597 Broadway (New York City, New York)

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5-story residential building completed in 1867. Designed by John Kellum as a store and warehouse, housing a dry goods merchant and liquor dealer, it extends through the block to Mercer Street. The main facade on Broadway is cast-iron, painted grey on the ground floor (which is framed by fluted pilasters), and white above. The window openings have rounded corners, and cornices divide each floor. The center window on each floor has a keystone. At the roof is a bracketed and modillioned cornice.

On Mercer, the building has a tall cast-iron and glass base with Corinthian capitals on the pilasters, and a modillioned cornice. The floors are clad in red brick above. The windows have projecting sills with corbelled feet, and white metal cornices, with a simple metal roof cornice.

Soon after completion, the ground-level store was occupied by Mitchell Vance & Company, selling lighting fixtures until 1877. In 1885, a fire badly damaged the interior of the building. Later tenants in the late 1800s included a fur dealer, the Commercial Travelers' League, and a real estate firm. In 1922, the street-level was home to the Broadway Pastry Shop, but by the mid-1900s, the area's high-end showrooms had become mostly factories and cheap outlet stores. The store front of No. 597 was heavily altered and the façade was stained and covered in decades of soot and grunge. In 1986, the building was sold and fully renovated into six commercial and nine residential condominiums. The ground floor is occupied by Billabong on Broadway, and Niko Sushi on Mercer.