32 Avenue B | Block : 398 | Lot #31

Description & Building Alterations

Built as one in a row of five pre-law tenement buildings, three of which still remain, this building and its siblings each originally housed 16 families over ground-floor shops. The northernmost building of the original row, 32 Avenue B retains its Neo-Grec details such as the incised, bracketed window lintels on the upper three floors, the incised, triangular pediment of the second-floor windows, and the bracketed cornice. The building once likely had a raised stoop entrance that was probably lost when the storefront was remodeled in 1964.

Similar to many tenements and other buildings constructed at the time, the designer of these buildings, Richard R. Shapter, was a builder, not a practicing architect. His son, Richard S. Shapter, went on to become an architect as the trade became more established.