18 West 74th Street

18 West 74th Street

Date: 1902-04

NB Number: 389-1902

Type:  Rowhouse

Architect:  Griffin, Percy

Developer/Owner/Builder: Frederick Ambrose Clark

NYC Landmarks Designation:  Historic District

Landmark Designation Report: Central Park West- 73^rd-74^th Street Historic District

Configuration:  ABBCDDEFFFFEGGHIIJ

National Register Designation: #83001752

Primary Style:  Beaux-Arts and Georgian Revival

Primary Facade:   Brick, Ironwork, and Limestone

Stories: 5 with basement

Window Type: Three pane casement with transom/Wood; four pane French doors with transom/Wood

Basement Type: American

Stoop Type: Low

Roof Type: Pitched with dormers

Structure: The extraordinarily handsome row of eighteen houses (Nos. 18-52) In the central portion of the block on West 74th Street was designed by Percy Griffin In the neo Georglan style for Frederick Ambrose Clark.The houses were built between 1902 and 1904 and were rented by Individual families from Clark until the 1920s when he began to dispose of his properties In the area. These houses were subject to restrictive covenants, as were the houses on the north side of West 73rd Street. The covenants restricted the heights of the houses and specified the distance that they were to be set back from the property line. The singular
plan of No. 52, at the western end of 74th Street, Is also due to these covenants which called for the set back to begin ten feet from
the side property line of the end houses. This provides an effective transition from the development along the avenues and lends a coheslveness to the block front. The homogeneity and unity of the row are further enhanced by the use of the same materials throughout and the arrangement of two basic types of houses In a symmetrical pattern.

Each house Is set behind an area way and stands four stories high with an attic (fifth) story set behind a continuous balustrade. The English basements or ground floors are stone and have central entrances flanked by crisply cut square-headed windows. The second, third and fourth floors are constructed of red brick laid up In Flemish bond. The handsome brickwork Is further enlivened by the extensive use of burned headers which lend contrast to the red brick. There Is a stone pseudo parapet above the ground floors and a stone molding over the third floors which, along with the strong cornice line, further define the horizontal unity of the row. All window enframements, roof cornices and balustrades are stone. There are two basic house types In this row. One of these types has a wide triple window bay at the second and third stories and a parapet at the roof with pierced stonework panels of interlacing cross forms and two pedlmented dormer windows set behind it. The second type has the more conventional three Individual windows at each story above the ground floor, a roof balustrade with balusters and three dormers. Six of this second type have entrance porticos. The pattern for the entire row of eighteen houses consists of a single bay house followed by a pair of three window houses. This pattern creates a strong underlying rhythm that further enhances the unity of the row. In order to avoid the monotony which such a rhythm could create within a row of this length, Griffin divided the row at the center and arranged each group of nine houses to read basically as a mirror Image of the other. Although the houses share common features which Integrate them into an harmonious composition, each house has an Individual facade treatment which gives it a distinctive character. Nos. 32 to 38 form a central group of four similar houses In the row — a pivotal position that marks the division of the pattern into two groups of houses. The upper stories of these houses are almost identical; each house has quoins keyed to the
brickwork, stone enframed central windows vertically joined at the second and third stories and flanked by square headed windows with splayed flat arches with double keystones and endblocks. At the fourth floor there are square headed windows with recessed brick panels between them set under the continuous entablature at the roof. The emphasis, at each of these houses, is on the central tier windows at the second and third stories. At the second floor, the window has a molded enframement and is
crowned by a dentiled arched pediment supported on vertical console brackets. At the third floor, the window, again, has a molded enframement but is crowned with a projecting lintel carried on two narrow brackets. At the center of the lintel, above the window, is a stone cartouche. A handsome Iron railing above this projecting lintel Is set In front of the fourth floor window. The roof cornice Is carried on closely spaced, narrow modillions above an egg-and-dart molding and a row of dentils, The cornice is further ornamented by lion head bosses and an egg-and-dart molding.

The ground floor of each of these four centrally located houses has certain differences which lend such Interest to this row. No.32 and 36 have columned entrance porticoes. The portico at No. 32 has an Impressive entablature with shallow modllllons, triglyphs and rosettes and Is supported by two fluted columns. The entrance portico Is crowned by a balustrade similar to the roof balustrade. No. 36 Is entered beneath a portico carried out to the entrance steps and supported by two polished granite columns with full entablature above. Four paneled pilasters flank the central entrance and side windows. An ornamental iron railing at the
second floor follows the line of the portico and extends the width of the house. The ground floors of Nos. 3^ and 38 do not have entrance porticoes. Nos. 34 is marked by a nearly continuous balcony above the ground floor carried on four console brackets with carved lion heads. A cornice slab above the. entrance to No. 38 Is carried on two large console brackets and crowned with an iron railing. A stone cartouche enhances the doorway.

On either side of the central group of four are the houses with thetriple window bays, Nos. 30 and 4O. These houses represented an Interesting attempt on the part of the turn-of-the-century architects to find a solution for the conventional three window wide townhouse by providing what is basically a wide central window treated with conventional ornament but otherwise quite radical In concept. The entrance to No. 30 Is simply enframed, ornamented only by a small cartouche above It. The three upper floors have rusticated quoins. The triple central windows have a wide mull Ion In the center window, creating the effect of four rather than three windows within the bays. High narrow pilasters with panels vertically join the windows of the second and third floors. A stone balcony carried on four heavy brackets Is set above the entry In front of the second floor windows. A single spandrel panel with carved garlands of fruit separates the second and third floors while a shallow balcony carried on four corbels, ornamented with a handsome Iron railing, serves the triple windows of the fourth floor. This house  Is crowned by a dentiled roof cornice. The elegant, yet simple entrance to No. 40 has a refined segmental arch enhanced by a chaste molding accented by a scroll keystone. The balcony at the second floor Is carried on heavy paired brackets and is enriched by an ornate iron railing. High, narrow pilasters with panels which flank the second and third floor windows are Interrupted by the dentiled lintel above the triple
window of the second floor. Below the third floor windows are three spandrel panels enriched with stone garlands, horns of plenty and cartouches. The separation between the third and fourth floor windows is marked by a shallow balcony similar to the one at No. 30. Nos. 30 and 40 have similar roof cornices with pierced stone parapets displaying Interlaced cross form panels as opposed to the houses with the balustrades.

Nos. 18 and 52 terminate the eastern and western ends of the row, respectively. The most unusual feature of No. 52 Is Its “I” shape plan which was determined by the restrictive covenants governing the site. This covenant required that at least ten feet of the front wall nearest Columbus Avenue had to be four feet or more from the street line while the remaining frontage had to be set back a minimum of eight feet. The facade shares some of the features of the triple window bay houses: qolns keyed to the brickwork on the upper floors and similar cornice and parapet. No. 18 has a rusticated ground floor with a simple enframed central entrance. The upper floors have quoins keyed to the brickwork as does the triple window bay. At the second floor, the central window Is flanked by two handsome polished granite engaged columns with Ionic capitals. The sides of the bay are marked by paneled pilasters. Set above the columns and pilasters is a simple, shallow entablature. Below the windows of the third floor Is a paneled spandrel. Set before the windows of the fourth floor is a balcony carried on four large brackets with decorative stone swags between them. Between these two windows is a handsome stone cartouche. The roof cornice and parapet are the same as those at Nos. 30 and 40.

This Is one of the finest neo Georglan rows In the City with a remarkable coheslveness due to the strong underlying pattern created by a careful arrangement of the individual houses. The projecting balconies, porticoes, pediments and window trim here create a sparkling contrast of light and shadow. The carefully controlled design, achieved in part through the use of restrictive covenants, gives great dignity and elegant uniformity to the row. 

Historic District: Central Park West - West 73rd-74th Streets HD and Upper West Side - Central Park West HD

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