331 Lexington Avenue

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7-story Renaissance-revival residential building completed in 1900. Designed by Harry T. Howell, it is clad in dark-yellow Roman brick with stone trim. The main entrance is at the south end of the narrow west facade, with wood-and-glass double-doors in an elaborate surround consisting of a pair of flanking grey polished stone columns with Corinthian capitals, an intricately patterned stone molding, and on top a stone panel bearing a shield and garlands, with two pairs of scrolled brackets carrying a cornice. To the left is a modernized black metal-and-glass storefront with a glass door.

The upper floors on the west facade have three bays of single-windows. On the 2nd & 3rd floors they have elaborate stone enframements with bead moldings, bracketed sills, and cornices. Those on the 2nd floor also have small shields encircled by leafy fronds below the cornices. The 4th floor is set off by a projecting stone sill course with dentils and an egg-and-dart molding.The windows on the 4th-6th floors have heavy stone cornices with scrolled brackets and foliate ornament. The top floor is set off by a rounded stone sill course with a thatched pattern, and it has flat, splayed lintels on the windows. The facade is crowned by a boldly projecting stone roof cornice with modillions, and a fascia board decorated with foliate ornament and dentils.

The wider north facade on 39th Street has a short return of the avenue storefront at the west end. Next to it is a narrow secondary entrance in a stone surround, with a black wooden door atop three steps. The east end of the ground floor has a restaurant space, partially clad in beige-painted stucco and part beige-painted brick. The brick portion at the far end has a window in a white wooden enframement with a cornice, covered by a white metal grille. The stucco portion to the right has a slightly-recessed wooden door flanked by a pair of small round-arched windows also with white grilles. Above both of them is a short double-window, and there is a red canopy extending across both the doorway and the lower windows.

The upper floors have, from east to west, a single-window, two paired single-windows, another single-window, a trio of single-windows with the middle one narrower, and then a final single-window at the west end. The ornament on this facade matches that on the west facade, with the addition of a stone cartouche adorning the wall to the left of the west end bay between the 2nd & 3rd floors, and another at the 5th floor. The roof cornice also continues across this facade.

The east elevation is clad in dark-brown brick, with a central bay of single-windows, a fire escape, and no ornamentation. The building contains 14 apartment units. The ground floor is occupied by Tam Sang Thai Kitchen, and Sam's Place Italian Restaurant.