Houses at 208-218 East 78th Street
Houses at 208–218 East 78th Street is the name under which a row of six interconnected residential buildings in Manhattan , New York City is registered on the National Register of Historic Places . The six brick houses are the remnants of an original group of 15 houses built in the 1860s when development on the Upper East Side had just begun.
The houses stand out because of their windows and doors, which are designed as round arches on the north facade , a rather unusual design feature in urban buildings of the time in the Italianate style . It is the second oldest group of houses on the Upper East Side. It was built one block further east after the East 78th Street Houses , but has retained more of its original appearance in contrast to that row of houses; the row of houses was classified as a New York City Designated Landmark in 1978 and added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1983.
building
The row of houses is on the south side of East 78th Street between Second and Third Avenues. The city block is for residential purposes and many similar, sometimes taller houses stand on either side of the tree-lined street. The neighborhood is just outside the Upper East Side Historic District near the southern edge of Yorkville .
Each house has three floors and comprises two bays . They are only 13 feet 6 inches (4.06 m) wide each , with the basement partially exposed. Elliptically arranged rows of chiseled stones run around the windows and doors. Entrances and their windows also have a molded keystone . The window sills of the upper windows have a cornice . The flat eaves rest on a protruding cornice with vertical brackets. Urban verandas with iron railings lead from the sidewalk to the entrances, which are located in the eastern yoke of the facade.
There are few deviations from this standard. The house number 214 has additional window bars and some of the original iron accessories have been replaced as in number 216. At number 218, the original brownstone steps have been replaced with modern concrete steps .
history
The construction of the Third Avenue Railway in 1852 allowed residents of what was then the Village of Yorkville to commute to work in what is now Midtown and Lower Manhattan . The area that is now East 78th Street was a vacant stretch of Yorkville nine years later when Howard Martin bought a 200-foot (60-meter) strip of land to build houses for speculative purposes.
Taking into account an 1860 ruling by the New York Supreme Court , Martin paid $ 128 (adjusted for inflation, $ 3,825) to the city for building 78th Street. He had his property in 15 plots divided, 206-234 East 78th Street and had begun construction of houses, when he sold his property in 1862 to William Brower. This kept the contractors Warren and Ransom Beman and John Buckley, which is probably the reason for the uniformity of the buildings.
Construction of the houses was delayed by difficulties in obtaining building materials caused by the Civil War , but Brower had sold all of the houses by the time construction was completed in 1865. Houses 206 at the western end of the row and 220-234 at the eastern end were later demolished to make way for today's larger apartment buildings.
See also
- List of New York City Designated Landmarks in Manhattan between 59th and 110th streets
- Monuments on the National Register of Historic Place in Manhattan between 59th and 110th Streets
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b 208 East 78th Street landmark designation ( English , PDF) New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission . May 9, 1978. Archived from the original on March 11, 2010. Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Retrieved November 10, 2009.
- ^ A b c d Anne Covell: National Register of Historic Places nomination, Houses at 208-218 East 78th Street ( English ) New York State Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation . August 1982. Archived from the original on September 18, 2012. Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Retrieved November 10, 2009.
Coordinates: 40 ° 46 ′ 23 " N , 73 ° 57 ′ 26" W.