CITY RECORDS
The original building permit is from 27 MAY 1921. The building began as a private residence for Henry M. Lundine (28 MAY 1886–30 APR 1952), built in the classic
brownstone style. An addendum to the permit on 2 MAR 1953 shows the Lundine house being refitted as an apartment building. There is nothing amiss in these
records. The architect is listed as A. Darabondi (possibly spelled incorrectly).
BLUEPRINTS
(Cf. Plan du Macallister)
Paperwork comes along with them, almost all of it mundane. Only one item is odd: a single slip of elegant cream-colored stationery for the HOTEL BROADALBIN in New
York City, listing no address, stapled to a city permit. The stationery has a handwritten note on it, scribbled in long-faded ballpoint pen: “I saw the rooms
tonight at dusk.” Searching for Hotel Broadalbin leads nowhere. As far as New York City is concerned, there has never been such a hotel.
CITY CRIMINAL RECORDS
The architect, Asa Severin Daribondi (born on 28 MAY 1886, disappeared in 1950, declared dead on 2 SEP 1960), is suspected to have drowned at least five (and
possibly as many as 20) children between 1947 and 1950. Charles Lundine, the son of the owner of the building and a talented musician, hanged himself in the
second-floor ballroom on 30 AUG 1950.
On 30 APR 1952, Henry M. Lundine, the owner of the building, was found in the staircase to the roof, dressed in strange “plastic” silver robes, wearing a
papier-mâché mask. A brief investigation by the NYPD determined he had died of a massive stroke. Photographs show a fat man in black and white sprawled on the
third-floor landing wearing an expressionless white mask.