30 Jones Street House

History and architecture

Thirty Jones Street is a good example of a simple late Greek Revival three-story row house with a low basement. It is one of three similar houses located together in the same block. The lintels ever the windows and doorway are the plain, splayed type. The low stoop with plain wrought iron railrings leads gently up to a doorway whose proportions and details are marked by simplicity. The door and side lights are slightly recessed within the plain plastered door frame and a horizontal wood member (entablature) above the doer is surmounted by a rectangular, three-lighted glass transom. At the roof line, is the original wood frieze board, capped by a dentilled cornice.

These three small houses are virtually identical and any variations arc quite minor. The warm red brick, with a limited use of brownstone for lintels over the windows and door, are typical of the period. Thirty Jones Street with its lot cost about $3,700. Like its two neighbors this severely plain Greek Revival row house is an important part of our cityscape and its architectural character and style provides a pleasing change of pact, in this constantly changing city.

Talbot Hamlin, the well-known authority on American architecture, has noted that in the early years of the City’s history, "New York developed a special type of dwelling. The type is a local one, different from both the more ample Boston examples, modified for a city location, and from the Philadelphia types, which are usually more crowded and in their treatment more several.