326-338 West 49th Street (New York City, New York)

 apartment building, 1886_construction, Renaissance Revival (architecture)

A row of seven matching 5-story Renaissance-revival residential buildings completed together in 1886. Each facade is clad in red brick with a brown-painted stone base. The central entrances are reached by short stoops with iron railings, which are flanked by low brick walls with stone coping that enclose the small patio areas in at the street level; iron gates at the ends of the walls access the patio areas. The two western buildings, Nos. 336 & 338, have wider stoops.

The entrances are round-arched, with glass-and-metal doors, sidelights, and fanlights, and are framed by brown-painted stone pilasters topped by brackets with flower designs supporting entablatures and cornices (the entablature has been removed from No. 334). Modern light fixtures are attached the the pilasters. On each side of the entries is a large window with a flat brownstone sill.

The upper floors have four bays of single-windows with projecting stone sills and brownstone lintels with arched bottoms; these are topped by diminutive cornices at the 3rd & 4th floors. The piers flanking the end bays project slightly beginning at a corbel course at the 3rd floor, where they have spade-shaped stone bases. The bays are capped by thin courses of angled dentils at the top of the 5th floor. Black metal fire escapes run down the middle two bays of each facade, and each is crowned by a matching black metal roof cornice with brackets and panels of alternating widths.