237 West 18th Street

 Romanesque (architecture), apartment building

5-story Romanesque-revival residential building completed in 1890 to a design by architect/builder William Rankin. The 4-bay facade is clad in yellow and brown brick, with a striped pattern on the upper floors. The basement level is also striped, surrounded by black iron railings, and split by a central stoop. The first floor has brown brick with zig-zags of yellow brick framing the two windows; there are bands of rough-faced stone at the top and bottom of the brick. Below each window is a gilded gold panel with foliate designs. The entrance is framed by projecting columns with gilded bases, gilded lion's heads, and gilded Corinthian capitals supporting an entablature of gilded foliate design.

At the upper floors the outer bays are flanked by narrow projecting pilasters over the piers, and the 2nd-floor windows have round-arches with stone fan-shapes and alternating colors of brick architraves. Stone lintels cap the 3rd-floor windows, and a stone cornice runs above this floor, interrupting the narrow piers. The piers are also broken at the top of the 4th floor, where they give way to even narrow squared stone columns, with more round-arches above the 4th-floor windows. The piers are topped by rough-stone capitals at the top floor. The original roof cornice has been removed. A brown metal fire escape runs down the center of the facade.

The first floor is occupied by a psychic service.

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