This little flat-topped frame house at 3 East 83rd Street was built sometime between 1845* and 1867, when this part of Manhattan was the countryside.You can just see a bit of the Metropolitan Museum of Art at the far left. The tall building to the left of the little house is still there**, at the corner of 83rd and Fifth, but the frame house is, alas, long gone.
The house was razed in 1953 in order to make way for a twelve-story apartment building "with penthouse," as the New York Times said admiringly. It added that the curator of maps and prints at the New-York Historical Society, Arthur B. Carlson, had estimated that the house was built between 1853 and 1867 - a time when "geese and goats still thrived in East Eighty-Third Street, and the horse was a major means of transportation."
But there was something else amazing and anachronistic, just one block away from the frame house on 83rd. It - and its owner - are a fascinating part of lost New York history, something hard to imagine on Fifth Avenue now.
I'll tell you all about it in my next post!
* The New York Public Library, see at the link, states that the house dates from 1845.
**Note the unusual feature of the taller building - the windows at the side, which were possible only because there was a small house next to it and not another tall building.
Photograph of the house from the NYPL Digital Gallery. Also see "Century-Old Home Yields to Progress," New York Times, Mar. 19, 1953, p. 31.
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10 comments:
Places like this that were lost to 'progress' fascinate me, and cause a little melancholy.
There's a long-gone estate here that sat on the bluffs of the James River. It was called Blue Shingles, and the family's son committed suicide in 1955 in the gardens designed by Charles Gillette. The house & gardens were bulldozed in the 1960's to make way for a developer's schemes, but nothing was built and the land remains empty.
Noooo! You can't leave me on a cliffhanger like that!!!!
I want to know about the house now!!!
Ho hum. :) I look forward to tomorrow's post!
Have you read Higher by Neal Bascomb? (check the Books category on my site for my review)
The book details the race to build The Manhattan Company building and The Chrysler, and the ESB. There's a ton of great detail in there about buildings bulldozed in the name of progress as well as the main motivators, i.e., ego and money. It's all super fascinating, but Manhattan history always is.
Bill - I hate hearing about that kind of thing. Blue Shingles is a lovely name for a house, too.
Richard - I'm aiming for Thursday, actually...I have to do a little bit of research, and am going to be out a lot tomorrow. I do have a Doubletake to go up tomorrow though, I can offer you that :)
mike - Thank you, I will make a note and put that on my reading list. It sounds like just my kind of book.
Harrumph! :)
I guess I'll just have to wait then! :D
I hope you have a great Thanksgiving!
Looks like a cute little house! Too bad it's not there anymore.
Fascinating! Long ago, I used to live near there, so this was a very fun read. Thanks!
Very interesting! I look forward to your next post.
I think NY would be a lot better with goats and chickens, still. I was never fond of the concrete jungle. ;)
Richard - A happy Thanksgiving to you, and (as Frances the Badger said in one of the wonderful children's books I loved as a kid) Happy Thursday to me - we had our T-giving waaay back in October, I can hardly remember it...But I know we did something.
Amanda - I agree.
EcoMeg - Me too! Maybe we crossed paths without knowing it...
Mrs. Mecomber - I wouldn't mind that at all.
Lidian -- Oh yes, of course, I forgot that you are Up There!
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