178 Fifth Avenue

 apartment building, 1860s construction, Italianate style (architecture)

5-story Italianante residential building completed in 1862 as two separate houses. They were joined in 1872 and the facades were altered for commercial purposes, with brownstone ashlar (painted white in 2018) above the 1st- and 2nd-floor storefronts. The building was converted to apartments around the 1980s.

The two halves of the building (numbers 178 and 180 Fifth Avenue) still resemble separate 18-foot wide, 2-bay dwellings, above the 2nd floor; number 180 Fifth Avenue, the northern half, is slightly recessed and features a simpler window and roof line treatment than that of the southern half at number 178 Fifth Avenue.

A continuous dentiled and modillioned cornice caps the ground floor. The 2nd floor has identical bay windows under transoms; the eared surrounds with raised pediments date from the 1872 alteration. In 180 Fifth Avenue, at the 3rd floor, the windows have stone enframements with flat projecting hoods, and bracketed sills. The windows at the 3rd floor of number 178 Fifth Avenue have bracketed and pedimented window enframements with carved fascias. The windows at the 4th floor on both halves of the building are shorter; the northern bays have simple window enframements, the southern window enframements have bracketed hoods. There are continuous belt courses which follow the contours of the facade at the sill levels of the 3rd and 4th floors. Over the 4th floor is a small cornice above which are two wood-framed windows set in the frieze in each half of the building. A dentiled cornice follows the contours of the facade at the roof line; number 178 Fifth Avenue is surmounted by a dentiled triangular pediment. The ground floor is occupied by Ten Ichi Mart Japanese grocery, and Salswee restaurant.