121 West 79th Street

USA / New Jersey / West New York / West 79th Street, 121
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5-story Renaissance-revival residential building completed in 1892. Designed by William Schickel & Co., it is clad in tan Roman brick on the upper floors (with painted brownstone trim), and brownstone on the lower floors painted a warm light brown color. The original stoop on the right has been replaced by a basement entrance (at the now-1st floor, a few steps down from the sidewalk). It has black wrought-iron-and-glass double-doors with a cornice and lantern above. To the left is a 3-story projecting bay with angled sides and a window in each of its three facets. The windows at the lower level have iron grilles, and those at the former parlor floor have upper transom panes.

Replacing the original parlor-floor entrance is a smallish double-window with an iron mullion, with a fanlight set in a round-arch; there is an intricate molding around the arch, and three brackets at the top that support an extension of the band course topping the projecting bay at the 2nd floor, which extends straight across the east end of the facade. This band course is paneled, with a pattern of two rows of very small dentils outlining each panel, also seen in the band course between the lower two floors at the projecting bay.

The angled, projecting bay extends up into the brickwork of the 3rd floor, where it is capped by a stone railing with two rows of square cutouts in a grid. The single-window to the right has a brownstone surround with a small cornice. The 4th floor has three bays of round-arched single-windows with scrolled keystones; the eastern bay has a rounded shell-type sill. The top floor has four smaller windows set in round-arches. They share a common sill with a wave motif, and are separated by fluted Ionic columns that support the base of the roof cornice, which is brown-painted metal and has modillions above a frieze with garlands, small shields, and foliate ornament.
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Coordinates:   40°46'57"N   73°58'33"W
This article was last modified 7 years ago