186 Franklin Street

 apartment building  Add category

6-story Romanesque-revival residential building completed in 1890. Designed by Martin V.B. Ferdon as a store-and-loft building for jewelry merchant Samuel Welsh. The arcaded Romanesque Revival facade is composed of a one-story base with grey-green cast-iron piers and a red brick upper portion articulated with double-height segmental arches. The upper portion retains its stone trim, and continuous corbel table formed in brick and stone, just below the small pressed-metal cornice. A metal fire escape runs down the center of the facade.

The building remained in the Welsh family's possession for many years. Later occupants include a metal company and several glass firms. The upper stories have since been converted to residential use sometime in the 1980s. The ground floor is occupied by Kutscher's Deli.