452 Greenwich Street (New York City, New York)

 apartment building, 1810s construction

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4-story residential building originally completed around 1819 as a two-and-one-half-story red brick dwelling. Around 1852 William B. Howenstine raised the building to its four-story height. It appears that at this time the building was converted to a multiple dwelling, housing five families above the store on the first story. In 1892 the storefront of the Greenwich Street portion of the building was altered with the insertion of larger, projecting show windows in both facades, and the creation of the angled corner entrance. In 1903 a new owner, sheriff William P. Grell, added new cornices to the structure and converted the western portion for light manufacturing use. The building is currently residential.

The windows of the Greenwich Street facade have inscribed Federal style brownstone lintels; the brownstone sills and other window heads are plain. At the 1-story base of the Greenwich street facade, the openings include a rare surviving round-arched entrance with paneled reveals, a five-panel door, and a transom that probably originally provide passageway to the yard behind the house and later became a hallway leading to the stairs to the upper stories.