The Borden House Condominium

 condominium, 1904_construction, Beaux-Arts (architecture)

140-foot, 10-story Beaux-Arts residential building completed in 1904. Designed by George Howard Chamberlin as an office building for Borden's Condensed Milk Company. The two main facades have a 2-story base of deeply courses granite; the Hudson Street side has five round-arched openings on the ground level, while the Franklin Street side has one (at the far west); the others are segmental-arched. The main entrance is framed by an imposing portico with a stone balustrade. The 2nd-floor windows are rectangular.

The midsection of the facade contains projecting white brick end bays which frame red brick central bays; at the 8th & 9th floors, the central bays have oriels flanked by an Ionic colonnade. The windows in the oriels are surmounted by scrolled keystones or by shields with lintels on consoles. Cornices or string courses surmount each story. At the crown, the materials and bay divisions of the midsection are repeated, while each of the tripartite window bays has been altered into a single opening. Both facades are crowned by a green copper roof cornice with dentils. A metal fire escape runs down the far eastern bay of the Franklin facade. The exposed northern and eastern elevations are brick walls that have been painted and parged, respectively, and into which window openings have been inserted.

The building remained in the hands of the Borden Company for many years, during which time it was occupied by smaller dairy companies as well. The upper floors were converted to residential condominiums in 1980. The ground floor is occupied by a Banco Santander branch.