# The Germania Bank Building at 190 Bowery

By [Brandon Donnelly](https://brandondonnelly.com) · 2022-07-18

190-bowery, architecture, art, germania-bank-building, jay-maisel, new-york-city, photographer, real-estate, rfr-holdings, roy-lichtenstein, soho, web3

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I recently [mentioned](https://brandondonnelly.com/2022/07/15/1970s-new-york-through-the-lens-of-a-taxi-driver/) that it would be nice to be able to buy a five-storey building in Soho (New York) for $70,000. Yes, that was in 1968 dollars. [But even in today's dollars](https://www.usinflationcalculator.com/), we're talking less than $600,000. I would gladly buy a cast-iron five-storey building in Soho for that price today if it were somehow possible.

In response to this post, a reader sent me [this](https://ny.curbed.com/2019/7/31/20732103/jay-myself-documentary-maisel-stephen-wilkes-190-bowery-the-bank) (thank you), which is another great example of an artist buying an old buying in New York for what is clearly an absurdly low price. The artist is photographer [Jay Maisel](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jay_Maisel), and the building is [The Germania Bank Building at 190 Bowery](https://www.google.com/maps/place/190+Bowery,+New+York,+NY+10012,+USA/@40.7209993,-73.9939037,3a,88.6y,338.38h,115.45t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1sve7eWJdiAQnvZabM8AU5Hw!2e0!7i16384!8i8192!4m5!3m4!1s0x89c259860f9f0c93:0x40f57b799291d5c5!8m2!3d40.7211892!4d-73.9940677).

Jay bought the six-storey building in 1966 for $102,000. He then used it as his residence, a studio, and as a place to collect a hell of a lot of things. Though at one point he also rented out some of the other floors to artists like [Roy Lichtenstein](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roy_Lichtenstein).

It is alleged that most people thought the building was abandoned. But this was obviously not the case. Jay sold the building to RFR Holdings in 2014 for $55 million. And in 2019, streetwear brand Supreme opened up in the bottom.

Today, I understand that Web3 things are also happening in the building. And who knows, it might be the case that we'll be reading about some of them, in a similar kind of way, fifty years from now.

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*Originally published on [Brandon Donnelly](https://brandondonnelly.com/the-germania-bank-building-at-190-bowery)*