591 Broadway (New York City, New York)

 apartment building  Add category

6-story residential building completed in 1859 as a store. It extends through the block to Mercer Street. By the 1870s, E. & H. T. Anthony & Co. (the largest photographic company in the world) took over the entire building. In 1900, the building was sold and completely altered above the ground floor, with dark red-painted cast-iron replacing the white marble facade, and an ornate terra-cotta peaked roof added. Three three bays of windows have red rosettes in the spandrels between floors. The intricate top has an arcade of six round-arched windows, surrounded by cast-iron ornament. The outer piers rise up to near to level of the large, triangular, peaked center parapet. The ground floor runs continuous with the building to the north, with a dentiled cornice and fluted pilasters. Unlike the northern building, No. 591 retains the Corinthians capitals on the pilasters. There are two round-arched entrances.

The Mercer Street elevation has a 2-story cast-iron base, with a raised residential entrance and black metal stoop. The upper floors are red brick, four bays wide, with the northern bay filled-in for an elevator shaft. A black metal fire escape runs down the north part of the facade.

From 1900, the building was occupied by a toy dealer, followed by apparel firms. Today, the ground floor is occupied by half of a Victoria's Secret store. The 2nd & 3rd floors have galleries, with apartments above.