Odd Fellows Hall (New York City, New York)

 office building, NRHP - National Register of Historic Places, 1840s construction

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6-story Anglo-Italianate office building completed in 1848 as a 4-story structure. Designed by Trench & Snook for the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, one of the many mutual aid societies and fraternal organizations formed in New York in the 19th century, this was the first such building specifically built for the group. The organization was founded in Manchester, England in 1812. By 1819, they were present in the United States, with their first hall dedicated in Baltimore in 1831.

One of the architects of the New York hall, John B. Snook, was himself an Odd Fellow. A rooftop addition designed by John Buckingham was completed in 1882. The Trench & Snook-designed lower four floors are clad in brownstone. The two major facades, facing Grand and Centre Streets, are each defined by five bays, with the central ones projecting slightly. The bays are united by four reeded colossal pillars with Corinthian capitals. On each of these two facade, the pilasters, set on bases, extend from the rusticated podium-like ground floor to a wide entablature.

Nine bays make up the Baxter Street facade. On this front there are no pilasters, although the middle five bays project slightly as do the central sections on the other two fronts. The rusticated ground floor forms a substantial base for the upper floors, which are punctuated by rectangular window openings. The windows at the 2nd & 3rd floors are linked by paneled spandrels, while the 4th-floor windows are accented by molded sills. The wide entablature with dentiled and modillioned cornice extends around all three facades of the building.

The Odd Fellows Hall was originally capped by a dome, surrounded by a balustrade. This was removed when John Buckingham incorporated two more floors into a mansard roof addition. As opposed to the smooth stone used by Trench & Snook in the original building, red brick was employed in the lower floor of the addition, the upper being sheathed in slate. The dormer windows are capped with triangular pediments. Brick chimneys with incised Queen-Anne details extend from projecting bases with vertical incised strips on the lower level of the addition. These chimneys visually carry on the vertical line of the pilasters from the main portion of the building. There are black iron fire escapes on the west and east facades.

The Odd Fellows organization moved further uptown in the 1880s, and the building was later converted to offices.