Bell Building (New York City, New York)

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150-foot, 11-story Beaux-Arts office building completed in 1906. Designed by Maynicke & Franke with Snelling & Potter, it is clad in beige smooth stucco above a 3-story rusticated limestone base. The south facade is six bays wide, the east facade has three 1/2 bays, and there is a 1-bay rounded corner. The storefront in the southern two bays on the avenue was rebuilt with a dentiled cornice of formed grey concrete. It continues on the other side of the end pier, creating a right angle at the corner on the ground floor (above, the rest of the corner is rounded). The northern part of the east facade has the main entrance with a metal canopy, and a smaller storefront. Both are framed by rusticated piers on grey granite bases that have attached lanterns, and are topped by stone panels. Above the main entrance is a half-bay of single-windows, and the northern bay of paired windows breaking the heavily rusticated facade. A 3-story molding resembling drooping flower petals surrounds the south two bays; the molding is interrupted at the top by a panel with a cartouche and acanthus leaves. Within the molding are green cast-iron framed windows at the 2nd & 3rd floors, consisting of a pair of 2-over-3 windows alternating with three narrow 1-over-3 windows. The larger 2nd-floor windows are topped by rounded broken pediments with foliate designs and shells.

The rounded corner has a tripartite window with a similar design and pediment. On the south facade, the seven rusticated piers rise the full three floors from their granite bases. The bays in between have a service door at the west end, and original projecting storefront, except for the 3rd bay from the east; its storefront has been filled in, but retains the tripartite green cast-iron transom at the upper part of the ground floor. The two other western bays have the same transoms over cast-iron framed projecting show windows with angled sides. The two eastern bays have taller projecting storefronts, with angled sides, shorter transoms on top, and sloped green metal roofs where the spandrels are located in the other bays. These cast-iron spandrels (between the 1st & 2nd floors) mirror the tripartite divisions of the windows, and have circles in the center panels. They have an intricate egg-and-dart/dentil molding at the bottom edge, and an organic textured ribbon molding at the top edge that projects out in the center. The top two floors of the base follow the same pattern as the other facade, with green cast-iron tripartite windows, pilasters, spandrels and rounded pediments. The entire base is capped by a dentiled stone cornice that wraps around the corner.

The 6-story midsection has paired windows in each bay on the south and east facades, with simple stone sills (the rounded corner has single-windows, and the half-bay on the east side has single-windows). The northern bay only reaches up to the 5th floor, where it sets back, mirroring the setback on the neighboring building. A rounded cornice sets off the 2-story crown, which is clad in coursed beige brick. The half-bay has a single-window on each floor; the other windows are divided by fluted Ionic columns, and piers adorned with cartouches at every other bay. Ornamented green cast-iron spandrels divide the floors between each window. A frieze with intricate carvings runs above the top floor, surmounted by a dentiled roof cornice.

The north elevation, above the setback, is plain stucco. Its early tenants included Reed & Barton Co. Silversmiths and the Garden City Company. The ground floor is occupied by a CVS Pharmacy, and Mystique Boutique.

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