437 West 24th Street House

History and architecture

This row of houses was erected by Philo V. Beebe, a neighborhood builder, as part of a long row of handsome, mid-19th century three-story houses. Set behind landscaped front yards, 15 feet deep, the row now affords a welcome contrast to the towering, sixteen-story London Terrace apartments across the street. In contrast, the houses retain an appealing sense of human scale.

These dignified residences were part of the expanding Chelsea community. This included, at the time of building, an imposing row of earlier Greek Revival residences—the original London Terrace—on the north side of 23rd Street, between Ninth and Tenth Avenues and, back to back with it, the modest Gothic Revival row houses known as Chelsea Cottages, on the south side of 24th Street.

These narrow little houses, built primarily to house the people employed by the well-to-do merchants on 23rd Street, were erected three years before Nos.437-459 West 24th Street. The latter were built in response to a need for more housing in the area for business and professional people.

The row was erected by Beebe, the builder, In association with Beverly Robinson, counsellor-at-law, who had owned the land since 1820, and George P. Talman, who acquired It on April 24, 1849. Robinson, however, retained an interest in the property while the houses were under construction. Beverly Robinson (1779-1857) was closely associated, both as a friend and as an attorney, with successive generations of the Clarke and Moore families, heirs of the estate once known as Chelsea Farm. Prom 1817 through the early 1830s Robinson gradually expanded his holdings in the area. Both he and Clement Clarke Moore served for four decades as trustees of Columbia College.

In 1849-50, at the time of their erection, the residences at Nos. 437-459 West 24th Street were among the large and imposing houses in the area. Originally, the row consisted of twelve individual brick houses, later reduced to eleven as the result of the combination of Nos. 443 and 445. They were built as six pairs, with doorways and stoops adjoining in neighborly fashion, resulting in the sharing of the center handrailing. Transitional in style, the houses display an interesting combination of features from both the earlier Greek Revival and newer Italianate modes.

The basic proportions, however, are Greek Revival. Later 19th century modifications to some of the houses introduced Neo-Grec and Queen Anne features, followed by the popular neo-Federal style of the 20th century. Thus, they represent more than a century of architectural development. in general, the houses retain their setback behind front yards, their original height, bold, modillioned roof cornices and ironwork—features which contribute to the unity of the row, as a very special feature of the neighborhood and of Manhattan.