The Webster Apartments

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141-foot, 13-story residential building completed in 1923 for Josiah and Charles Webster as affordable housing for female employees of the R.H. Macy Department Store. Designed by Parish & Schroeder, it is clad in red brick above a beige-painted limestone basement level along 34th Street.

The building is U-shaped above the lower floors, wrapping around a central, south-facing light well. The lower floors of the south facade are slightly recessed at the center, where the main entrance splits the basement level. Granite steps ascend to a recessed entry vestibule with metal-and-glass double-doors at the rear wall, below a transom. The vestibule is flanked by pairs of flat Doric pilasters, in front of which are two round Doric columns supporting a stone entablature on which is carved "THE WEBSTER APARTMENTS". The entryway is capped by a dentiled cornice with a stone balustrade in front of the central 2nd-floor window. To either side of the stairs, the basement level has five bays of square openings with grid-like iron grilles, although the westernmost one is replaced by a recessed service entrance with a black door.

Above these ten bays, the 1st floor has tall single-windows with decorative wrought-iron grilles. In alternating fashion, they have either recessed brick surrounds and splayed stone lintels topped by rounded pediments with scrolled keystones, or simpler splayed brick lintels with stone keystones. The middle rounded pediments at each wing are adorned with shields flanked by garlands, and the outer ones have roundels flanked by cornucopias. There are shorter single-windows on the floors above. Those on the 3rd floor have projecting stone sills and splayed brick lintels with stone keystones. A broad stone limestone band course caps the 3rd floor, with a smaller band across the 4th floor. The windows on the upper floors have simple stone sills.

Another broad band course separates the 11th & 12th floors, with balustrades at each bay. Slightly-projecting brick piers run from the 12th-13th floors, with modest stone capitals, and stone spandrels between these floors are decorated with garlands. The roof line is marked at both wings by a dentiled, cream-colored stone cornice.

There is a tripartite window at the center bay of the 2nd floor, above the main entrance, with paneled stone pilasters framing the windows. There are no windows at this bay on the 3rd floor; instead, the broad band course is highlighted by a pair of scrolls flanked by large cartouche with floral ornament. Above this is a flagpole, and the setback into the light well. The side walls have no windows, while the rear wall of the light well has a central section with two single-windows, and outer sections both with paired single-windows.

The east elevation has several bays of single-windows without ornament. The west facade on Dyer Avenue has an orange brick wall along its base. Near the south end, an Art-Deco styled orange brick panel extends up to the 2nd floor; on it are mounted a streetlamp and a sign directing traffic. A shallow light well at the center has three small single-windows at each floor, along with another on the inward-facing side walls of the light well. There are no openings on the south section of the west facade, while the north section has a bay of single-windows. Two areas are parged over up to the 4th floor, where an adjoining townhouse once stood, before Dyer Avenue was constructed. On the north side of the building is a small, 2-story extension, also clad in red brick, with larger windows.

The north facade rising above this low-rise extension has 12 bays of single-windows with simple stone sills.

The Webster brothers were cousins of Roland Macy, whose enormous store was located just a few blocks away. The residences were intended to provide affordable housing for women workers. The building remains as the Webster brothers envisioned, for thousands of women studying or working in New York. Most “guests” stay at The Webster for about three months.

www.websterapartments.org/
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