46 West 55th Street

Manhattan, United States

Exterior only

Visible from the street; the inside is private.

At 46 West 55th Street in Midtown Manhattan stands a five-story townhouse originally designed by Thomas Thomas in the Italianate style and completed in 1869. Between 1903 and 1904, architect Edward L. Tilton substantially redesigned the building in the neoclassical style, giving it its present appearance: a limestone entrance on the ground floor with red and black brick and limestone moldings above, while the first four stories bow slightly outward. Purchased by military surgeon Joseph Bissell in 1903 and renovated at that time, the house—known as the Joseph B. and Josephine H. Bissell House—later served as a residence for prominent physicians including James Ramsay Hunt and Harry Sidney Newcomer. In the late twentieth century it was converted to commercial use. The New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission designated it as an official landmark in 2010.