History and architecture
This charming, early Nineteenth Century two-story brick house with peaked roof, delicate dormers and high basement, is one of the few remaining examples of the small comfortable Federal street houses, once so abundant in New York City. Intimate in scale, the proportions and details are marked by a modest simplicity. The decorative doorway is the one note of richness in this simple builder's house.
A low stoop with wrought-iron railings leads gracefully up to a handsome Federal style doorway with an eight-panelled door, slightly recessed behind two slender wood columns. The wood entablature above the door is surmounted by a rectangular leaded light, framed in handsome carved moldings. The lintel, supported on brackets above the door, appears to be a Victorian addition taking the place of an earlier plain type.
All the windows, except the dormers, have their original frames and lintels.
The beaded wood cornice remains unchanged, but the alley door is missing and the interesting elliptical window above it has been bricked up. This small residence was built by David Christie, a stone cutter in 1834, for about $2,600. These residences of the 1820's were almost all builder's, carpenter's, or stonemason's homes, and there were several blocks of them at one time. In 1899 Montgomery Schuyler, the critic, wrote that they were "the most respectable and artistic pattern of habitation New York has ever known."
Sources and further reading
This history comes from the Landmarks app’s historical catalog. Names and building uses may reflect the period described.