Yeshe Nyingpo Monastery

 temple, Greek Revival (architecture), 1840s construction, buddhist monastery

3-story (plus raised basement) Greek-revival residential building completed in 1846 as a townhouse for Edward S. Mesier. It is clad in red brick above a rusticated brownstone basement and stoop. The basement is fronted by an areaway paved in concrete with open garden space which is enclosed by an ornate iron fence with stylized classical detail. To the left of the stoop are two windows with iron grilles.

Surmounting the stoop at the parlor floor is the recessed entrance containing a wood door that has eight windows with diagonal muntins. This door is flanked by wood Corinthian pilasters, in turn flanked by 4-pane sidelights, supporting a wood entablature capped by a transom containing three panes. A glass lantern has been attached to each pilaster. The entrance is framed by a projecting eared surround of stone supporting an entablature. The remainder of the parlor floor contains two window openings containing sealed panels along the bottom and paired wood sash casement windows; the panels were originally the bases of casement doors that opened onto an iron balcony (now removed). Each window opening is crowned by a projecting, black-painted stone lintel.

The 2nd floor has three smaller windows; each has a black-painted stone sill and a molded stone lintel. The 3rd floor windows are even smaller, with the same sills and lintels. The facade is surmounted by a modillioned metal roof cornice, now painted black.

The newly completed house was sold to Rev. Richard W. Dickinson in 1847. He moved out in 1864, leasing the house to the family of merchant William Turnbull, but the following year Dickinson's daughter Annie and her husband Granville Byam Smith moved in, remaining until 1870. In 1871 John D. Prince, a broker, moved his family into 19 West 16th Street. Rev. Richard W. Dickinson died in 1874, and left 19 West 16th Street to Annie and Granville Smith. At the time the renter was operating the residence as a boarding house. The residence became a private home again in 1884 when the Smiths and their three children moved back in.

In 1903 the Smiths leased 19 West 16th Street to Mrs. Antha Minerva Virgil for five years, who established the Vigil Piano School in the house. The Smith estate sold the house to William Lustgarten & Co. in 1914, and it once again became a boarding house, now operated by Jennie C. Wright.

In 1921 the house was converted to two- and four-room apartments. Then, in 1972, the basement through 2nd floor were remodeled as the offices of the American Foundation for the Blind. There were still two apartments on the top floor. The American Foundation for the Blind was replaced by Yeshe Nying Po, a Tibetan Buddhist group, in 1976.

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