40 East 23rd Street

 apartment building, 1860s construction

5-story residential building completed in 1869 as a townhouse. It was renovated to commercial use in 1925, with a new 2-story storefront. The ground floor has since been modernized further, with a silver metal-and-glass storefront and entry. The 2nd floor is black cast-iron, with paneled pilasters framing four windows. The upper floors are clad in red brick with vertical grooves separating the three bays, the end bays being narrower. Each is topped by a black round-arched lintel at the 5th floor, and has black-painted spandrels between floors. A black iron fire escape runs down the facade, which is crowned by a black metal roof cornice with a peaked gable in the center. The upper floors were returned to residential use in the late 1900s. The ground floor is occupied by Zucker's Bagels and Smoked Fish.