Thinking things over in Brooklyn Heights

A deep-in-thought, leaf-clad grotesque stands guard at the entrance of an apartment building on Clark Street.

Hmm, is that a do rag covering his head?

Two heads on a West Village tenement

A walk down pretty much any New York City street means encountering striking sculptures and reliefs on old buildings.

Some turn-of-the-century walkups are decorated with angels. Others are flanked by sculptures of women or dotted with plain female faces. Or Medusas.

Then there are the tough old guy faces on this Perry Street residence. Two together are carved out high on the corner facade, each watching out in a different direction.

The faces on 23rd Street and “Fourth Avenue”

A couple of buildings at this completely ordinary East Side intersection have some extraordinarily lovely figures carved into their facades.

The sixth floor of the structure at the southeast corner features reliefs that look like dolls or babies, like this one at right. It appears to be an old factory building, so I wonder why it’s decorated with little ones in wreaths?

The twin goddesses below guard the entrance to a building a few doors up from 23rd Street on Park Avenue South.

Interestingly, the address above that doorway reads “303 Fourth Avenue,” a reminder that this stretch of Park Avenue South between 32nd Street and Union Square was called Fourth Avenue until 1959.