568-580 Ninth Avenue (New York City, New York)

 rowhouse, apartment building, 1888_construction

A group of seven 4-story residential buildings completed together as row houses in 1888. The brick facades are all matching, only differing in paint color: green at Nos. 568-570 and 574-576, and beige at the others. Each facade has three bays of windows with footed stone sills and brown metal cornices, above a variety of ground-floor storefronts. At the 2nd floor of No. 570, the two southern 2nd-story windows have been replaced by a studio window, and there is a shallow, corbelled band across the windows of the 2nd floor. There are four fire escapes across the facades, the southern two larger and simpler, and the northern two with narrower and more delicate wrought-iron landings and ladders. The seven matching iron roof cornices (except for color, varying from black to gold) have rows of elaborate brackets above panels with circles in the centers.

Also joined (but spaced by a narrow 1-story storefront) is an additional 4-story structure at the east end at 360 West 42nd Street, formerly the Elk Hotel, which closed in 2012. This facade, as well as the main north facade, are clad in grey brick above storefronts. The narrow facade at the east has three narrow bays of windows with stone sills and brick lintels, with stone spandrels. There is a red brick parapet at the top. The western building has two windows at its east end, three in the middle, and another bay of single-windows at the west end, all with black stone footed sills and metal cornices. A black metal fire escape runs down the western of the three grouped windows. The roof cornice from the avenue side wraps around onto the north facade.

The ground floors are occupied by Empire Coffee & Tea, Himalaya Nails & Spa, 42 Nails & Spa, Port Authority Food & Deli, Dave's Tavern Irish Bar, Shorty's Philly Steaks, Foody's Dumpling, and Super Barber Shop & Hair Styling on the avenue side, with 99-cents Fresh Pizza, Time Square News and Convenience Store, and China Xiang restaurant on 42nd Street.