44-54 9th Avenue

 apartment building, movie / film / TV location, historical layer / disappeared object

3.5-story Greek-revival residential building originally completed in 1846 as six rowhouses. Ground-floor storefronts were installed in probably the 1870s. The upper stories still retain their brick facades (now stuccoed and painted white) and molded, pedimented stone window lintels and molded wood box cornices. A peaked roof extends across the structures, with original gabled dormers at Nos. 44 & 46. The old dormers of the other addresses have been partially concealed by larger dormers installed in 1995.

With the exception of No. 54 (which has an unusual wedge-shaped plan), the buildings' upper-story living quarters were usually divided into two apartments. By the early 1900s, most of the lessees had several lodgers boarding with their families. By 1915, the number of residents per apartment had sharply increased and many of their tenants were dock workers and market employees.

In 1916 James S. Maher was commissioned to completely renovate the buildings, converting the upper floors to a bachelor apartment building with an entrance at No. 48, marked by a neo-Georgian surround. Kitchens were added to the apartments in 1938; the upper stories remain in residential use. In the 1980s, the Old Homestead Steakhouse opened in the ground floor of Nos. 52-54, with a gourmet butcher's shop at No. 50. The restaurant now occupied the space next door at 56 9th Avenue. The ground floors of 44-54 are occupied by The Diner, Solstice sunglass boutique, L'Occitane boutique, and Le Pain Quotidien restaurant.

The interior and exterior of The Diner restaurant were used as a filming location for S3E9 of the Starz Network original series "Power".

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