By Gus Saltonstall
For multiple months, West Side Rag has received emails mentioning that the display screen on the iconic Apple Bank building at West 73rd Street between Broadway and Amsterdam was no longer properly showing the time and temperature.
“I am wondering if one of your columnists can find out if the clock and temperature sign outside the Apple Bank on 73rd and Broadway will ever be repaired?” one tipster recently wrote in. “The clock has been down for several months – as you know it has become a neighborhood icon.”
Well, we got to the bottom of it. And, it appears a resolution is on the way.
“Apple Bank is excited to announce that it has received approvals to replace the time and temperature display atop its iconic landmark Upper West Side branch at 73rd Street and Broadway,” a spokesperson for the bank emailed the Rag on Monday morning.
The time and temperature display became “inoperable” several months ago due to its age, the spokesperson added. After an evaluation, it was determined that repairs to the current model would be impossible, and that a new, custom-built unit would be required.
The replacement is now underway, and the installation is expected to be completed within the coming months, according to the Apple Bank spokesperson.
“We are eager to bring this cherished feature back into service for the Upper West Side,” the spokesperson concluded.
The spokesperson did not specify if the display screen will look the same or if it will be located at the same part of the building’s facade, but we will update this article when we hear back on the issue.
The Upper West Side Apple Bank building, also known as the Central Savings Bank Building, opened in 1928, and became a designated New York City landmark in 1975. At the time of the building’s opening, the New York Times called it one of Broadway’s “finest commercial structures.”
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It’s about time!
Ha ha! So glad it will be coming back! I have been a bit shocked in the past several weeks at how much I’d come to depend on that pretty reliable temperature and time display. Mostly for the temperature. I look up at it from the south, more or less, and it is really handy. I was considering getting an outdoor thermometer and trying to figure how to put it outside a window. For some reason, I find that glance so much easier than pulling out my phone and getting more detail. For the commenter below – yes the bank temp will often be cooler than the TJ/Duane Reade area temp because the latter is in a hotter spot, closer to a perpetually warm patch of street.
This is good news but here is the bigger issue.
On that corner you can see the “supposed” temperature on 3 different locations: 1) subject Apple Bank building; 2) bus stop in front of Bloomingdale’s Outlet; and 3) building on Broadway a few doors south of Trader Joes. And what drives me CRAZY is that the 3 temperatures are always different, sometimes off by something like 7 degrees!!
I wish Chase bank at the corner of 72nd and Columbus would take note. Their clock is always wrong over the last 15yrs. Haven’t seen it recently, but if history is any indication, it’s telling the wrong time right now.
So glad I’m not the only one this bothers.
The clock above TJ/DR was out as of last week. My kids tell me I’m wrong.
Who is responsible for the holiday lights in Dante Park and Richard Tucker Park on Broadway? The dismal blue color is depressing and not at all festive. In previous years those light displays were bright and cheerful.
How about the Chase clock on the West 73rd side of the bank?
I am so looking forward to the new time/temp sign. Thank you Apple Bank and thank you WSR for following up on this!
I never thought they’d repair the temperature part of it brecause it would be expensive and what’s in it for them? But since the clock part stayed working, I figured they might at least fix that. I still miss it every time I step outside. You’d think by now I’d have stopped looking. And now it’s really going to be fixed??? This makes me so happy.