Between guesses on our Facebook page and on the post itself, readers nailed this week's Cornerspotter: the building pictured is indeed Gnome Bakers at 316 East 59th Street, at the entrance to the Queensboro Bridge. The building was acquired by Gnome Bakers in 1930, and, according to the Times, was fashioned to look "like a cottage where legendary little men might be baking the 'unusual breads and rolls'" that the bakery sold. The site's original decorators went all outa large gnome muching on a piece of paper-machê bread used to lean against the building's chimney and peer towards the bridge access ramp. The gnome, and Gnome Bakers, disappeared from the premises following their early 1930's bankruptcy, says the Times. Despite the building's peculiar architectural characteristics, it has survived as a framer, an exterminator, a kitchen furnishings store, and is currently occupied by a chiropractic office.
· Streetscapes: 316 East 59th Street; New Role for 'Gnomes' Home' [NYT]
· Evolution, Traced by the Lens [NYT]
· Hint: No Garden at This Stout Structure, as Its Name Implies [Curbed]
· Cornerspotter archives [Curbed]
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