The statue would be St. Dominic (these were Dominican nuns) and the little dog beside him is holding a torch in his mouth, not a turkey drumstick.

That's a light fixture.

Contemporary building code demands that balusters or pickets be no more than 4 inches apart, to prevent little humans from squeezing or falling through. Since the convent also functioned as an orphanage, the cautious nuns affixed chain-link fencing to the railings to keep the kids on the safe side of the stairs.

I don't know from architects of convents (I'm a Baptist), or entrances or fruit trucks, or what's still there and what isn't, but that nun showing through the window open at the top, over on the left, is just plain creepy. Happy Easter, all.

I wonder if this convent was designed by German-born architect William Schickel, whose St. Vincent Ferrer Priory at Lexington Avenue and 65th Street is remarkably similar to this one, less the fruit truck.

I also wonder why the nuns felt the need to line the banister-railed stairs with what appears to be chain link.

... but it's apartments now.

The building is still there but not the double-staircase entrance. (The fruit truck is also gone.)