333 West 71st Street
333 West 71st Street
Date: 1894-5
NB Number: 420-94
Type: Townhouse
Architect: Horgan & Slattery
Developer/Owner/Builder: Horgan & Slattery Co.
NYC Landmarks Designation: Historic District
Landmark Designation Report: West 71st Street Historic District
No. 333 is one of eight five-story houses designed in the Renaissance Revival style, with Venetian influences. The unified row has brick facades with elaborate terracotta ornamentation, common stoop level and cornice and sill lines. Decorative terracotta stringcourses are at each level. On some of the houses, the brick and the terracotta have been painted but the brick is yellow where it remains unpainted. No. 333, in particular, is not painted. All but one of the other houses have doors with full-height glass panels divided by curving mullions, which were installed early in the twentieth century. The historic windows on this group were one-over-one double hung, wood sash. They remain on some or all of the windows of most houses in this group. Many of the houses, including No. 333, retain decorative wrought iron grilles on the ground story windows. No. 333 also retains some of the wrought iron railings with swirling patterns, as well as newel posts that frame the small stoop and areaway. Behind each areaway railing a steep, narrow stairway leads down to a basement door which is located under the small stoop. Broad modillioned stamped metal cornices with identical designs top each building in this row.
Two designs alternate within this group of houses, arranged in a rhythm of A B B A B B B A (from east to west). No. 333 is of the “B” design, in which the ground story is composed of two, deeply-recessed, full-length, rectangular openings, one serving as a window and one as a door, with a small rectangular window between them. The second and third stories form a frontispiece, with tripartite windows ornamented by panels of terracotta and capped by a pediment. Two round-arched windows are at the fourth story, while a smaller tripartite window with terracotta pilasters and pediment is at the fifth story.
National Register Designation:
Primary Style: Renaissance Revival
Primary Facade: Brick and Terra Cotta
Stories: 5
Window Type: Originally one-over-one double hung, wood sash
Alterations:
The brick and terra cotta have been painted gray. The iron grilles from the first story windows have been removed. The areaway railing is plain wrought iron. The entrance door, with its curving mullions, though not original, was changed at an early date.