144 East 22nd Street (New York City, New York)

 apartment building  Add category

6-story Neo-Renaissance residential building completed in 1925. Designed by John P. Cleary, it is clad in red Roman brick above a rusticated white stone ground floor. The facade is symmetrical, with a central entrance set in a portico with paired Corinthian columns. It has a glass door, sidelights, and transom in an egg-and-dart molding with Renaissance ornament on top. The columns support an entablature with garlands and a cornice with acanthus-leaf brackets. There are two double-windows on either side, in segmental-arched openings with white framing, topped by scrolled keystones. Below are basement areaways and basement windows behind black iron fencing.

The upper floors have two smaller single-windows in the middle, with a larger one to either side, followed by two more smaller windows, and then another larger single-window at the end bays. The outer smaller ones are topped by large, splayed stone lintels while the middle ones are framed by outer stone vertical bands (ornately carved at the 2nd floor) and topped by broad stone bands that feature carved panels at the 3rd & 4th floors, and a large cartouche at the 5th floor. Between these windows at the 3rd-5th floors are rectangular panels of white stone with red-brick shield patterns within. The larger window have full stone surrounds topped by various cornices, escutcheons, and keystones. The 6th floor is banded, and has stone pilasters with foliate ornament between each bay.

Each floor has a white iron fire escape landing spanning across most of the facade (except the end bays), with the ends deeper to accommodate the ladders, and also featuring elaborate scrollwork in the iron. The facade is crowned by a black metal roof cornice with brackets, dentils, and a frieze with garlands and wreaths. The building contains 46 apartment units. The basement level on the west side is occupied by Sammy Dry Cleaners.