21 Astor Place (New York City, New York)

 Romanesque (architecture), apartment building, 1891_construction

151-foot, 10-story Romanesque-revival residential building completed in 1891 as an 8-story office and library building. Designed by George E. Harney, the building has a 2-story arcaded base. It is seven bays wide on Astor Place and East 8th Street, with two bays on the end at Lafayette, each bay has triple-windows. The base features large round-arches between orange brick piers with granite bases and brownstone capitals. The arches have molded architraves and brownstone keystones; a brownstone cornice caps the base.

The upper floors are also clad in orange brick, featuring compound piers with brownstone caps, arcaded bays with molded brick architraves, brownstone banding, and paneled cast-iron columns. The three central bays on both main facades are slightly recessed. Above another cornice, the 7th & 8th floors are joined under more 2-story round-arches with keystones. The top two floors were added in 1926, and have thinner brick piers, with each main bay having two smaller bays of paired, square-headed windows. All three main facades are crowned by a brown iron roof cornice with blocks. Set back on the roof is an aluminum sheathed penthouse.

The Mercantile Library was originally on the 6th and 7th floors. By the 1940s, the building was owned and occupied by the Local 65 of the United Wholesale and Warehouse Union, which remained here until the mid-1960s. The building was renovated and converted to residential use in 1999. The ground floor is occupied by a FedEx Store and a Starbucks. The Starbucks space includes a black metal and glass extension on the sidewalk, with an angled glass and metal roof.