Chester Court

 apartment building, 1925_construction, housing cooperative, Renaissance Revival (architecture)

155-foot, 14-story Italian-Renaissance cooperative-apartment building completed in 1925. Designed by Emery Roth, it is clad in reddish-brown brick with multi-colored glazed terra-cotta ornament above a rusticated limestone ground floor and basement. There is a matching twin building to the north called Edna Court.

The main entrance in centered on the south facade on 89th Street, with glass-and-bronze double-doors below a rounded, blue canvas canopy extending out over the sidewalk, set in a round-arch edged in a floral pattern. To the left are 10 bays of single-windows and a wider one at the end. As the street slopes down toward the west, the basement level becomes exposed, with grated openings below five of the window bays. At the west end is a gated service entrance. To the right is a small double-window with a wrought-iron grate, followed by two small, square openings set up high, and a plate-glass storefront at the east end. The ground floor along the avenue is lined with metal-and-glass storefronts below blue canvas awnings. The ground floor is capped by a band course with a row of rosettes and dentils.

The upper floors on the south facade span 21 bays of single-windows, the end bays spaced wider apart and with wider windows.. The 3rd floor is a flourish of color, with projecting terra-cotta on the piers and in arches above the windows, in blues, oranges, and pale greens. Vases, leaves, and other ornament decorates the piers, with rosettes between the arches and cowskulls and garlands over the arches. There are balustrades on fields of blue below each window, with panels of more ornament below each pier, with scroll-like forms below them. The 4th floor has surrounds with rope moldings at the windows.

The 11th floor is set off by an ornamented band course and has 2-story terra-cotta surrounds ending in round arches at the 12th floor, except at the end bays. There are roundels within the arches, and elaborate, multi-colored spandrel panels between the two floors. Another band course sets off the 14th floor, and the facade is crowned by a scalloped beige roof cornice.

The east facade on the avenue spans 12 bays, with the end bays again wider and spaced farther apart. There is the same ornament as seen on the south facade. The north facade lacks the ornament, but has a continuation of the roof cornice. There is a light well in the middle.

The building was converted to a co-op in 1981, with 115 apartments. The ground floor along the avenue is occupied by Sherwin-Williams Paints, Gold Leaf Stationers, and Artisan Cafe.