The Clarice (New York City, New York) | apartment building, commercial building

 apartment building, commercial building

5-story residential building completed in 1885. Designed by A.B. Ogden & Son for Elsworth L. Striker, the tenement building was erected on the site of a small graveyard plot dating back to before 1700, when the surrounding land was a farm belonging to the Hopper family. The red brick tenement building is an eclectic mixture of styles—neo-Grec, Eastlake, and a generous splash of Queen Anne.

There are two storefronts on the ground floor at the east end (now altered), originally occupied by a saloon and a small grocery. Along the north facade on 50th Street, west of the storefront, is a basement entrance in the sidewalk, with a low round-arch in the wall; two windows with stone sills (the western one also has a hooded lintel); a round-arched former doorway (now a window) edged in quoins; a wood-and-glass double-door and transom with a stone cornice that accesses the main commercial area, a newer small storefront of metal and glass; and the residential entrance at the west end, with wood-and-glass double-doors up a couple of steps. They are topped by a transom and framed by grey, fluted stone pillars with foliate capitals (bearing carved faced) supporting an entablature.

The upper floors are set off by a grey stone band course. On the east facade facing the avenue there is a bay of single-windows at the south end, a recessed bay of paired windows in the middle, and another bay of paired windows (spaced farther apart) at the north end. The 2nd-floor windows have eared stone lintels, and those on the 3rd floor are topped by arched lintels. There are recessed spandrel panels between the windows of these two floors, mostly brick but with stone center panels in the middle bay. The 4th floor is set off by a stone string course above a band of checkerboard brickwork., and has hooded, peaked lintels. The top floor has stone sills and flat lintels connected by stone bands.

There are rounded, projecting band courses above the windows in the end bays at the top floor, and the middle bay has a stone panel with carved letters reading "CLARICE". The facade is crowned by a black metal roof cornice, raised in the center where it surmounts a row of brick corbels. The cornice has brackets, dentils, and panels, and the center of the raised middle section is topped by a triangular pediment.

On the north facade there is a bay of single-windows at the east end, and a bay of widely-spaced paired windows at the west end. These end sections are separated by geometric, projecting brick columns from the middle section, which has two bays of paired windows. All of the 2nd-floor windows are square-headed with hooded lintels, except for the east window in the west pair of the middle section - it is round-arched with a rounded stone lintel and a recessed brick spandrel below, as are the same windows at the 3rd & 4th floors. The other middle windows at the 3rd floor are square-headed with stone sills and lintels, and short recessed panels on top. The eastern of the west bay's paired windows matches these, while the end windows on both sides are topped by rounded lintels. Except for the round-arched windows, all of the 4th-floor windows are square-headed with peaked, hooded lintels. They are underscored by continuous stone sill courses above checkerboard brickwork courses (except across the two areas with the projecting brick columns). The top floor has square-headed windows with stone sills and lintels. The window in the bay that has round-arched openings at the 2nd-4th floors is shorter, with a stone panel below it. All of the windows in the west half of this bay (next to the round-arched windows) are fronted by small, rounded stone balconies with low iron railings.

The east intermediate section (with the projecting brick columns) has two of the columns beginning at the top of the 2nd floor, where they spring from ornamental stone bases; the middle column begins at the middle of the 3rd floor, with a simpler base, and they three are joined by by peaked brickwork at the top of the 4th floor, extending up through the roof line, where they break the roof cornice and terminate in tall, thin, recessed panels. The corresponding area on the west begins with simple stone bases at the outer two columns at the base of the 3rd floor, and the middle column begins near the top of the 3rd floor. They join at the base of the top floor with flat stone pieces, and continue up through the roof line similar to the group at the east. Both main facades are crowned by a black metal roof cornice (broken at the two areas of projecting brick columns) with brackets, dentils, and panels.

The south elevation is faced in beige smooth-stucco, with green-painted bands at each floor. An array of cellular antennae is visible on the roof. The west elevation is also faced in smooth-stucco, facing a narrow alleyway, and has a bay of single-windows.

The first tenants of the building were exclusively Irish immigrants, as were the various owners of the corner saloon that changed hands a number of times. The grocery was run by Germans Koch & Feldscher. The ground floor is now occupied by The Shaking Crab restaurant, Omakase by Korami, and West 50th Barber Shop.