33 Bleecker Street

 apartment building, 1884_construction

6-story Renaissance-revival residential building completed in 1884. Designed by Maclay & Davis as a store, the building is nine bays wide, faced in red-painted brick with white sandstone bands, and has a black iron roof cornice with a semi-circular pediment in the center, and a historic wrought-iron fire escape with landings spanning the center four windows. The exposed western elevation is smooth stuccoed, with another fire escape and windows grouped toward the middle.

During most of the 20th century the building housed many fur businesses, as well as paper supply firms, toy manufacturers, and garment makers. By the 1960s, as the post-war decline in the city's manufacturing base left much vacant commercial space, loft dwellers began to take over parts of the upper stories of this building. By 1980, its upper floors were completely residential, while an art gallery occupied the ground floor (Zurcher Studio), which still remains.