156 Fifth Avenue
A rare and highly finished example of the Richardsonian Romanesque, 156 Fifth Avenue is a magnificently assured work by the firm of Rowe & Baker. Constructed in 1894-1895, the building was commissioned by the Presbyterian Church of America to house its publishing offices and serve as one of two national headquarters for church operations (the second headquarters was located in the still-extant Witherspoon Building in Philadelphia, itself a major work of the period).
Like the Methodist Book Concern, located directly across the street to the south, 156 Fifth Avenue was part of the so-called “Paternoster Row”, a stretch of West Fifth Avenue that housed several important religious offices. Also like the Methodist Book Concern, 156 Fifth Avenue contained offices rented out to commercial tenants.
Little is known of Rowe & Baker, whose other work in New York City includes an assisting role in R. H. Robertson’s striking United Charities Building on Park Avenue, but they followed two auspicious models for the Presbyterian Building, both in Boston and both called the Ames Building – the first a work by Henry Hobson Richardson himself, whose design (now destroyed by fire) featured similar picturesque dormers; and Shepley, Rutan and Coolidge’s successor design, with its recessed arches, strong vertical massing and austere use of ornament.
156 Fifth Avenue was a popular location for architects, including the prominent firm of York & Sawyer. The New York Chapter of the American Institute of Architects briefly had its offices here.
The site was the house of sugar refiner Robert L. Stuart who was in the process of building his new house 871 Fifth Avenue when he died. I believe the 154 house was left to the Presbyterian Church by his wife. They had no heirs so all of their estate went to good causes. see web link for old drawing giving some details: https://archive.org/stream/ldpd_6201730_000#page/n42/mode/1up