48 West 55th Street

 apartment building, commercial building

5-story residential/commercial building originally completed in 1867 as part of a row of Italianate townhouses. It is faced in beige smooth-stucco, and has a 2-story commercial storefront added to the base. There is a door to the upper floors at the west end, and windows above paneling with an angled door to the ground-floor restaurant space. The 2nd floor has two multi-pane windows flanking a French door opening onto a shallow balcony with an iron railings. Both of the lower two floors have sloped red canvas awnings.

The top three floors have three bays of single-windows in brown-painted stone surrounds with bracketed sills and metal cornices. Brown-painted bands link the sills at each floor. These windows grow shorter on each floor. The facade is crowned by a brown metal roof cornice with brackets, modillions, and panels. The lower two floors are occupied by La Bonne Soupe restaurant.