165 East 36th & 544-548 Third Avenue (New York City, New York)

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A group of four 4-story residential buildings completed mostly together in the 1860s. There is a contrasting 5-story section at the west end of the southern building in a Second Empire style that was likely constructed in the 1870s, and later altered. It now serves at the main entrance for the entire southern building at 165 East 36th Street.

It is clad in beige brick above a limestone ground floor. A glass door and sidelight is set in a stone surround, with a plain arched lintel and keystone. On either side is a small single-window with a decorative iron grille, and there is low iron fencing in front. The 2nd-4th floors have two bays of single-windows with simple brick lintels. Topping the 4th floor is a bracketed black metal cornice, and the 5th floor has a slate mansard with two curved dormer windows topped by Fleur de Lis.

To the right, the rest of the building is clad in red-painted brick (with most of the paint flaking away) above a ground floor of black pre-cast stone alternating with three bays of thin vertical wooden slats in a warm, dark-red hue, all set behind an iron fence except for at the east end. The top of the ground floor has a steel band course surmounted by a broader band of light-colored wood. At the west end is a black metal service door, and this whole building section is linked to the 5-story section at the west end by a column of beige stone quoins. The upper floors have two single-windows at the west end, two narrow double-windows near the middle, and two widely-spaced single-windows to the east, with simple stone sills and lintels. A black metal roof cornice matches the height of that cornice at the western section but is of a differing design, with scrolled brackets and panels. A metal fire escape with fairly wide landings runs down the western half of this building section. There is another set of quoins at the eastern edge.

The much narrower east facade on the avenue has a black metal-and-glass storefront at the ground floor, with the steel and wood bands continuing around from the south side. The upper floors have three bays of single-windows, with quoins at the southern edge, and a black fire escape running down the northern two bays. The roof cornice continues onto this facade, with doubled brackets.

Nos. 544-548, the next three buildings to the north, have the same basic facade design, with matching cornices. Each has a different metal, stone, and glass storefront at the ground floor, and is painted a different color at the upper floors. No. 544 is a brighter red, No. 546 is dark-red, and No. 548 is light-red. There is a black metal fire escape on the northern two bays of No. 544, and the 2nd-floor windows at No. 548 have shallow iron balconettes. There are quoins at the northern edge of No. 548 joining it to the neighboring building.

The ground floors are occupied by, from south to north, Tenho Ramen, Bagel Boss, Libretto's Pizzeria, and Sarge's Deli.