BHB photo by C. Scales
A few days ago I noticed workmen cleaning a rectangular wooden panel that decorates the space above Cranberry’s storefront, at 43 Henry Street. I recognized the design, with a small semicircle at the bottom center and beams radiating from the semicircle to the edges of the rectangle as a motif sometimes called the “English Sunrise.” Some years ago, I bought a
book with that title that had photos of many variations on the theme, not only architectural but on advertising signs, birdcages, business cards, and so on.
The “sunrise” above Cranberry’s is in an art deco style, so and was probably a 1930s or ’40s an early 1980s (thanks, Jimbo) addition to the nineteenth century building. (Reader Ashton questions whether it should be called deco, given its date and “rustic” quality. I maintain that it shows deco influence, and am glad to have reader nabeguy’s support.) After seeing it, I decided to look for other “sunrises” in the Heights.
BHB photo by C. Scales
Some fine examples are found in the form of fanlights above the first floor windows of the beaux-arts Bossert Hotel.
BHB photo by C. Scales
A row of stone reliefs with the “sunrise” motif adorns the neo-Georgian apartment building at 76 Remsen.
BHB photo by C. Scales
Here it appears as a fanlight above a window on the grand Victorian house at 129 Joralemon. Note the small inward-radiating semicircles at the outer end of each “ray”, imparting a cobweb-like appearance.
BHB photo by C. Scales
Finally, here it is in what may be its most classic manifestation, as a fanlight above what was originally a door before the stoop was removed, on the Georgian revival townhouse at 54 Sidney Place.
