256 Fifth Avenue

 office building, Moorish Revival (architecture)

6-story Moorish-revival office building completed in 1893. Designed by Alfred Zucker and John Edelman as a store-and-lofts building for Charles Baudoine, its ground-level black granite storefront and recessed entrance was installed sometime in the mid 1900s. The original 3-bay (except the 5th floor) facade of brick and terra-cotta exists above it. The building has been described by the AIA Guide as "Neo-Venetian Gothic, [a] somewhat Moorish phantasmagoria". The 2nd floor has ornate geometric carvings around the windows and is topped by a dentiled cornice, while the 3rd-4th floors features colossal columns with geometric decorations, Moorish arches with smooth architraves, spandrels with blind arcades, and brick piers. The 5th floor has paired windows with transoms and foliated terra-cotta window surrounds, while the 5-bay 6th floor has smaller columns and Moorish arches with smooth architraves. The building is topped by a bracketed roof cornice with dentil courses and finials.

The building originally featured an ornate projecting balcony at the 6th floor. It was removed in 2000, leaving vacant slots in the decoration where the supporting brackets had been.