Have you ever noticed the difference between a Lexus and a Toyota? While they may be similar, materials tend to be better, the craftsmanship is a bit nicer, and things seem to be buttoned down a bit more. Those themes are what make this building at 175 Broadway in Tribeca a landmark. This particular building might not jump out at you when you’re walking down the street compared with its neighbors, but when you get up close, you can truly appreciate the fine attention to detail the architects had when building it. It was constructed in 1877 and replaced an earlier two-story building on the property. It was an investment by the heirs of Jerome B. King, a cement magnate, and was occupied for decades by one of the largest awning firms in the city. The design of the building itself incorporated the latest trends from Europe, including intricate brickwork around the windows. It’s currently occupied by New York Design Architects. It was landmarked on September 19th, 1989.
I love wandering the side streets of the Upper East Side; there’s such a great mix of townhouses and apartments. Every once in a while, you’ll see a building that especially sticks out, like this one at 23 East 73rd Street. It was built in 1911 as part of a speculative development and bought by Judson Scott Todd. Todd sold it a few years later in 1919 to Winthrop William Aldrich. If you’re from New England, you might recognize the name Aldrich from the long-time Rhode Island Senator who was Winthrop’s father. The younger Aldrich was a financier and the Ambassador to England under President Eisenhower.
The house itself is unique compared to the rest of the neighborhood in that it takes two very different architectural styles and mixes them together. The base is distinctly French, while the top 5 stories are very English and early American. That, combined with its height, definitely makes it stick out on 73rd. It was landmarked as part of the Upper East Side Historic District on May 19th, 1981.
Here’s an interesting thing about old savings banks in New York: you’re not likely to find any of them near Wall Street. Real estate prices were, and are, so expensive that it made little sense for them to operate there. Instead, they chose to be closer to the residents of the city and spread out to different neighborhoods. With cheaper land rates and the cementing of New York as the financial capital of the country after the Civil War, the savings banks could afford to build large, imposing edifices to show off how stable and fancy they were. That’s the case for the New York County Bank. Although founded in 1855, the bank decided to build its new headquarters in 1907 on the corner of 14th and 8th. To really illustrate the grandeur of the bank, it is one story tall, but that story is 58 feet high. It also has a massive eagle perched above the front door because of ‘Murica. It now houses the Museum of Illusion. It was landmarked on June 7th, 1988.
Yesterday I asked you what you thought the most beautiful buildings were in NYC. I received over 500 responses. Many of you asked if I could list a few of them and where they’re located so here we go. What should we add to this list?
1. New York Public Library 5th Avenue
2. Fort Hamilton Gate House Green-Wood Cemetery Brooklyn
3. The Metropolitan Museum of Art
4. Jefferson Market Garden Library 6th Avenue Greenwich Village
5. Former New York Cancer Hospital Central Park West
6. Alwyn Court Apartments W58th Street
7. The Met Cloisters Inwood
8. The Montauk Club Park Slope
9. The American Museum of Natural History
10. The Woolworth Building Lower Broadway
11. Grand Central Terminal
12. The Brooklyn Bridge
13. The Chrysler Building
14. The Empire State Building
887 St. Nicholas Avenue is a survivor of what used to be a row of eleven homes built in 1884. This was a speculative development for John Kelly by architect/builder John Stroud. A little history of Washington Heights and Hamilton Heights, development took longer to reach this area of Manhattan as there was no reliable mass transit until the end of the 19th century. As a result, it was home to many large estates which took advantage of the elevation for both views of the rivers and cool breezes. With the extension of elevated railways, it opened up opportunities for speculators to begin erecting houses. These were among the early wave of construction that were designed for single families. No. 887 was initially home to an attorney who embezzled mortgagees for the Produce Exchange, followed by leather merchant Henry Rosenbaum. In 1895, the building suffered $4,000 in damages from a fire that occurred early that morning. That wouldn’t be the only tragedy that would befall this home. During the Christmas of 1941, nine-year-old Harvey Scott would be run over by 887 resident Lawton Garvin when Scott was testing out new roller skates he received that year. The row of buildings was unique by New York townhouse standards. They were designed to sit away from the sidewalk, on a short plateau to give them better curb appeal. Over the years, they fell into disrepair. In 2018, No. 887 was renovated into two apartments. It was landmarked as part of the Hamilton Heights/Sugar Hill North Historic District on June 18th, 2002.
Whenever I see warehouses like this, and yes, this was a former warehouse, I have to ask myself, surely price was a major factor in the 1890s as much as it would be today? With that in mind, why don’t Amazon warehouses look like this? Maybe it’s because this was in an urban environment and not in a lot out on Staten Island or suburban New Jersey. This isn’t anything out of the ordinary for this neighborhood either; the former Flemming Smith Warehouse is just one of dozens of beautifully decorated warehouses. The industrialization of the area now known as Tribeca began in the late 1860s, when trustees of Trinity Church, which owned much of the land in the area, decided to sell it and St. John’s Park to Cornelius Vanderbilt to construct a railway depot, known as St. John’s Terminal. The influx of rail traffic, as well as the increase in shipping coming into the port of New York, necessitated large warehouses, with even larger windows for light and ventilation. This warehouse was constructed between 1891-92 for Flemming Smith and designed by architect Stephen Decatur Hatch. Located on the corner of Washington and Watts Street, the warehouse was used to store wine and was also home to a shoe factor when it opened. This became the first Tribeca Warehouse to be converted into residences. Today, there are only 6 apartments in the whole building, which will run you north of $3 million. The Flemming Smith Warehouse was landmarked on March 14th, 1978.
In 1905, 309 West 92nd Street was built. At 50 feet wide, the building was twice the size of its neighbors. It was designed by Charles Lamb of the firm Lamb and Rich; you might be familiar with some of their other work, like Teddy Roosevelt’s Sagamore Hill or the Main Building at the Pratt Institute. With a home this large, with such esteemed architects, it had to be for someone important. The man it was built for was Charles Root. Root’s father was George Frederick Root, a musician who wrote songs during the Civil War, most notably the Battle Cry of Freedom. Charles was no slouch either; he was incredibly successful in publishing, focusing primarily on trade publications for the textile and dry goods industries. Root would eventually move out of the home to West 67th Street and would be followed by a woman named Mrs. Estes; unfortunately, the New York Times didn’t give her full name in the article where I found that piece of info. She sold it in 1923 for $85,000, which, when adjusted for inflation, is only about $1.5 million in today’s money. The building was then converted into the Calhoun School for Women, before becoming the West Side Montessori School in 1976. As you probably noticed, not all of this building is original, with two additional stories protruding out of the roof of the original building, which was added shockingly in the 1920s and not the 70s. The school was landmarked as part of the Riverside-West End Historic District on December 19, 1989.
Imagine if you had the money to own an entire mansion like this one in Brooklyn? If some of you reading this can do that, I do have a Patreon and your support is much appreciated. Anyway, this building at 101 8th Avenue in Brooklyn was the home of John W. Weber and was built in 1909. Weber was the president of the Ulmer Brewery Company located in Bushwick and was conveniently married to the founder’s daughter. After retiring from the brewery in 1900, he hired the firm of Daus and Otto to design this massive home at the corner of Carroll Street in Park Slope. The Webers would reside here until the 1940s. After the Webers, the home was converted into a clubhouse for the Unity Club, which had been founded in 1896 as a social club for the city’s Jewish residents who were often denied admission from the other elite members’ clubs. Originally, the clubhouse was located in Crown Heights, at the former Brooklyn Union Club building and took over the Weber Mansion in 1944. The Unity Club would remain in the building until the 1970s, when it closed due to declining membership. It was then purchased by two investors and turned into eleven co-op apartments. I highly recommend checking out some of the photos on @streeteasy to see some of the original wood detail and fireplaces. Again, it’s crazy to think that one family was able to live in the space of eleven. The first two photos are of 101 8th Avenue, the third is the offices of the Ulmer Brewery, and the fourth is the old Union Club in Crown Heights.
I have always been fascinated by this small 1825 home on Greene Street. It’s completely dwarfed by the cast iron buildings around it and yet it has lasted over 200 years. Right off the bat, I know what you’re thinking, it looks abandoned. As surprising as it is, it had an apartment that was deemed fit for human habitation in 2020. When it was constructed, Soho was becoming the next fashionable district for New York’s wealthy to live, and its streets would have been lined with federal style buildings like this one. It was originally occupied by the Arnoux family. Anthony Arnoux was a successful tailor and merchant who lived here from 1825-1834. As is the case with many neighborhoods in New York, the neighborhood began to change within a generation, as Soho became more commercial, it also became a little more seedy and Greene Street was no exception. There were reports 13 brothels on the block alone, which likely scared off the remaining Arnoux family.
The house was used for a variety of commercial purposes including a trucking company which accounts for the holes where windows used to be, there was a literal loading dock where the parlor was. By the 60s, it was owned by Artist Richard Feigen. He sold it in 1973 to its current owner who has been working on restoring it, slowly for over 50 years. There’s even a New York Times article from 1989 that called it the Longest-Running Restoration Project in New York City, little did the author know we’d still be talking about it in 2026. The purchase price in 1973 was $56,000 which is about $390,000 in 2024 dollars. Like I mentioned, there is currently a 2.5 bedroom duplex in the building, but as for additional restorations, I haven’t been able to find any additional information. 139 Greene Street was landmarked as part of the Soho Cast Iron Historic District on August 14th, 1973.
This little library on East Broadway in Chinatown was one of 67 Carnegie Libraries built in New York City during the beginning of the 20th century, number three to be exact. It was also the first of twelve libraries designed by McKim Mead and White. Carnegie libraries were designed in a way that you knew exactly what they were; most of them have this semi-restrained Beaux-Arts style, something that McKim Mead and White were particularly suited for. Around this time, libraries were also usually part of another building, making this one all the more distinct in the city.
This area of the Lower East Side was one of the most densely populated neighborhoods in the world at the time, making it a prime candidate for placement as Carnegie sought to have them in high-population centers. In fact, after the Chatham Square Library was built, three other Carnegie Libraries were erected in the neighborhood. The library has always been conscious of its role in a neighborhood known for immigration and has catered to the community since its opening in 1903. Originally, the primary demographic was Jewish immigrants, but it has changed to mostly Chinese. The library has a Chinese heritage collection as well as collections relating to the history of Chinatown. There were talks to demolish the library in 1947 because WWII had ended and that meant tearing down old things automatically meant progress, but luckily that idea was flat out rejected. The Chatham Square Library was landmarked on November 13th, 2001.
Happy Saturday from this sunny little house in Brooklyn. This is at 565 11th Street on the corner of 8th Avenue in Park Slope and is one of the oldest homes in the neighborhood. It was built in 1855, at the height of the Italianate architectural craze. Ironically this design language was imported from the UK not Italy, but this home was designed with some vague Tuscan styling according to its designation report. That said as no architectural expert I personally can’t place where that styling is. Regardless it was landmarked as part of the Park Slope South Historic District on April 17th, 2012.
In 1890, business in Tribeca was booming; produce wholesalers were occupying nearly every warehouse in the neighborhood. It was at this time that Edwin M. Harrison, an egg and butter merchant, decided he wanted to get in on the action. He hired the architects Leicht and Havell to design this square warehouse and workshop at the north east corner of Harrison and Greenwich Street. He would sell the building in 1903, and it would remain used by butter and egg sellers for decades, aided by its proximity to the New York Mercantile Exchange on Hudson Street. In 1982, it was joined to neighboring buildings to be converted into condos. It was landmarked as a part of the Tribeca West Historic District on May 7th, 1991.
One of the great things about landmarks in New York is that they can give you a look into what a neighborhood used to look like. Take this police station on 152nd and Amsterdam for example. It was built in 1871 for the 30th precinct as an effort to revamp the city’s police buildings. At the time, this area of Washington Heights was a rural village. When the police station was built, the locals complained that the presence of the police force was ruining the quiet, peaceful aesthetic of the neighborhood. Now the building is surrounded by the modern city, but it is interesting to close your eyes and think of what it must have looked like in the 1870s. It was landmarked by the City of New York on July 15th, 1986.
Fun fact, today is the 7th anniversary of Landmarks of New York. I wanted to highlight one of the photos I took all the way back in 2019.
Pop quiz for you language fans out there, how do you say beautiful view in 16th Century Italian? bel vedere. The name is certainly fitting for Belvedere Castle in Central park. According to the Central Park Conservancy, it has the highest and best views of the park & city scape. It was built in 1869 and imagined by Central Park’s co-designer Calvert Vaux to add a sense of fantasy to the park. It originally overlooked the Central Park Reservoir which was later replaced by the Great Lawn. One of the best views of the Castle can be seen at the Delacorte Theater while catching a performance of Shakespeare in the Park. With Belvedere as the stage backdrop you almost feel transported into a different world.
Besides looking good, Belvedere Castle has served as a weather station. Whenever you hear that the temperature in Central Park was X degrees, the reading came from Belvedere. The Castle, like all of the landmarks we’ve seen in Central Park, is not individually landmarked but is encompassed by the landmark status for Central Park on April 16th, 1974.
In honor of the Oscars last night I figured we could look at one of New York’s landmarked theaters. Bonus points if you can figure out the year this photo was taken based on the marquee.
As for the history of this place, 2nd Avenue in the East Village used to be the center of Jewish culture in New York. There’s even a Yiddish Walk of Fame by East 10th Street. At the epicenter of all of this was the building that houses the Village East Cinema. It was built in 1926 to house the Yiddish Art Theater, where workers in the neighborhood would spend almost half of their weekly pay to catch a show. The theater thrived during the golden age of Jewish theater until the Great Depression and the decline of the Yiddish language hit. Throughout its life, the building has also played host to the Phoenix Theater and now the Village East Cinema. It was landmarked on February 9th, 1993.
Every so often, you can find a window into a neighborhood’s past. This is the case on East 58th Street, right by the Queensboro Bridge on-ramp. Numbers 311 and 313 can give you an idea of what this area used to look like back in the mid 1800s. Both completed in 1857, the white building on the right was the home of its builder, Hiram Disbrow. These are typical low-rise buildings that would have been seen on the side streets of the Upper East Side in the mid 19th Century. When they were constructed, these would have been at street level, they were slightly submerged after the building of a new approach to the bridge in 1930. They are in stark contrast to the high-rise apartment buildings surrounding it. 311 was landmarked on May 25, 1967, and 313 was landmarked on July 14th 1970.
155 Mercer Street is an excellent example of a restoration gone right. This building dates back to 1850, when it was constructed by the city of New York as a Fireman’s Hall. Before 1865, firefighting in New York was pretty much made up of a bunch of competing fire companies, not quite Gangs of New York style with firefighters fighting in the street but not that far off.
As a result of this competition, the city built this as a place for them to get together to increase their spirit of cooperation. In 1865, the FDNY was formed, officially professionalizing firefighting, making the Fireman’s Hall obsolete. A few decades later, it was converted into a regular firehouse, with a very unusual mascot, Jenny the monkey who lived in the house for 12 years. In the 1970s, the FDNY vacated the property, which had lost most of its ornamentation, leaving it with a flat and ugly facade.
It would go on to be used as a mosque in the 80s, followed by a performing arts venue. In 2013, the building underwent a restoration, bringing it back in line with what it looked like in the 1850s, restoring its facade. It housed a Dolce & Gabana before being sold yet again in 2023 for $60 million and is now home to a Dyson store. I’ve included photos from 1940, 2011, and today. It was landmarked as part of the Soho Cast Iron Historic District on August 14th, 1973.
The Gilded Age caused a mansion building boom at the end of the 19th century. While they quickly fell out of favor for luxury apartment buildings, a few still remain. This particular example was a single-family home, built for Joseph Raphael De Lamar on the corner of 37th and Madison. De Lamar was born in the Netherlands and immigrated to the United States in the 1860s. He made his fortune in shipping and during the Colorado Gold Rush. He had this home commissioned in 1902 and hired renowned architect C.H.P. Gilbert to build it for him. Gilbert was the architect of many mansions, including the current home of the Ukrainian Institute and the Jewish Museum on the Upper East Side. This was one of the largest mansions built during that time period; the man dwarfed J.P. Morgan’s home right across the street. After De Lamar’s death, the building was sold first to the National Democratic Club for use as its headquarters, and in 1978 was sold to the Polish Government. It is still home to the Polish Consulate, who have maintained the interior. It was landmarked on March 25th, 1975.
Most people in New York dream of adding another bedroom to their apartment, but imagine if you had the space to double the size of your house? That’s exactly what happened here at 13 Pineapple Street in Brooklyn Heights. This frame home was initially two stories tall and half as wide as it is today. It was built in 1830 for a man named James Hartt; we don’t know his profession, but it is likely that he worked in Manhattan. Construction records are a bit difficult to track down this early in Brooklyn’s history, but it is likely that the home was extended longways first and the third story added in the middle of the 1800s. It was landmarked as a part of the Brooklyn Heights Historic District on November 23rd, 1965.
In 1919, William Ziegler Jr., the heir of the Ziegler Baking Soda fortune, commissioned architect Frederick Sterner to design a short house replacing three separate brownstones on 63rd Street. The resulting building would be the opulent home of the Zieglers for five years. It was arranged around a central courtyard, giving it a Mediterranean palace vibe.
In 1925, the rather shocking news came out that the home was to be converted into a hospital for actors and actresses, which didn’t end up happening but did seem to contribute to the divorce between William and his wife, Gladys, a year later. William quickly remarried, a little too quickly if you get what I’m saying, and moved out of the house. The Woolworth Family purchased it and lived here until 1949, when they donated it to the New York Academy of Sciences, which it remained for decades. In 2005, it sold to billionaire Leonard Blavatnik for over $31 million. While it has been restored to a single-family home configuration, it appears to be available for rent as a movie set location and event space. It was landmarked as part of the Upper East Side Historic District on May 19th, 1981.