Florist Building

 flower shop / florist, industrial building, commercial building

4-story Italianate commercial building completed in 1854 as a school for the Public School Society of New York as the 20th Ward School 48. Designed by Amnon Macvey (Superintendent of School Buildings), it was originally the former P.S. 48, and is one of the three oldest surviving school buildings in Manhattan.

The facade is clad in red-painted brick with a ground floor lined with four metal-and-glass storefronts and a central entrance with two sets of metal double-doors and transoms in a green-painted stone surround.

The upper floors have three middle bays framed by projecting piers that form round-arches over the 4th-floor windows, which are themselves round-arches. There are narrow double-windows on the 2nd & 3rd floors, topped by flat, green stone lintels with peaks topping them. The three outer bays on either side also have narrow double-windows, and they are segmental-arched at each floor, with thin, green stone lintels. The windows grow shorter at each floor. The facade is crowned by a black metal roof cornice with scrolled brackets and a central pediment. A flagpole rises from the top of the pediment, and two more project outward from the middle of the facade at the 4th floor and top of the 2nd floor.

The upper part of the east elevation is also red brick and has two bays of narrow, segmental-arched double-windows. The rear section is unpainted brown brick and has two bays of wide 4-over-2 windows. The roof cornice extends back across the front two bays as well.

Around the turn of the 20th century, the site became home to the Douglass Club, which was one of the top African American hotspots of the era. it now primarily houses florist companies. The ground floor is occupied by G. Page Wholesale Flowers, Caribbean Cuts, Abraflora, and Foliage Garden.

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