8-12 Avenue B | Block : 397 | Lot #35

Description & Building Alterations

Although now considered one lot and joined into one building, the two buildings on lot 35 and 36 were built individually by two separate owners despite being constructed at the same time and designed by the same architect.

Lot 35, or 12 Avenue B, was  designed by William Graul for George Gordon King to house nine families on four floors over the first-floor shops.  This building is designed in the Queen Anne style, with its asymmetry and expressive terra cotta.  In 1904, the back half of the fifth floor was converted into a photo gallery.

Lot 36, or 8-10 Avenue B, housed 20 families on four floors above the first floor of shops. Also designed by William Graul in 1894, this building was constructed for J. & S. Frankenthaler, also in the Queen Anne style, but with much more influence of the Romanesque Revival aesthetic.  The round arched windows on the fifth floor with brick detailing, and the slight color variation between the light brick and the darker terra cotta, which is used as a beltcourse at the first, second and fourth floors, are all indicative of the Romanesque movement.  The more classical details, such as the terra-cotta spandrel panels that were once present beneath the fourth-floor windows and the now-missing cornice, were in keeping with the Queen Anne style.