The English Speaking Union

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3-story Romanesque/Queen Anne-style commercial building completed in 1866 as a carriage house. Designed by Napoleon Le Brun for D. Willis James, it is clad in red brick above a ground floor of rough-faced brownstone. The wide carriage bay is centered within the rough-cut brownstone base, flanked by two smaller arched openings. The smaller openings have black wooden doors with fanlights, and the main central entrance has a red wooden door flanked by sidelights framed in black wood, all framed by white, fluted pilasters, with a large fanlight above the cornice.

The 2nd floor has a double-window in the middle, with a corbelled round-arch above it (trimmed in stone), and single-windows at the end bays. The 3rd floor has four round-arched single-windows, with terra-cotta panels of raised dots below the outer bays. The round-arched windows have brownstone keystones and impost blocks, and a brownstone band across the top. Thin, projecting brick pier frame the bays, with the outer ones extending down through the 2nd floor as well. Two flagpoles project from the base of the 2nd floor. The facade is crowned by a black wooden roof cornice above a brick corbel table.

The building originally housed horses and vehicles on the ground floor and provided living space on the top floor for stable hands or drivers. After his death in 1907, the James family retained ownership of the carriage house, hiring architect and builder Whitney-Steen Co. to renovate it in 1911. Further renovations by later owners in 1940 resulted in a drafting room and office on the ground floor, offices on the 2nd, and two apartments on the 3rd. In 1944 Leo Nejelski opened his newly-formed public relations firm in the building, and by 1961 the consulting engineer firm of Syska & Hennessy was headquartered here, until 1976. That year renovations were made for Aegis Productions, Inc. The apartments were converted to offices and a photographic studio installed on the two lower floors.

Today the former James carriage house is home to the English Speaking Union, which moved here from its former home on East 69th Street in 1999. It was founded in 1920 by Sir Evelyn Wrench who felt "that maintenance of the close personal and national ties forged during World War I was necessary for the preservation of peace," according to the group's website.