166 East 73rd Street Carriage House

History and architecture

No. 166 East 73rd Street is a fine example of private carriage house design of the late 19th century in Manhattan. Constructed in 1883- 84 for Henry Gurdon Marquand, No. 166 was designed by Richard Morris Hunt in a simple modified version of the Romanesque Revival style. It is the earliest component of the rare surviving group of carriage houses, stables and garages built on East 73rd Street between Lexington and Third Avenues to nerve the wealthy families who lived on or near Fifth Avenue. Stables were a necessity during the period when private urban transportation was limited to horses and carriages. Only the very wealthy, however, could afford to build and maintain private carriage houses such as these found or. this street. Others boarded their hordes in large commercial stables such as that at 182 East 72nd Street.

Private carriage houses tended to be two- or three-story structures with two major ground floor spaces — a front room for the carriages, and a rear room with stalls for the horses. At the upper stories were of one or two apartments for the coachman, groom, or related employees. Some of the larger carriage houses had interior ramps on the ground floor that lad to additional horse stalls on the second floor. Early in the 20th century, as automobiles began to replace carriages as the primary means of transportation for the wealthy, these stables were converted to garages and chauffeur's apartments. Later in the 20th century, when private garages became too expensive to maintain, most of the buildings were converted to stylish residences.