28 Avenue B | Block : 398 | Lot #33

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 southernmost of the existing row, this building 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.

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.