202-214 West 85th Street

USA / New Jersey / West New York / West 85th Street, 202-214
 apartment building  Add category

A row of seven 5-story cooperative-apartment buildings completed together in 1908. The matching 202-206 buildings have one apartment per floor, while 208-212 are wider buildings with two apartments per floor. Together, the seven buildings comprise one co-op. The facades are clad in beige Roman brick with limestone trim above lightly-rusticated limestone ground floors.

Nos. 202-206 at the east end are each three bays wide, with very low stoops with iron handrails leading to entrances with grey-green wood-and-glass double-doors and transoms set within intricate triple moldings - bead moldings at the inner edge, a leafy molding in the middle, and an egg-and-dart molding at the outer edge. Overlapping the tops of the moldings are a central shield and swirling foliate ornament; the shape of the shields varies from entry to entry. No. 202 is set slightly higher than the other two, and has an extra step on its stoop. This entrance is on the left, as is the doorway at No. 206, while 204's is on the right. Flanking the stoops are basement areaways enclosed by wrought-iron fencing, and next to each doorway are two single-windows with iron grilles that bow out at the bottoms, and segmental-arches at the tops of the windows decorated with foliate ornament. The ground floors are capped by a stone cornice with an egg-and-dart molding.

The upper floors at Nos. 202-206 have full stone surrounds at the single-windows, with bracketed sills and cornices. At the 2nd floor the middle windows of each facade has a small shield and foliate ornament below its cornice. The 3rd floor has a triangular pediment above the middle windows, while the other two have stone spandrel panels between floors, decorated with swirling ornament with a rope molding frame. The 4th-floor windows are round-arched and have scrolled keystones. The top floors are set off by a stone band course with scrolls, and the facades are crowned by brown metal roof cornices with brackets, modillions, dentils, and patterned friezes.

The larger Nos. 208-214 at the west end have four bays of single-windows on the upper floors. The entrances are centered on the ground floors, with doors that match those on the east buildings, but set under fanlights in round-arches that have rope moldings and leaf keystones. Short, paneled sidewalls at the tops of the stoops support fluted columns with stylized capitals that carry entablatures with bead moldings at the bases, shell and flower designs in the middle, and an egg-and-dart molding along the top edges. The egg-and-dart moldings and cornices continue along the rest of the ground floors as well. To either side of these entrances are wide, segmental-arched double-windows divided by black iron mullions with slender colonnettes. There is small shield and ribbon ornament below the windows and basement areaways with black iron fencing. Each building is set slightly lower than the one to its east due to the slope of the street. The upper floors match those of Nos. 202-214, only with an extra window per floor. Additionally, the piers at the top floor have vertical panels with central rosettes.
Nearby cities:
Coordinates:   40°47'13"N   73°58'35"W
This article was last modified 6 years ago