PRESERVATION
Tech Notes

HISTORIC GLASS
NUMBER 2

Repair and Rehabilitation of
Historic Sidewalk Vault Lights

Cas Stachelberg
Higgins & Quasebarth
Historic Preservation Consultants

Chad Randl
Technical Preservation Services
National Park Service

552-554 Broadway
New York, New York

	Figure 1. A cast-iron storefront was added to 552-554 Broadway in 1897. The storefront included a fifty-four foot long assembly of cast-iron vault lights set in the sidewalk. Glass lenses in the panels allowed light to enter the basement area, increasing rentable space for the building owner.

Beginning in the 1850s, sidewalk vault lights became a common feature amidst the burgeoning manufacturing districts of America’s urban streetscapes. These cast-iron panels, fitted with clear glass lenses, were set into the sidewalk in front of building storefronts. They permitted daylight to reach otherwise dark basements (or “vaults”) that extended out beneath the sidewalks, creating more useable or rentable space for building owners.

Vault lights typically extended four to five feet out from the building line toward the curb. Each panel was screwed to a cast-iron saddle and the iron framework that spanned the basement vault. They were cast with molded iron knobs set around each lens to protect the glass and improve the footing of passers-by. Originally simple glass lenses were set in the panels, usually with a cement grout. Advances in daylighting technology including the development of prismatic glass pendants that refracted the sun’s rays further into basement areas, and the use of reinforced concrete panels made vault lights popular through the 1930s (see vault light history and concrete vault light sidebar).

Located in New York City within the SoHo Cast-Iron Historic District, 552-554 Broadway is a six-story loft building detailed with Italianate ornamentation on the upper floors (see figure 1). Designed by the architect John B. Snook and originally constructed in 1855 as two separate buildings, 552 and 554 Broadway were joined internally and unified in 1897 with a new two-story, cast-iron storefront and sidewalk vault installation. It is likely that the building’s basement was used historically for a combination of light manufacturing and storage.

Figure 2. The building’s cast-iron and glass vault lights at the outset of the restoration project.

The original vault lights stretched approximately fifty-four feet across the full width of the ground-floor storefront. They were made up of twenty-one individual panels extending five feet from the building line and varying in width from 1’10” to 2’8” (see figure 2). The cast-iron panels were fitted with 1-1/2” diameter glass lenses. Raised lettering on the panel frame, “Jacob Mark, 7 Worth Street, New York,” indicated the foundry’s name and address in Manhattan. Over one hundred years of pedestrian traffic, deliveries and environmental exposure took a toll on the vault lights at 552-554 Broadway. With use of the basement for merchandise storage, the current ground-floor retail tenant initiated a vault-light restoration program in 2002 to return the historic sidewalk feature to its original function and appearance.

Problem & Solution

HISTORIC GLASS NUMBER 2

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