131 Duane Street

 restaurant, condominium

5-story Italianate residential building completed in 1862, renovated in 2006. It was originally named The Hope Building, for its owner, Thomas Hope. The ground floor has an arcade of round-arched windows above glass doors, separated by Corinthian columns supporting a modillioned cornice. The upper floors are faced in marble. The 2nd-3rd and 4th-5th floors have windows grouped under 2-story round-arches on squared pilasters with Corinthian capitals. There are stone balustrades in the spandrels between floor, and a small stone cornice between the 3rd & 4th floors. The top two floors are shorter than the middle floors. A pair of black metal fire escapes run down the facade, which is crowned by a black metal roof cornice with modillions and dentils and a rounded pediment in the center. The ground floor is occupied by City Hall Restaurant.