D.S. Hess Building (New York City, New York)

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6-story Renaissance-revival residential building completed in 1884. Designed by Henry Fernbach as a store and warehouse for the decorating company of David S. Hess, It has a red brick facade with brownstone trim. The building was altered extensively when Hess moved uptown to a larger building in 1898.

The Broadway facade of the original Hess Building is organized as a tripartite composition with a 1-story base, a 3-story midsection, and a 1-story top, the whole surmounted by a mansard roof. A 20th-century decorative wrought-iron fire escape drops down the middle of the facade. The base has end bays framed by stylized Ionic pilasters (the 2nd pilaster from the left is missing and all the capitals are damaged); the entrance bays flank a central glass-fronted commercial space. Each pilaster panel is embellished with a traditional Renaissance design, modernized and made specific to this building in its details. These details, which refer to the design and manufacture of furniture by D.S. Hess & Co., include drafting equipment, builder's tools, architectural elements, and the leaves of different kinds of trees (presumably representing different woods used in furniture making). The capitals, which have suffered the loss of their volutes, retain the inner skeleton of an Ionic capital resting on a bed of acanthus and other leaves, and enclosing flowers and other decoration.

The 3-story midsection has slightly projecting 1-window end baysand a 3-window center section with cast-iron columns. The lower story contains pilasters with embellished panels and a cornice. These panels include swans and the initial "H" for Hess. The upper stories are visually stretched by the placement, above and below windows, of flush band courses of different widths, and decorative panels. The top floor contains brick pilasters with recessed arcades in both the central section and end bays. The facade culminates in a projecting cornice. The slate-covered mansard roof contains a wide central dormer and narrow end dormers. The pilasters on the central dormer carry a segmental pediment inside of which are the superimposed initials "D.H." for David Hess. The end dormers are pedimented. The roof is terminated in a compound molding.

Alfred Bridgeman took over the building in 1898 and commissioned architects DeBaud & Mowbray to convert Hess’s cavernous warehouse floors to offices and smaller, more manageable loft spaces. At the same time one of the impressive stone pilasters at street level was removed and replaced by a cast iron column. The building was soon occupied by a variety of clothing, upholstery, and rug dealers. The present fire escape was added after 1910. The building was converted to residential in 2005. Inside, partitions have been removed and there is now a single condominium space on each floor. The ground floor is occupied by Hastens mattress store.