112-116 West 78th Street

 rowhouse, apartment building

A trio of 4-story (plus raised basements) Neo-Grec residential buildings completed together in 1886. Designed by William Baker, these three narrow houses are arranged in an A-B-A configuration, clad in painted brownstone. Each has a high, unpainted stoop at the left leading up to a parlor-floor entrance, with a basement window win an iron grill to the right of the stoops. The stoops have iron handrails with short, squat, stone newel posts at the base, and basement entries in the sides of the stoops. No. 112 is painted a cream color, No. 114 is a mauve hue, and No. 116 is white.

No. 112 at the east end of the row has wood-and-glass double-doors and a transom set between thin, paneled pilasters. There is a cornice at the top of the parlor floor, continuing across all three facades, with dentils above the doorways; the pilasters continue up to the base of the 2nd floors. The 2nd & 3rd floors have a single-window on the left and a wider window to the right. The east window at the 2nd floor is framed by pale-yellow colored stone keys at its lower half, with scrolls transitioning into a lintel and cornice at the top. The 3rd-floor east window has the same keys extending slightly higher on the window, with a hooded lintel and cornice. The west window at the 2nd floor has wider keys at its lower half, rather flat fluted brackets above them, and a small projecting stone balconette supported by three brackets above, with an iron railing. The 3rd-floor window (opening onto the balconette) is flanked by paneled pilasters, and has an entablature on top crowned by a wave pattern. A thin sill course sets off the top floor, which has two bays of even single-windows between paneled pilasters. The facade is crowned by a cream-colored metal roof cornice.

No. 114 in the middle also has wood-and-glass double-doors and a matching transom. The pilasters around the entry are the same, only painted dark-brown, and the window to the right is flanked by narrow, brown, exterior wooden shutters.The cornice above the parlor floor is also painted dark-brown, as are the keys and other window decorations on the upper floors, which match those on the narrower single-windows of No. 112. The roof cornice is painted white with dark-brown brackets and ogees in the fascia board.

No. 116 at the west end matches the design of No. 112. The exceptions are that the entry has paneled wooden double-doors, there is a decorative wrought-iron grille over the parlor-floor windows, and all the trim, including the balconette and roof cornice, are painted black. This house has been converted to apartments.