NYC Fur District Loft Buildings

Does anybody know the history of this building type in NYC? Seems likely that they were all old Furrier buildings. I believe processing furs on the upper floors and then there were storefronts to sell them on the ground floor. From what I can tell, these buildings currently exist from about 26th St. to 30th St. btwn 7th and 8th avenues below Madison Square Garden.

They all seem to have about 7-9 floors of a flat facade, and then there are clusters of setbacks that are usually embellished with bay windows, crenellations, gargoyles, and specialty brick patterns…. They’re really wonderful.

Jeremiah’s Vanishing New York has a blog post about the district from 12 years ago, but it doesn’t touch on the building type so much.