24 & 26 West 68th Street (New York City, New York)

 townhouses, 1896_construction, Renaissance Revival (architecture)

A pair of almost mirror-image 5-story Renaissance-revival residential buildings originally completed as the eastern two units of eight rowhouses in 1896. Designed by George F. Pelham, they retain their high stoops and parlor-floor entrances. Both facades are faced in brownstone, No. 24 painted beige and No. 26 painted ruddy brown. The stoop at No. 24 is on the east end, and that of No. 26 is at the west end, both leading up to paneled wood-and-glass double-doors and transoms. The lower two floors are rusticated, and there are two windows on both levels to the inside of the stoops (with iron grilles at the ground level). The parlor-floor openings have splayed lintels.

The 3rd floor at both houses has a projecting, rounded bay of three windows with two brackets at the bottom. At No. 24 the windows are separated by paneled pilasters, and the projecting bay is topped by an egg-and-dart molding above carved foliate ornament at the center. No. 26 also has carved crests flanked by foliate ornament, but at the ends instead of the center, and the projecting bay continues to the 4th floor, where it terminates in a dentiled cornice. The 4th floor of No. 24 has two large windows in full surrounds, with small cornices. The 5th floors are identical, set off by thin string courses, each with two windows in full surrounds with small cornices. The facades are crowned by black metal roof cornices with modillions, dentils, and friezes with a Neo-Grec pattern.