Capitol Hall Residence

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10-story Romanesque/Renaissance-revival residential building completed in 1914 as a tenement. Designed by George F. Pelham, it was later converted to an apartment hotel. The facade is clad in orange-tan brick and limestone, with a grey granite water table. The 2-story base has banded brick, interrupted by four stone bays. Between the middle two stone bays are two bays of paired windows, and in between the outer stone bays there is one bay of paired windows at each end. At the ground floor these have black iron railings across the lower halves. The eastern stone bay has a freight entrance with a metal gate; the next stone bay has the main entrance, with recessed glass-and-wood double-doors, and the two western bays have double-windows with black iron railings. All four stone bays have large, round-arched double-windows at the 2nd floor and iron railings lower than those on the ground floor; all of the double-windows have beige metal mullions. Each arch has a keystone and a pair of roundels. Between the two floors the entrance bay has a textured, blocky keystone with two splayed blocks below an egg-and-dart molding, while the other three bays have stone spandrels with central urns flanked by drapery garlands, rosettes, and ribbons. The piers at the ends of the stone bays have capitals with short egg-and-dart moldings, topped by small, square panels with flowers, between which are stone panels, all surmounted by a stone band course that caps the base.

The upper floors also have paired windows in the bays above those on the ground floor, while the bays above the stone sections there are more double-windows with metal mullions. They are segmental-arched at the 3rd floor, with brick surrounds and scrolled keystones. The double-window bays at the 4th floor have shallow stone balconies with black iron railings. These are repeated at the outer paired-window bays at the 6th floor, and at the middle paired-window bays at the 8th floor. The double-window bays have brick spandrels with patterned brickwork. At the 8th floor the paired windows are topped by splayed brick lintels with keystones and stone imposts, and the double-window bays are topped by stone lintels with ornamented keystones and imposts. A stone cornice with a wave motif sets off the 9th floor, which has narrow brick pilasters edging every bay, with shallow brick arches on top, each with a keystone and filled with stone ornament. The piers have vertical brick rectangle outlines, and between each arch is a stone panel with bas-relief Renaissance ornament. The main roof line at the 9th floor is marked by a modillioned stone cornice. A small penthouse level is set back above the cornice, and the building has a central light well. The front part of the west facade is clad in limestone with no openings.

In 1983, it was first converted from an SRO hotel, and is now run by Goddard Riverside Community Center. Capitol Hall provides housing for men and women who are vulnerable to homelessness because of their age, income or disability. The building now contains 201 single-room occupancy units, as well as offices and community space. It was fully renovated in 2016.

In the 1950's, Capitol Hall was operated by the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society as a shelter for Jewish immigrants who had survived the Holocaust.

www.nytimes.com/2023/11/26/nyregion/migrant-crisis-holo...