Today this building is occupied by small retail storefronts, but when the building was erected in 1912, it was home to one of the largest banks in New York. Sender Jarmulowsky was a Polish Jew who commissioned this beaux-arts building, which became the tallest on the Lower East Side when it was completed. Jarmulowsky’s bank, which operated for some 40 years before the completion of this building, catered primarily to immigrants. Later, when World War One broke out in Europe, many of the immigrants closed their accounts to send money to relatives back home, causing the bank to collapse. You can see its engraved name over the entrance on the corner at 54 Canal St.
