On January 10, 1885, the Record & Guide reported that real estate developer Samuel O. Wright was constructing a row of four brownstone-fronted homes at 117 to 123 West 130th Street.  Three stories tall above English basements, they were designed by the architectural firm of Cleverdon & Putzel in the neo-Grec style and completed before the year's end.  Beefy cast iron railings and newels originally graced the stoops.  The architects dipped into the popular Queen Anne style with details like the inset tiles at the basement and parlor levels, and the sunflowe ..read more

photo by Jim Henderson Born in the attic of a tiny house in Dunfermline, Scotland, Andrew Carnegie's family could not afford a book.  According to the director of the New York Public Library in 1902, the young Carnegie promised, "that if he ever obtained the means he would establish a public library."  True to his word, in 1901 Andrew Carnegie, now a multimillionaire, offered the City of New York a gift of $5.2 million to build free circulating libraries.  The condition was that the city would provide the land and maintain the libraries.    On June 6, 1908, th ..read more

  Around 1846, a trio of Greek Revival homes was erected at 45 to 49 MacDougal Street.  Three stories tall, they were faced in red brick above a brownstone clad basement level.  Typical of the style, their doorways were framed by severe stone pilasters that upheld a substantial entablature and dentiled cornice. The entrance of the Wright house was originally identical to that of 49 MacDougal Street. The southernmost house of the row, 45 MacDougal Street, became home to Dr. Lucien B. Wright and his wife, the former Anna E. Van Norte.  Born in 1830 and 1817 respective ..read more

  Charlton Street was laid out shortly after 1817 and was given its name in 1820 in honor of Dr. John Charlton.  It quickly filled with prim, brick-faced homes.  Among them was 25 Charlton Street, a three-story and basement house erected in 1826-27 by James Marshall.  The builder's design straddled the Federal and Greek Revival styles.  The entrance above the tall brownstone stoop, with its paneled pilasters, sidelights and leaded transom, were typical of the Federal style; while the short attic level--rather than dormers and a peaked roof--reflected the Greek Revi ..read more

  Eleventh Avenue was extended from 72nd Street to 106th Street in 1880 and paved in 1893 (by then renamed West End Avenue).  Covenants put in place by the West end Association barred commercial activity, resulting in an upscale residential thoroughfare lined with grass plots and trees.  Beginning in the 1890s, many of the opulent West End Avenue mansions were replaced with apartment houses, giving the street the personality we see today. In 1945, the year World War II ended, the apartment building at the northwest corner of West End Avenue and 75th Street was purchased by th ..read more

  Real Estate Record & Builders' Guide, June 25, 1898 (copyright expired) On January 21, 1888, the Record & Guide reported that the United States Trust Co. had purchased the Phoenix Bank building at 45 Wall Street and paid an extra $100,000 "to get immediate possession."  The institution had acquired the adjoining building at 47 Wall Street a year earlier.  The amount paid for the two properties, plus the extra $100,000, would equal $27.3 million in 2024.  The article said, "They will erect a new office building in the spring." A week later the journal reported ..read more

  The extended Rhinelander family traced its American roots to Philip J. Rhinelander, who arrived in 1689.  William Rhinelander established a "summer seat" on the Upper East Side in 1798 and the family's holdings were augmented over the decades.  In the 1880s, individual family members began developing the properties they had inherited along East 88th and 89th Streets.  Laura V. Rhinelander owned the land at 153 East 88th Street as early as 1887.  Within three years she had replaced the stable on the site with a four-story flat building. Called The Richmond, the R ..read more

Developers George J. Hamilton and Thomas Kilpatrick began construction of a trio of stylish, brownstone fronted houses at 130-134 East 36th Street in 1863.  Just 17.2-feet wide, 134 East 36th Street had the advantage of a corner site, giving it three exposures of light and ventilation.  The home's cutting edge Second Empire style included the nearly obligatory slate-shingled mansard.  The molded, architrave surrounds of the windows sat on bracketed sills. Completed in 1864, the house was purchased as an investment by wealthy merchant Robert W. Milbank.  He leased the ho ..read more

  photograph by Eden, Janine and Jim In the first decade of the 20th century, apartment living had gained favor on the Upper West Side.  On the opposite side of Central Park, however, things were different.  Here, multi-family residential buildings were still associated with tenements--not the sort of conditions Upper East Side millionaires would consider.  And so when James T. Lee (the future grandfather of Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy Onassis) and Charles R. Fleischmann, partners in the Century Holding Co., acquired the plot of land at the northeast corner of Fifth Avenue ..read more

  The full-height fourth floor and Italianate cornice were the result of a 19th-century renovation. Well-to-do butcher Christopher Gwyer purchased the vacant plot at 59 Hammond Street (later renamed and numbered 267 West 11th Street) from builder and developer Andrew Lockwood in 1842.  Lockwood had earlier erected two handsome homes on the abutting plots at 61 and 63 Hammond Street.  He stipulated in the deed that he would erect a similar house for Gwyer within six months of the transfer. The Gwyer residence, completed in 1843, equaled and in some ways surpassed its neighbors ..read more