Ada Diamonds (New York City, New York)

 townhouse, commercial building

6-story Beaux-Arts commercial building originally completed in 1901 as a 5-story townhouse. Designed by Warren & Wetmore for Frederick C. and Birdsall Otis Edey, it is one of the few surviving townhouses designed by the firm. Frederick was a prominent financier, and Birdsall was a leader in the Women’s Suffrage Movement and the National President of Girl Scouts of America from 1930 to 1935.

In 1920 the Edeys sold the house to the Frangold Realty Company, who added the 6th floor and converted the building for business purposes. The new owners leased the townhouse to an exclusive French dressmaker, Madame Frances Inc. Between 1930 to 1945, the building was leased to Lloyds Furniture Galleries. It was during this time that alterations were done to widen the entrance to accommodate the merchandise. In 1945 it was purchased by world-renowned aviator Jacqueline Cochran who had turned to manufacturing cosmetics. The house was sold to Mexican billionaire Carlos Slim in 2011, and the lower two floors leased to the design showroom Felissimo. The entire building was leased to upscale John Barrett Salon in 2015.

The facade is clad primarily in brick and limestone, rusticated at the ground floor. The modern recessed entrance is clad in glass and metal; it has a center glass door with flanking sidelights. The molded concrete base supports the limestone façade; it retains its rusticated piers at either side and they serve as a base for two giant Tuscan pilasters that bear two non-historic flanking metal flag poles with ball finial caps. A modillioned cornice supported by two engaged Tuscan columns frames a sculptural Palladian window at the 2nd floor that retains its original scrolled metal framework, enriched by a dentil course, with an elegant three-dimensional cartouche and keystone.

A smaller tripartite window that employs a molded sill course with a projecting center with a guttae band beneath is located at the 3rd level, succeeded by a terminating cornice that supports another set of molded windows with a keyed enframement, followed by the attic that has a balustraded parapet. A tri-dormered copper mansard roof has flanking parapets and chimneys. The west façade is constructed of brick and has standard window openings, with lintels and sills of limestone. The 1st and 2nd levels have no window openings because of a party wall agreement from 1914 with the Hollins house at 12-14 West 56th Street. Two windows at the 3rd level, three windows at the 4th level, four windows at the 5th level, and five windows at the 6th level are all visible from the street.

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