delanceystreet

NYT of July 13, 1914 query.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=F70F1FFA3F5E13738... describes a garden created for the blind on the roof of the new United States Bank Building on Delancey St.

Oddly, there is another NYT article from the week before which seems to be describing the same event, only at the Bank of the United States Building at 77 Delancey Street.
query.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=9D05E3DF1038E633A...
The story of the Bank and its founder Joseph S. Marcus "a Jewish immigrant to the United States. Born in the town of Telz in Germany in 1862, he went to school in Essen and immigrated to the United States at the age of 17 and worked his way up from being a tailor, to a garment industry business, to a banker. He founded the Public Bank in 1906 and the Bank of United States in 1913" is an interesting one.
It was Marcus who created and donated this rooftop garden.
The Bank was the first to collapse at the onset of the Great Depression.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bank_of_United_States

The Bank's first building at 77 Delancey Street, from 1914, has obviously seen better days:

Thanks, swanq and artolog, for tracking down the likely site of the roof garden and offering the updates. We'll add information to this and related images when we next update.

my Compliments Masterwork !

Not actually the roof of a home for the blind. See notes under:

Thanks for tracking down the likely site and story behind the roof garden. We'll add information to this and related images when we next update.

If you have any information regarding the individuals within the picture, please post a comment or note.

The top sheet in his hand might be Dark Eyes by by Max Freedman there is a picture at the LOC here lcweb2.loc.gov/diglib/ihas/loc.natlib.ihas.100008313/defa...