Stiehl Building (New York City, New York)

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6-story Renaissance-revival office building completed in 1903 as the Flynt Building. Designed by H. Waring Howard, Jr. as a store-and-loft building, it extends through the block from 19th to 20th Street., with two virtually identical facades. The building displays a restrained use of ornament and a prominent cornice.

The neo-Renaissance facades of this building, of stone and brick, are divided into two major bays. The 1st and 2nd floors, which form a base, are divided into two bays by rusticated Ionic pilasters. The original stone trabeated entrances are located by each corner pier and each supports a dentiled cornice. Next to the doorways are display windows on each side of the central pier. Four decorative square metal-sheathed panels in each bay support the 2nd-floor sill. On the 2nd floor, each bay contains four windows separated by brick mullions. The rusticated Ionic pilasters support a heavy bracketed cornice which acts as a sill for the 3rd-floor windows.

Buff-colored brick pilasters divide floors 3-5 into two bays continuing the pattern established below. Each bay contains four windows separated by brick mullions. Above the windows a brick belt course with voussoirs supports tiny fluted pilasters separating paneled blind transoms, the whole supporting a sill upon which rests the story above. This treatment continues to the 5th floor, where large spandrel panels interrupt the pattern.

The 6th floor, while continuing the 2-bay system, differs in detail. Each window is set in an arched opening, with continuous brick voussoirs giving unity to the composition. The pilasters are now split into two narrow pilasters with brick infill, supporting a bracketed black metal roof cornice that terminates the facade.

Early tenants of the building included shirt and piano manufacturers, as well as the New York Toy Company. The building was named after a prominent tenant, Stiehl Furniture, in the 1930s.