18 West 23rd Street (New York City, New York)

 office building, 1850s construction, 1924_construction

5-story office building originally completed in 1857 as a brownstone-fronted rowhouse. Egbert Guernsey, a physician, commissioned D. & J. Jardine to alter the front and rear walls, presumably to convert the building to commercial use, in 1883. In 1902, Butterick Publishing Company, owner and occupant, commissioned Horgan & Slattery to replace the storefront and erect a new wall above it, among other changes.

In 1924 Joseph M. Crucet hired Edward L. Middleton to design a new storefront and to reorganize the facade above the 2nd floor to the arrangement which survives. It is faced mainly in metal and stucco, with the 2nd floor surmounted by a hood-like cornice covered in red Mediterranean tile. This floor is framed between two end pilasters embellished with raised Renaissance motifs. Two pivoting windows with transoms, which are fronted by arched metal spandrels, flank a central metal-framed show window with transom and glazed returns.

The upper three floors are also the product of the 1924 alteration. Each floor contains a wide fixed central wood-framed window flanked by two wood-framed windows, all with transoms. Spandrels are covered by scored stucco and green tiles. The roof is topped with a hood-like cornice on brackets, also covered with red Mediterranean tile, and a peaked stuccoed parapet. The ground floor is occupied by Carrot Express restaurant.