334 West 20th Street (New York City, New York)

 townhouse  Add category

3-story (plus raised basement) Greek-revival residential building completed in 1836 as a townhouse for Richard Redford, an officer of the Commercial Bank of New-York. One of the earliest houses in Chelsea, it is three bays wide and clad in orange brick above a stone basement. The stoop has intricate wrought-iron railings, with the base flanked by brownstone pedestals topped by iron urns. The house has a stone-framed doorway with a sheet-metal triangular pediment added later. The windows have stone sills and lintels, with black wooden exterior shutters, and the building is crowned by a recent, simple white metal roof cornice.

The home had a long succession of owners, and was operated as a boarding house in the late 1800s. The house was leased, briefly, by St. Peter's Church as its rectory just after the turn of the century, before being returned to use as a rooming house. In 1975 a renovation resulted in two apartments each in the basement and parlor level, and a duplex above. In 2019 the house underwent a two-year renovation. The facade was restored and the interior returned to a single-family dwelling.