Beaux Arts Townhouse

little ukraine: 29th Dec 2009 - 02:52 GMT

nice, thanks for sharing your insider's view

CartLegger: 29th Dec 2009 - 18:57 GMT

i can see why you like working there so much! What a building! Heck of an eye to capture those little sights you see every day. Hope its not changed much when you get back.

luna park: 12th Jan 2010 - 18:16 GMT

sigh, who knows what they'll do to it or if i'll still be around to witness it...

here's some more info on the building:

"This handsome Beaux-Arts town house, now flanked by towering apartment buildings, was originally part of a pair designed by Welch, Smith & Provot and erected in 1906-07. The narrow, five-and-one-half story limestone house was built on speculation for W.W. & T.M. Hall, who sold it in 1910 to James Francis Aloysius Clark and his wife, Edith. Clark was a partner of Clark, Ward & Co., bankers and stockbrokers, and also a member of the New York and Boston Stock Exchange. In 1960, this house was acquired by the Federal Republic of Germany.

The rusticated first story is composed of a large, deeply recessed window, with service entrance below it, and a simply enframed doorway, surmounted by a cartouche. Ornately detailed console brackets with guttae flank the doorway and support the second story balcony above. The upper stories of this elegantly proportioned house are of ashlar limestone. At the second story, the long, dished round-arched French windows open onto wrought-iron balconies. The arched enframements of these windows have keystones which extend up to support the sills of the third story windows. These sills are also carried on paneled corbel blocks with guttae. The square-headed windows of the upper stories are set within recessed enframements and vary slightly in size. A full width band course serves as the sill of the fifth story windows. The facade is crowned by a medallioned cornice with paired end and central brackets. Above this, the copper mansard roof has three copper-clad dormer windows and is flanked by the raking coping stones of the side wall which rise above it. The elegance and refined detail of this narrow facade give the house a distinctive character."

- Information provided by the Landmark Preservation Commission of the City of New York