645 West End Avenue, AKA 300 West 92nd Street

645 West End Avenue

NB Number: NB 406-1912

Type:  Apartment Building

Architect:  Ajello, Gaetan

Developer/Owner/Builder: A C & H M Hall Realty Company

NYC Landmarks Designation:  Historic District

Landmark Designation Report:  Riverside Drive- West End Historic District

National Register Designation: N/A

Primary Style:  Neo-Renaissance

Primary Facade:   Limestone, Terra Cotta, and white brick

Stories: 12 and basement

Window Type/Material: One-over-one/Wood

Structure:  This apartment building, of twelve stories with a basement, is located on a lot at the southwest corner of West End Avenue and West 92nd Street which extends approximately 137 feet along the avenue and 100 feet along the street. In plan the building is organized around two courtyards, a narrow deep one opening to the east, and a wide shallow one to the west.’ This elaborately ornamented building is clad in limestone and white brick with terra cotta trim. All of the original one-over-one wood sash windows are intact.

West End Avenue Facade: A two story base with a transitional third story, eight story midsection, and one story top articulate this facade, which is separated by a courtyard into two identical wings; each is four bays wide with two paired center bays flanked by single windows. Above a high granite basement, the first two stories are faced in rusticated stone and capped by a beltcourse. The first story bays have transoms. The transitional third story, faced in white brick, has molded terra cotta window enframements topped by stringcourses. Stories four through eleven are enhanced by an elaborate stone balconies. at the fifth story, large cartouches inscribed with the letter “H” at the sixth story, and repeating stone balconies with wrought iron railings at the end bays of stories six, eight, and ten. The depressed arched bays of the twelfth story have terra cotta enframements and balconies with balustrades. The wings are each surmounted by a parapet on which is placed a large modillioned iron cornice with elongated brackets.

The courtyard is flanked on the wings of the West End Avenue facade by large projecting iron light fixtures with foliate ornament and white globes suspended from crescent shaped arms. Smaller fixtures with similar globes flank the five openings of the first story on the northern and southern walls of the courtyard. The arched entrance, with wood-framed paired glass doors and a transom, is located in the western wall and reached by three stone steps flanked by simple wrought iron railings. The entrance is capped by a rondel inscribed with the letter “H” and framed by a classically-inspired stone surround. The surround is flanked by two slender arched windows with leaded glass topped by recessed rondels, forming a triumphal arch motif. Above the entrance, the wall is articulated by tripartite windows flanked by single bays. The side windows of the tripartite bays contain leaded glass; all but two remain intact. The northern and southern walls have six openings per story, with narrow openings containing stained glass.

West 92nd Street Facade: This facade features the same overall design and articulation of detail as the facades of the West End Avenue wings, expanded to seven bays. The facade has four paired bays in the center with one tripartite bay at the west’flanked by single bays at each end. The eastern window of the second pair from the east at each story contains stained glass in at least one sash with the exception of the eighth story. The narrow eastern windows of the tripartite bays also contain stained glass, absent at six of the twelve stories.

Southern Elevation: The southern elevation is separated from the neighboring building by an alleyway behind a wrought iron fence. It is faced in plain brick with stone and brick returns; and has two tripartite bays in the center flanked by single bays that are visible from the street.

Western Elevation: The western elevation, visible above the neighboring eight story building, is plain white brick.

Historic District: Riverside Drive- West End HD

Alterations:  : A service entrance containing a metal door (painted black) has been cut into the third opening from the east on the West 92nd Street facade. The stone return at the third story of the southern elevation has been repointed. The ironwork, including the light fixtures and cornice, has been painted black.

History: This apartment building, the Halsworth, was constructed in 1912-13 according to the design of architect Gaetan Ajello, who also designed the stylistically similar building at 302-04 West 92nd Street (adjacent to this building) which was erected for the same owner at roughly the same time. The letter “H” found in the cartouches of the building’s facades refers to the original owner, the A.C. & H.M. Hall Realty Company, from which the building takes its name. It was constructed on the site of five unoccupied lots. The alleyway at the south side of the building is the partial remnant of a path or lane that once led from the old Bloomingdale Road (slightly off line with Broadway) to Twelfth Avenue (the southern building line is slightly skewed to conform to this path). It separated the farms of Brouckholst Livingston to the south and R.L. Schieffelin to the north.

Selected References: George Bromley, Atlas of the City of New York, Borough of Manhattan (Philadelphia, 1899), vol. 3 plate 11. “Is Apartment-Hotel Construction to be Revived?,” Real Estate Record & Guide 86 (Aug. 6, 1910), 232. New York City Department of Taxes Photograph Collection, Municipal Archives and Record Collection, C 734. “The Reconstruction of West End Avenue,” Real Estate Record & Guide 86 (June 22, 1912), 1359.