376–380 Lafayette Street on the corner of Great Jones Street in the NoHo neighborhood of Manhattan, New York City, was built in 1888–1889 by William C. Schermerhorn on the site of the Schermerhorn mansion, and rent ...

, 376

Lafayette Street Lafayette Street is a major north-south street in New York City's Lower Manhattan. It originates at the intersection of Reade Street and Centre Street, one block north of Chambers Street. The one-way street then successively runs through Chi ...

( Henry J. Hardenbergh, architect, 1889) *Astor Building *Eden Musée *Western Electric Building *Lancashire Fire Insurance Company *

Empire Building An empire is a "political unit" made up of several territories and peoples, "usually created by conquest, and divided between a dominant center and subordinate peripheries". The center of the empire (sometimes referred to as the metropole) ex ...

, Broadway and Rector Street * Germania Bank Building, 190 Bowery (

Robert Maynicke Robert Maynicke (1849-1913) was an American architect. At his death, the ''New York Times'' called him "a pioneer in the building of modern loft buildings."J. Pierpont Morgan House *

Ogden Goelet Ogden Goelet (June 11, 1851 New York City – August 27, 1897 Cowes, Isle of Wight) was an American heir, businessman and yachtsman from New York City during the Gilded Age. With his wife, he built Ochre Court in Newport, Rhode Island, his son ...

House *Rober L. Stuart House

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Eidlitz, Marc 19th-century Czech people Jews from Austria-Hungary Emigrants from the Austrian Empire to the United States Businesspeople from Prague 1826 births 1892 deaths American real estate businesspeople Converts to Roman Catholicism from Judaism American Roman Catholics 19th-century American businesspeople

Biography

Selected commercial commissions

Further reading

References