50 Manhattan Avenue (New York City, New York)

 apartment building  Add category

6-story early-modern residential building completed in 1938. Designed by H. Herbert Lilien, it is clad in reddish-brown brick, painted a cream color at the basement level, which is almost fully exposed above the street level on the south facade due to the slope of the site.

The main entrance is at the rear of a light court in the middle of the west facade on the avenue. It has a metal-framed glass door, sidelights, and transom below a metal canopy, with a narrow window to either side. There is some decorative brickwork around the doorway. The upper floors on the rear wall of the light court have two bays of double-windows, and the sidewalls have two bays of single-windows at the rear, with a double-window near the front.

The north wing of the west facade has five single-windows toward the north, and a narrow double-window bay at its south edge. There are two very small, low basement window openings near the south edge. The south wing of this facade has a narrow double-window at both ends and three single-windows in the middle. The basement level has three somewhat taller openings. A cream-colored iron fire escape runs down the middle of both wings, which are topped by rather simple brick roof parapets.

The south facade on 102nd Street has a narrow double-window at the west end (with a single-window at the basement level), followed by a single-window next to a smaller window, and then eight single-windows (the 2nd-to-last one another smaller window), and a narrow double-window end bay. There is another fire escape over the last three single-window bays at the east end, and at the basement level a single-window replaces the east end bay's double-window, there is one single-window below the easternmost two single-window bays, and the next bay has a metal service door.

The east elevation is clad in the same brick, painted brighter red at the top floor. It has a double-window bay at the both ends, with 11 single-windows in between. The building contains 49 apartment units.