166 Fifth Avenue
Along with its neighbor to the south, 166 Fifth Avenue was built on the site of one of two mansions owned by Mrs. Margaret Hardenbergh Budd, a prominent society figure of 19th century New York. When Mrs. Budd vacated Fifth Avenue for an apartment near Central Park, she developed her property, hiring the Parffit Brothers to design a commercial building in keeping with the changing tone of the neighborhood.
The Parffitt Brothers were well-known architects in Brooklyn, where their legacy includes some of the borough’s most elaborate townhouses, mansions, apartment buildings and churches; their resulting concoction for 166 Fifth Avenue is a characteristically flamboyant Northern Renaissance building featuring a fanciful double-story gable topped with a porthole window surmounted by a Rococo shell.
The building was the location of the world-renowned art gallery of L. Christ Delmonico, who had previously rented the Budd house on the site as his location.
The ground floor has been sadly obliterated.