Knickerbocker Jewelry Building (New York City, New York)

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4-story Neo-Baroque office building completed in 1904. Designed by Simeon B. Eisendrath for The Knickerbocker Jewelry Co., it has a 2-story base of brown-painted cast-iron. The 2nd floor has large show windows that were at eye-level of the passengers on the passing elevated train that ran along 6th Avenue at the time; the ground floor storefront was replaced in 1925. The upper floors have rusticated limestone piers, with three bays facing the avenue and five bays facing 16th Street. On the west (avenue side) facade, there are large, decorated brown cast-iron spandrels between the 3rd & 4th floors. The bays are capped at the top floor by shallow cast-iron arches with large iron keystones. Four console brackets on the piers support an elaborate brown iron roof cornice; at the center it curls upward like a wave, framing a cartouche.

The south facade's 2nd floor has segmental-arches in the three middle bays, with brown-painted keystones at the left two. The western bay has a brown cornice and show windows wrapping around from the front facade, and the eastern bay has two narrow windows, framed by rusticated piers. These piers continue up through the floors above, and rusticated piers also frame the western bay's top floors. Here, there are angled, projecting bay windows framed in brown cast-iron with decorative spandrels. At the top is a similar treatment of the roof cornice on the front facade, with brackets, a swooping wave crest in the center, and a cartouche. The roof cornice continues in simpler form across the rest of the facade. The center bays have large square windows, and the eastern bay has narrow paired windows. A smaller brown cornice runs across the top of the 4th-floor windows, and a wrought-iron fire escape runs down the eastern bay.

By 1918, the jewelry company have moved north to the Arcade Building, and 574 6th was leased to a millinery firm. For the rest of the century, it served a variety of business. The ground floor is currently occupied by Hollywood Diner, and Shakti Newsstand. The building is now a New York City landmark.

s-media.nyc.gov/agencies/lpc/lp/1805.pdf