Van Tassell & Kearney Auction Mart

History and architecture

The former Van Tassell & Kearney auction mart is a three-story Beaux-Arts style building on the south side of East 13th Street, between Third and Fourth Avenues.

Built in 1903-04, the handsome structure is one of the last remaining buildings in New York City that was erected for staging horse auctions. Designed by the New York architects Jardine, Kent & Jardine, the fifty-foot-wide red brick facade terminates in a rounded cornice, echoing the shape of the central window. Enlivened by four bull’s eye windows and limestone trim, the apex frames a projecting limestone element that originally supported a flagpole.

Edward W. Kearney, son of the firm’s founder, commissioned this elegant building to attract the type of wealthy clientele that purchased horses for competition and leisure. Weekly auctions took place in the “commodious sales ring,” a shed-like space with mezzanine. Van Tassell & Kearney were active on East 13th Street for more than fifty years. Originally general auctioneers, after 1904 “high class” show horses and ponies dominated sales. Many prominent citizens did business with Van Tassell & Kearney, including the estate of United States senator Roscoe Conkling and members of the Vanderbilt family.

By the 1920s, the firm was mainly involved in automobile sales and the building would be leased to a candy manufacturer, and later, the Delehanty Institute, a vocational school that trained women for the defense industry during the Second World War. In 1978, the structure was acquired by the painter, printmaker and sculptor Frank Stella, who used it as his studio until 2005. Significant in terms of architectural design and specialized purpose, the former Van Tassell & Kearney auction mart recalls the era when New York City was a leading auction center and horse sales were a common activity.