Andrew Norwood House

History and architecture

The Andrew Norwood House is an elegant urban residence designed in a transitional style which combines Greek Revival and Italianate features. It is an outstanding example of this type. Erected between 1845 and 1847, the house was originally part of a group of three houses which were built for Andrew S. Norwood, a prosperous New York City merchant.

The site of these three houses lies within the boundaries of a farm acquired in about 1647 by Cosyn Gerritsen van Putten, an early Dutch settler. In 1741, Sir Peter Warren, a famous Irish officer in the English Navy, purchased the property. The area surrounding the site on which the Norwood house now stands remained rural until the 1830s, despite the fact that Seventh and Eighth Avenues had been opened to traffic a decade earlier. As the city expanded northward from Greenwich Village, Union Square and 14th Street became a fashionable residential district.

During the 1840s many blocks of fine town houses were constructed along and north of 14th Street. In 1845 Andrew Norwood purchased several lots on 14th and 15th Streets, between Seventh and Eighth Avenues. Various sources indicate that Norwood had three houses constructed along the north side of 14th Street between mid-1845 and mid-1847, These were the first brick or masonry buildings on the block between Seventh and Eighth Avenues. The three houses correspond to 239,241, and 243 West 14th Street.

Norwood's own house at No. 241 was originally flanked by "first-class" single family houses, both of which he had sold by the beginning of 1855.