175 East 73rd Street Building

History and architecture

The 175 East 73rd Street Building is one of only two surviving Italianate style rowhouses on East 73rd Street between Lexington and Third Avenues. The house was originally one of a row of six modest brick houses constructed in 1860 for E. H. Robbins on the north side of East 73rd Street.

Along with the house at 171 East 73rd Street, No. 175 is the oldest component of the group of low-rise buildings that lines this street. In the early 1860s a number of streets on the Upper East Side were developed with modest rowhouses that were sold to lower-middle- class and working-class families. No. 173 was sold in 1862 to Joseph Murray, a clerk. These rows were among the earliest building on the Upper East Side and they predate the large scale development of the area.

In the last years of the 19th century the rowhouses that had been built between Fifth and Park Avenues to house middle-class families began to be replaced by mansions built by the city's wealthiest residents. Although the streets east of Park Avenue were still not seen as being desirable for large residences, they were directly affected by the new development near Central Park. The small rowhouses that lined the side streets east of Park Avenue began to be replaced by private carriage houses and stables built to serve the wealthy families who lived nearby.

Stables were a necessity during the period when urban transportation was limited to horses and carriages, but only the very wealthy could afford to build and maintain a private carriage house. The carriage houses were built on streets that were convenient to the East Side mansions, but were not so close that their noises and smells would mar the exclusive character of the residential streets. East 73rd Street between Lexington and Third Avenues became a prime location for the construction of carriage houses and beginning in the 1880s the old rowhouses were replaced by carriage houses. With the construction of each new carriage house, the remaining residential buildings became less and less desirable until only a very few remained.