627 West End Avenue

627 West End Avenue

NB Number: NB 835-1898

Type:  Rowhouse

Architect:  True, Clarence

Developer/Owner/Builder: Terence Farley & Son

NYC Landmarks Designation:  Historic District

Landmark Designation Report: Riverside Drive- West End Historic District

National Register Designation: N/A

Primary Style:  Elizabethan Renaissance Revival

Primary Facade:   Limestone and Red Brick

Stories: 5

Window Type/Material: One-over-One/Wood

Basement Type: American

Roof Type/Material: Pitched Dormered/Gabled

Structure: This group of seven five story brick and limestone rowhouses are two to three bays wide and designed with American basements. The row, which turns a corner, encompasses four houses on West End Avenue and three on west 90th Street. They are unified by the use of red brick with contrasting limestone trim; bowed fronts; quoins and keyed limestone surrounds; decorative wrought iron grilles; regularly aligned window heights; continuous paired stringcourses and decorative friezes below the fourth story and cornices above; pitched roofs with a variety of dormers; and stepped gables between the houses. The original window type is one-over-one wood sash. While each house varies in its details, the group as a whole creates a coherent and harmonious ensemble.

This house is distinguished by a two-bay bowed brick front which is eighteen feet wide. Its overall design, including the Dutch gable, is similar to that of No. 307 West 90th Street. The arched entrance retains its original oak and glass double doors with original hardware and is topped by a carved keystone. The entrance is flanked by low entry walls topped by wrought iron railings. All of the original windows are intact and original wrought iron grilles are found at the service door, at the window to the north of the entrance, and at the balconies on the second story. A chimney is located at the north side of the roof.

Historic District: Riverside Drive- West End HD

Alterations:  The windows have exterior storm sash. A new wrought iron grille is located at the fifth story window. The arched top of the gable has been removed. The areaway fence has been removed, except for a portion perpendicular to the facade at the southern end.

History: Built in 1898-99, this seven house group was designed by the prolific New York architect Clarence True whose work is represented in the district by eight other rows. True, who also often worked as his own developer, is said to have designed over 400 houses in the Upper West Side and Morningside Heights. He popularized the American basement plan for rowhouse design. Terence Farley & Sons, the developers for this row, were known for their work on the Upper East Side where they: “…carried on substantial operations which… stamp a solid, if sombre, character upon the better streets on the East Side.” Selected References: History of Real Estate, Building and Architecture in New York City ( 1898, rpt. New York, 1967), 83. New York City Department of Taxes Photograph Collection, Municipal Archives and Record Collection, C 734; I 2468-19; C 719.