19th Police Precinct Station House

History and architecture

Solid, dignified, indeed almost stern, the Nineteenth Precinct Police Station is a proud reminder of the role of the late l9th-century police station in representing order and authority in rapidly growing and changing neighborhoods.

Built in 1886-87 from designs of the Official New York City Police Department architect, Nathaniel D. Bush, the building is one of the last of the many precinct houses designed by that architect still serving the police department. The station forms part of the picturesque group of monumental buildings which makes this block of East 67th street a virtual catalogue of 19th century institutions: clinic, police station, fire station and synagogue. Each building was given an individual stylistic expression. this conforms with the historical theory prevalent in both Europe and America in the 19th century that, rather than one uniform style for all buildings, the style of each building should allude to a historical style that would in some way be appropriate to its function.

This attempt to devise a meaningful character for types of buildings new to urban society necessarily relied often on a rather vague association of character rather than a specific adaptation of an historical model. In the case of the Nineteenth Precinct Police Station it is more the power and dignity that characterize the modified palazzo type than any specific connections which lead to the selection of the Renaissance style. Certain romanesque details add a note of strength and allude to the stylistic vocabulary of the fire station next door, completed earlier in the same year in which the precinct house was begun.