The Daribondi Books

Mordant's research (Session 7) into the architect Asa Daribondi. Three published books exist on him and his crimes:

The Devil's Craftsman — Cavett Monaghan, 1952
A Darkness at the Corners — Elizabeth Ortiz, 1957
Architecture, Genius, and Mental Illness — Dr. Peter Johansson, 1961

Biography (from the books)

Chicago prodigy. Early career: the "Picasso of architecture." Between 1905 and 1921 he designed strange, misshapen structures he called "Thought Buildings" in Chicago.
The turn (1921). After what sources call variously a "religious revelation" or a "drug experience," he moved to New York in 1921 and took up residence at an unnamed midtown hotel.
The nine NYC buildings. Everything he erected in New York still stands. Unlike his Chicago work, they are mundane and of-the-age — ordinary buildings, distinguished only by small, obsessed-about flourishes.
The drownings. Only after his 1950 disappearance was he suspected of having drowned at least five children, beginning in 1947 (the books speculate: many more).
The vanishing (1950). He disappeared without a trace, leaving behind: the drowned body of five-year-old Isabelle Sauer, huge debts, and a log book that appears to track the deaths of children dating back to 1921.
Declared dead by his mother, 2 SEP 1960.

The Log Book Runs to 1921, Not 1947

He was only *suspected* of drownings from **1947** — but the logbook he left tracks **child deaths back to 1921**, the very year he arrived in New York. The public crime is three years long; the private ledger is **twenty-nine.** Whatever he was doing began the moment he stepped off the train — the same year of his "revelation."

The "Mundane" Buildings Are the Tell

His Chicago **"Thought Buildings"** were openly strange — dream-shapes anyone could see (buildings from his dreams). His **nine New York buildings look ordinary**, with only **"small, obsessed-about flourishes."** The McAllistor Building is exactly that: a mundane apartment house whose **impossible geometry is hidden inside** (The Night Floors, Night Floors Map). He didn't stop building from dreams in NYC — he learned to **hide the dream behind an ordinary façade.** Nine such buildings **still stand** in Manhattan.

The Photograph — The "B" Hotel at Madison Square Park

A careful reading of The Devil's Craftsman turns up a photo of Daribondi standing before an art deco hotel, a "B" emblazoned on each door. Caption:

(1928) DARIBONDI LIVED FOR A TIME AT NYC HOTEL WHICH HE HELPED RESTORE IN LIEU OF PAYMENT.

A park is reflected in the hotel window, and in it a huge flagpole with a distinctive stone base — the Eternal Light Flagstaff in Madison Square Park. The hotel therefore faces Madison Square Park.

The "B" Hotel Is the Hotel Broadalbin

A **"B"** on every door, an **art deco hotel Daribondi restored and lived in (~1928)**, facing **Madison Square Park** — this is almost certainly the **Hotel Broadalbin**, the hotel Abigail Wright mapped on **1933 stationery** (Hotel Broadalbin Map). It **locates the Broadalbin** (Madison Square Park, ~23rd & Fifth/Broadway) and welds it to the architect: Daribondi didn't just design the McAllistor Building — he **restored and inhabited** the other building Abigail was mapping. The Broadalbin is one of his nine, and Abigail knew it mattered.

Open Questions

Which unnamed midtown hotel did Daribondi live in on arrival in 1921 — the Broadalbin too, or a different one?
Where are the other of his nine NYC buildings — and are any of them, like the McAllistor, hiding night floors behind an ordinary front?
What is in the logbook — a kill list, or a record of children taken upstairs (cf. how tenants "move upstairs")? Where is it now?
The 1921 "revelation / drug experience" — herbs, words, stones (Hygromanteia)? Chicago, again, is where Decraig Corp supplies the induction kit.