537-541 Broadway (New York City, New York) | apartment building

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5-story cast-iron residential building completed in 1869. Designed by Charles Mettam as a store, it is painted light grey on the northern half of the 10-bay Broadway facade, and dark gray on the southern half. The Mercer Street facade is reversed, with a darker northern half. The upper floors have Corinthian columns, and balustrades along the bottom of the 2nd floor. The roof line on Broadway is marked by urns at the corners, with a triangular pediment in the center, topped by another urn, and flanked by two rounded pediments. The ground floor was altered in 1883 after a fire. A white metal fire escape runs down two of the southern bays on Mercer. Currently the ground floor is occupied by Guess and Lacoste on Broadway, with Cutler & Gross eyeglasses, and Lole Atelier on Mercer.