The Art Deco health clinic sign off Worth Street

I’ve always admired the building at 125 Worth Street, which houses the Departments of Health, Hospitals, and Sanitation (or at least did at some point since the building opened in 1935).

Enormous Art Deco–inspired lanterns and bronze grillwork flank the entrances, and health-themed ornamentation decorate the facade.

Then there’s this small sign above an unremarkable flight of stairs descending to a basement door on the side of the building.

It reads “Clinic Department of Sanitation.” The lettering is lovely and eye-catching.

But I wonder who lined up outside this door decades ago when a clinic existed here, and what they came here to treat.

Art Deco lanterns on a Centre Street building

The city government buildings down around City Hall Park were designed with style.

Take the Departments of Health, Hospitals, and Sanitation Building, at 125 Worth Street near Centre Street.

Greeting you on the Centre Street side of the 1935 structure are these magnificent lamps, held in place on the backs of men.

The rest of the building is pretty cool too: a fortress-like edifice with bronze grillwork and health themes decorating the facade.

The names of great scientists and giants of medicine are also carved into the facade, a reminder of the building’s public-health purpose.