Randall's Urban Architectural Sculptures

White terra cotta keystone, circa 1905 from a demolished NYC tenement.
Keystone has a large acanthus leaf, a festoon composed of various fruit and vegetation, imbricated scroll using a repeating fish scale design.

Recent purchase 7/08

Now all stripped of the paint back to it’s approximate 1930′s appearance before being painted, and after developing some patina

This model now has a mold for it and casts can be ordered.
Shown is the aged Red Terra Cotta finish

621-623 East 5th st.
Block 388, Lot 57, 50′ wide lot.

Photos of one of 3 or 4 keystones I removed from the building when it was abandoned, around 1977.
The building appears to have been subsequently renovated and is occupied today.

DOB New Building number: 233
Cost (1913): $45,000
Address: 621-623 East 5TH ST
Description: 6-story brick tenement, 50′x 84′
Erected: 1913
Owner: Joseph and Herman Bauman, 61 East 4th st
Architect: Charles B. Meyers, 1 Union sq West

This building is located in a later created cul-de-sac on East 5th street, the street closure and change was made when a public school was erected on what was originally the street which went through normally to Avenue B. A number of tenements were demolished to make way for the school, as the Sanborn maps show this cul-de-sac it may have been done in the 1920′s and the original school demolished as the school that is there is newer- perhaps from the 50′s or early 60′s.

The architect Charles B. Meyers was a “name” who went on to designing some substantial civic buildings in the city, his listed address on East 4th street when viewed in google street view shows the building is still there, and indeed almost the entire block is intact- appearing pretty much the same as it did in 1913.
Google’s street addresses are rarely accurate, often the number is several doors off to even half a block wrong, but Pageant books which can be seen is at No.69, so scrolling over West 4 buildings finds No.61 is a 7 story building that was probably brand new around 1913- the one in th e center of the photo with the large cornice in this view looking West on East 4th street towards the Bowery;