210 East 21st Street (New York City, New York)

 apartment building  Add category

6-story cooperative-apartment building completed in 1908. Designed by Charles M. Straub, it is clad in pale peach-colored brick white white trim above a ground floor of red brick and black cast-iron pilasters. Three of the pilasters in the middle have intricate foliate ornament. There are three small commercial bays, each with a plate-glass window and a recessed glass door. The main entrance, next to the western commercial space, is also recessed, with a glass door and sidelight, atop one stone step and a semi-circular brick step, and below a black canvas clamshell canopy. The ground floor is topped by a broad band of black iron.

The upper floors have six bays of single-windows. On the 2nd floor they have paneled white stone pilasters with stylized capitals and entablatures with cartouches, except at the middle two bays which have splayed lintels with keystones featuring small lions' heads and bell flowers. All of the 3rd-floor windows have splayed lintels of a different design with scrolled keystones. There are thin string courses below the 4th & 6th floors, the lower one also with an egg-and-dart molding. The 5th floor has lintels matching those on the 3rd floors, and the 4th floor has beveled stone surrounds (except at the middle two bays) with larger cartouches. There are also bracketed sills at the 3rd & 5th floors.

A wide black metal fire escape runs down the middle of the facade, which is crowned by a white metal roof cornice with simply brackets, dentils, and a frieze with garlands and other foliate ornament. The building contains 29 apartments. The ground floor is occupied by Balayage Me hair salon, Bonfire Barbers, and an Indian Astrology center.