93 Reade Street

 apartment building  Add category

5-story Italianate residential building completed in 1857 as a store-and-loft building. The richly-decorated facade has four bays, framed by flute Corinthian columns. The windows have flat-headed arches with chamfered corners at the 2nd-4th floors, and round arches at the 5th floor. Dentiled cornices separate the stories and entablature blocks project above the columns. The design is also enhanced by raised moldings which profile the flat arches and by geometric decorations on the spandrel panels. At the 2nd floor the columns rest on paneled plinths and balustrades are set in front of the windows. The 5th-floor arches are framed by pilasters and surmounted by molded archivolts with bracketed keystones. Giant console brackets: support the facade's crowning entablature which is embellished with recessed panels, dentils, and modillions. Above the cornice is a central arched pediment. The handsome wrought-iron fire escape was probably added at the turn of the century. The ground floor has grey-painted cast-iron flute columns. By the 1920s, the building was completely occupied by wholesale shoe companies. It was converted to apartments around 1980. The ground floor is occupied by Bela Brazil salon.