440 Washington Street

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6-story Renaissance-revival cooperative-apartment building completed in 1899, originally built for the Sonn Brothers Whiskey company. Designed by Kurtzer & Rohl, it is clad in brown brick, stone and terra-cotta. The ground floor has some horizontal stone banding on the brick piers, as well as green-painted cast-iron pilasters and wood infill. A dentiled cornice caps the ground floor. Above, the windows are segmental-arched, with continuous sill courses on the 2nd & 3rd floors, and at the outer three bays of the 4th & 5th floors. The center bays of the 4th & 5th floors have individual stone sills. Carved band courses run across the upper portions of the 2nd-floor windows, and at the bases of the 3rd floor, and top floor, which has four round-arched windows at each of the outer sections, and on the Washington Street facade. These arches have terra-cotta keystones molded after sailor heads. A black metal fire escape runs down the narrow east elevation, and the facades are crowned by a projecting, bracketed metal roof cornice.

The Sonn Brothers occupied the building until 1912. Their old painted sign can still be seen on the plain brick west and south elevations. It continued to house various businesses through the middle of the 20th century, until being converted to residential in the late 1970s.