The Frederic Fleming House

 senior citizen home, 1850s construction

7-story residential building originally completed in 1855 as two separate 3-bay houses. In 1929 they were combined, altered and raised in height by the City Federation Hotel, which was described in the Building Department application as a "semi-charitable organization to provide a place of residence for young women in modest circumstances." The building was later acquired by the State of New York for use as a residential treatment center by its Youth Division. It was known as the Sheppard Youth Home. In the 1980s it was a hotel, and had become quite run-down and dilapidated. Finally, in 1991, it was renovated into a clean and comfortable home for some of the city's elderly homeless. The project was a collaborative effort by New York State, Trinity Church, Hilton Hotel Corporation, the Coast Guard, the West Side Federation for Senior Housing and several block associations in Chelsea. The building was renamed the Frederic Fleming House, and has single and double rooms for 47 men and women, a new dining room, kitchen, lounge and a garden.

The style of the building is still typical of 1929, with the entire facade clad in Flemish bond brickwork, and the first two stories having simulated rustication. A stone band course crosses the facade just above the splayed brick lintels of the second-floor windows, and is inscribed with "THE FREDERIC FLEMING HOUSE". The windows, all the same size, have stone lintels. Starting at the level of the 7th floor, the sides of the facade curve inward to reduce the top floor to four bays instead of six. The brick parapet is topped by a narrow band of masonry faced with a repetitive motif of palmettes. The stone entrance enframement which is the major decorative element of the facade is "Jacobean" in inspiration and design.