1845 Broadway

 1884_construction, historical layer / disappeared object, commercial building

4-story commercial building completed in 1884. Designed by Henry J. Hardenbergh, this building actually pre-dates the name of the street it is on. Before the name Broadway was extended north of Columbus Circle, the wide, park-enhanced road was simply called ‘The Boulevard.’ The original address for this building was 15-17 Boulevard. As far back as the 1910s the building housed Bustanoby’s Cafe de la Paix, an uptown branch of the influential restaurant. During the years after 1910, Bustanoby’s helped introduce the concept of public dancing to high society, starting a citywide craze. In the 1940s there was an auditorium inside the building known as the Garrison Playhouse, along with a dance academy, the School of Creative Movement.

The facade is surfaced in beige stucco above a ground floor of black stone. The central entrance has glass-and-metal double-doors, organized into 2-over-5 panes, below a large transom. There are modernized storefront to either side. The upper floors have subtle keyed quoins at the edges. The 2nd floor has five bays of large round-arched windows, with small keystones, and the 3rd floor has four bays of windows - segmental-arched single-windows in the middle, and square double-windows at the ends, all with small keystones. The top floor, with a metal gutter running along its base, has two small gables in the center (with segmental-arched single-windows), and two larger gables at the ends (with wider segmental-arched windows). Rising above and behind the gables is a pitched shingle roof. A white metal fire escape runs from the north middle gable at the top floor, and then down and across to the north bay at the 3rd & 2nd floors. The ground floor is occupied by Sabon cosmetics, and Sapphire restaurant, with Salon SCK on the 2nd floor.