551-553 Third Avenue

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6-story Renaissance-revival double residential building completed in 1868. The twin facades are clad in white brick with beige stone and terra-cotta trim. The ground floor has a metal-framed glass door with narrow sidelights and a transom at both entrances, which are centered in each facade. To the outer ends are small metal-and-glass storefronts, and there is another storefront in the center, all with glass doors.

The upper floors have eight total bays of single-windows, with banded brick at the 2nd-4th floors. A vertical groove separates the sides sides of the facade. There are stone surrounds at the windows on the 2nd-4th floors, grouped together on the 3rd & 4th floors, with square terra-cotta panels between these floors at each bay bearing carved faces within shields, surrounded by bellflowers. The 3rd floor is underlined by a thin dentil and egg-and-dart molding, and between the 2nd & 3rd floors each half of the facade has a wide band of projecting pyramid shapes. The window surrounds at the outer bays of the 4th floor are topped by peaked pediments with sunbursts, flanked by small spheres. Those at the middle bays on both facade halves are topped by hooded lintels with foliate ornament.

The top two floors have terra-cotta banding, with another dentil and egg-and-dart sill course underlining the 5th floor. The 6th floor has a more elaborate terra-cotta band at its base, with alternating rosettes and small brackets below an egg-and-dart molding. The windows are round-arched, with egg-and-dart moldings along the voussoirs. The roof cornice has been removed, leaving a blank parapet. A pair of white metal fire escapes run down the middle two bays of each half of the facade.

The ground floor is occupied by Fix and Accessorize, Magnifique Salon.