128 West 18th Street

USA / New Jersey / Hoboken / West 18th Street, 128
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3-story commercial building originally completed in 1864 as a 2-story stable - the 3rd floor was added in 1905. It is one of nine remaining stable buildings from an original row of 13. Executed in a round-arched utilitarian style related to the German Rundbogenstil, it still features a mix of Romanesque and Renaissance-revival details. The red-painted brick and stone facade has a narrow pedestrian door at the west side, topped by a round-arch, and a former window at the east has been altered to another doorway. The wide center bay originally contained a pair of wooden carriage doors; there is now a glass restaurant storefront framed by the original green cast-iron pilasters.

The 2nd-floor piers carry an arcade in which the center arch is both wider and taller than the flanking arches, all of which have stone sills and keystones. A small pilaster bisects the center bay into a pair of arched windows topped by a green molded wood surround that features a central bulls-eye. The 2nd floor is capped by a string course and a projecting stone course which forms the sill for the 3rd-floor windows. This floor is also faced in red-painted brick and has four regularly spaced round-arched windows, slightly taller and narrower than the ones below. The building is crowned by a brick entablature with a corbelled cornice and stone coping.

The stable was erected by Susan and Valentine Hall, who owned it until 1905, when it was sold to Catherine Foley. She commissioned George McCola to add a third floor and install a ramp so that horses could be kept on the 2nd floor. The building remained a stable until 1918, when it was converted to a storehouse for paper stock and rags. By the late 1930s it had become a service garage, and was then occupied by Nagel Roof Company. The ground floor is occupied by Portale restaurant, along with the ground floor of No. 126.
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Coordinates:   40°44'24"N   73°59'46"W
This article was last modified 6 months ago