123 Fifth Avenue, The Sittenham Building
One of my favorite buildings on this stretch of Fifth, the Sittenham Building at 123 Fifth Avenue is a brownstone residence converted to commercial use. The upper stores are a pleasant but unremarkable façade that was applied in 1926 – where the building really sings is at the shop front, a high-style Neo-Parisian confection installed in 1886.
Designed by Henry J. Hardenbergh, the lower two floors are framed by a massive single cast iron arch embellished with gilded Northern Renaissance-derived ornament, including griffins and an enormous grotesque mask that suggest the elaborate railings at the famed Dakota Apartments on Central Park West – built two years prior and also designed by Hardenburgh.
The building should be a mishmash, but the simplicity of the arch and the delicacy and quality of the ornament tie the whole thing together like a piece of dramatic statement jewelry worn by a woman in an otherwise understated outfit.
123 Fifth Avenue has historically been popular with artists; one of them, the portrait painter William Sittenham, liked it so much that he purchased it and owned it for 20 years. It has been referred to as the Sittenham Building from that time.
The Belcher Mosaic Glass Company, a famed producer of high-quality architectural details, first occupied the 1886 shop.