231 West 18th Street

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3-story (plus raised basement) Italianate residential building completed in 1854 as a townhouse. It is clad in red brick above a rusticated brownstone basement and stoop. The stoop and basement entrance both have black iron handrails. At the parlor floor, the entry is deeply recessed, framed by paneled pilasters with a shallow arch and cornice. The two windows to the left have thick brown-painted sills, framing pilasters and cornices. The windows on the upper floors are simpler, with brownstone sills and lintels. A black metal fire escape runs down the eastern bay above the doorway. The building is crowned by a black metal roof cornice with brackets and paneled frieze.

By the early 1890's No. 231 was being operated as a boarding house. Around 1899 Peter J. Dempsey then purchased the house. And while his family did rent rooms, the house was no longer a full-scale boarding house. It was sold in 1909 to J. Odell Whitenack, who returned the house to a single-family home. In 1925 Whitenack completed renovations to the house that turned the basement and first floor to manufacturing space. An apartment on shared the second floor with "factory" space; and the third floor now held one apartment and an office. It was most likely at this time that the stoop was removed and show windows installed in the basement and parlor level.

The house was lost in foreclosure during the Depression. Aurelia Otero leased it from the bank in 1939 and converted it to factory space throughout, with offices on the 3rd floor. The basement level became home to the Spanish-American Printing Company. The configuration remained until 1962. That year two apartments were installed on the top floor. In 2011 plans were filed for a facade renovation that included a new stoop and exterior windows. The basement level is now occupied by The Sleep Loft mattress store.

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