Just in Time (and Temp): Apple Bank’s Display Is Back on UWS

Residents on the UWS can once again set their clocks based on the digital time-and-temperature display atop the façade of the beautiful landmarked Apple Bank Building.

The new display, which began quietly functioning a few days before the official ribbon cutting, had been a beloved neighborhood fixture for years, but had gone on the fritz at the end of 2024. Efforts to repair it proved fruitless, and finally last month the malfunctioning display was pried off the building entirely.

That in turn triggered wild rumors by worried neighborhood residents that the bank itself might be going out of business or abandoning the building, which has housed a bank for nearly 100 years.

Apple Bank CEO Steven C. Bush was happy to dispel all the rumors as he cut a blue ribbon to mark the official kickoff of the new time-and-temperature display on April 28, which coincided with the bank’s 162nd anniversary.

“As New York’s neighborhood bank, we take great pride in the role our institution plays in maintaining and preserving the historic buildings that make up our city’s skyline,” said Bush. “The return of the time-and-temperature display to our 73rd Street branch is our small contribution to the neighborhood. We are happy to restore the display in its new and improved condition overlooking Verdi Square.”

It was Monique Smith, the branch manager of the 73rd Street location, who had sounded the alarm to HQ about the broken display.

Bush told The Spirit that many residents on the UWS told the branch manager that they felt “lost” without access to the time or the temperature. Smith quickly relayed the concerns to HQ.

Bush explained that while they always wanted to replace the display, in order to remove the broken display and install the new one, they had to jump through several bureaucratic hoops to obtain a permit for the crane to lift the new display into place and another to block an entire street the day the work was underway. “New York City is a fast city but not always that fast,” he said.

Once they received the permit, the bank ran into a last-minute snag before the ribbon-cutting ceremony, when they found a car blocked the street. The bank called the NYPD to have it towed.

But it was all worked out at the end. Council Member Gale Brewer, who represents the UWS neighborhood, which includes the National Historic Landmark Apple Bank Building, called it “the most beautiful bank in the United States of America.”

She may not be wrong. The freestanding building, which opened in 1928, was designed by the famed architects York and Sawyer, patterned after an Italian Renaissance palazzo.

The base of the exterior is clad with stone blocks, and double-height arches adorn all four sides of the first floor, decorated with ornamental ironwork designed by master blacksmith and metal designer Samuel Yellin.

Apple Bank traces its roots to the old Haarlem Bank for Savings, which in 1981 merged with the Central Savings Bank (which changed its named from the German Bank for Savings during WWI).

It was the old Central Bank that had first established the majestic uptown bank branch 97 years ago before its merger with the forerunner of the Apple Bank. Today the Apple Bank Building still contains a functioning branch of the Apple Bank.

“New Yorkers are proud to have this bank,” said Brewer. “It’s a beautiful part of the Upper West Side landscape.”