27-35 West 87th Street

 rowhouse, apartment building

A row of five 5-story (including raised basements) Renaissance-revival residential buildings completed together in 1896. Designed by John C. Burne, they are clad in brownstone painted various colors, and are arranged in a A-B-A-B-A pattern.

No. 27 at the east end, painted white, is the only house to retain a parlor-floor entrance, although the original stoop has been replaced by a modern style - a high, narrow, and straight metal stoop with stone steps between metal railings. The entrance has a black wooden door with four square glass panes below a tall transom. It and the two windows to the left are set in egg-and-dart moldings, and the windows have iron grilles that bow out at the bottoms and have a row of iron rosettes at the tops. There is a carved panel of Renaissance ornament below the eastern window. The ground-floor (basement) windows also have iron grilles with rosettes at the tops, and the piers at this level are rough-faced. A gated basement entry is below the stoop. A cornice sets off the 3rd floor; there is a 2-story, projecting, bowed bay of three windows at the middle of the 3rd-4th floors, with a ribbed base. The pilasters framing the windows have stylized capitals at the 3rd floor. Thin cornices cap both floors across the curved bay. The top floor has three single-windows with drip moldings, and the facade is crowned by a black metal roof cornice with brackets and a frieze of Renaissance ornament.

No. 29 is painted dark-tan. It has a ground-level entrance on the right, with a glass door a couple steps down from the sidewalk. Rough-faced piers frame two ground-floor windows with iron grilles to the left. The 2nd floor has three bays of single-windows edged in egg-and-dart moldings. The 3rd floor floor has a projecting bay of three windows, with angled, slightly-rounded ends; its base is elaborately carved with Renaissance ornament. The pilasters framing the windows have stylized capitals, and paired cornices cap the projecting bay. The 4th & 5th floors have three bays of single-windows, with hooded lintels and cornices carried on acanthus-leaf brackets at the 4th floor, and with drip moldings above the windows on the top floor. The facade is crowned by a black metal roof cornice with narrow brackets and a frieze with Renaissance ornament.

No. 31 is painted brown and matches the "A" design of No. 27, but has a ground-level entrance on the right, with a glass door and narrow sidelights down a few steps from the sidewalk. A wide window replaces the original parlor-floor entrance, and it retains the elaborately ornamented pilasters and brackets framing it, with an ornamented cornice across the top. The two single-windows to the left lack grilles. The black metal roof cornice also differs from No. 27's, with brackets placed at the bottom, alternating with rosettes, and a band of dentils above.

No. 33 is painted beige and repeats the "B" design of No. 29, but without the ornamental surround elements at the former parlor-floor entrance, where a narrow double-window now stands. The ground-level entrance below has a metal-framed glass door with a narrow sidelight and transom, a few steps down from the sidewalk. The two ground-floor windows to the left have iron grilles and are set behind an iron fence instead of the low stone walls seen at Nos. 29 & 31. The black metal roof cornice also matches No. 29's.

No. 35 at the west end is painted brown at repeats the "A" design, with a ground-level entrance on the right with a wood-and-glass door in a beveled molding, down a couple steps from the sidewalk. An iron fence fronts the two windows to the left. On this facade the former parlor-floor entrance is replaced by another single-window, set farther apart from the two to the left. There are also much simpler moldings around the windows, instead of the egg-and-dart decorations seen on the other facades. The black metal roof cornice matches that on No. 27. All five houses have been divided into apartments.