Riverside Drive - West 80th-81st Streets Historic District

Riverside Drive – West 80th-81st Streets (1985)

This district illustrates the early residential development of the Upper West Side’s West End section. In 1891 Charles Israels designed a row of five houses for 81st St. in a style combining Romanesque Revival and neo-Renaissance elements. Two years later, he designed a row for 80th St. At the end of the 1890s another wave of rowhouse construction brought several grand townhouses on and adjacent to Riverside Drive by the architect/developer Clarence True. About the same time, three modest French flats went up on 80th St. And finally in 1926, one of True’s houses was demolished and replaced by a 19-story neo-Classical apartment building.

Boundaries

Riverside Drive
East Side: 74-86

West 80th Street
North Side: 303-323
South Side: 306-326

West 81st Street
South Side: 304-320