This head topped off with a winged helmet—is he a soldier? A nobleman?—is carved into the sixth floor facade of a Chelsea tenement off Eighth Avenue.
His face, as well as the flowers and fruit and other decorative elements, give this drab building on a not-so-remarkable block a bit of enchantment.
Tags: Chelsea tenements, cool tenements, decorative elements tenements, faces on city buildings, faces on tenements, figures carved in New York buildings, New York street, tenement history, West 15th Street
Ephemeral New York 
July 18, 2011 at 4:50 am |
That is almost certainly Mercury, god of commerce.
July 18, 2011 at 1:52 pm |
Interesting, thanks. Wonder what he was doing on a tenement.
July 19, 2011 at 9:21 am |
[…] Ephemeral New York sees a face over West 15th. […]
July 19, 2011 at 1:36 pm |
Mysterious and sadly obscure. Too bad no one is safeguarding these treasures.
March 19, 2012 at 3:17 pm |
Definitely Mercury. Mercury was also, most prominently, the messenger of the gods. He carried dreams to sleeping people, escorted the recently departed to the afterlife, etc. He is also known as the god of cunning and invention. Perhaps it is the latter that was the impetus for this carving.