Ditson Building

 store / shop, apartment building, 1883_construction

5-story Romanesque-revival residential building completed in 1883. Designed by George W. Pope as a store for Oliver Ditson & Company music publishers, its roofline is distinguished by triangular gables and projecting corbeled piers. The Broadway facade has modern plate glass show windows set in metal frames at the ground floor. The existing storefront frames may date from alterations of 1911 and 1912. Above, the red-painted brick facade is articulated vertically by three major bays containing rectangular square-headed window openings arranged in a 4-4-3 pattern from south to north. The facade is banded by flush stone sill and lintel courses, and accented by flush stone quoins still visible beneath the paint.

The 2nd floor windows have narrow brick voussoirs topped by applied beads and bezants, surmounted by a molded stringcourse (some of the ornamental elements are now painted beige). The 2nd & 3rd floors of the center bay are slightly recessed; the 3rd-floor window openings have voussoirs and beads like those below, topped by an inset acanthus frieze flanked by paterae in the flush stone band. The 4th floor of the center bay is also recessed and has a splayed stone sill course. The 4th floor is surmounted by a corbel table capped by a string course. Four projecting piers, which divide the major bays, are supported by larger corbels. The window openings at the 5th floor are deeply recessed, with square-headed lintels set in the reveals of the outer openings which have notched upper corners and flat heads. The southern bay has four windows, the center bay has two pairs of windows, and the northern bay has one pair of windows, all separated by short stone pilasters set on raised pedestals and surmounted by foliated capitals. A dentiled string course caps the 5th floor, surmounted at the end bays by triangular gables with round finials at their peaks, flanked by brick piers which project above the roofline where they are accented by paterae. The southern gable has a panel inscribed with the date "1882" above a band of beadwork, and the smaller northern gable also has a band of beadwork.

The East 18th Street facade has the same overall design and articulation of detail as the Broadway facade, with a few variations. The westernmost bay has a pedimented iron door surround with a deeply recessed doorway, and a set of modern metal doors. Above, the facade is divided into seven bays, each two windows wide. The five center bays of the 2nd and 3rd floors are slightly recessed between the piers which culminate in shallow segmental-arches at the 3rd floor. Each pier is accented with an inset quatrefoil medallion. The design of the 5th floor is the same as that on the Broadway facade, with corbeled piers flanking each bay and projecting above the roof line; the end bays have small triangular gables. A fire escape with ornamental railings is installed at the 3rd bay from the western end of the facade.

John Forsythe's, which carried a full line of men's wear and furnishings, established itself in the large retail space in the Ditson Building in the late 1890s, where it remained for some time. In 1907, Forsythe's expanded its ground-level store into the adjacent building to the south, 865 Broadway, and installed new storefronts in the two buildings.

The building was converted to apartments in the late 1990s. The ground floor is occupied by Paragon Sporting Goods.