190-192 Riverside Drive, AKA 325 West 91st Street
Date: 1909-1910
NB Number: NB 611-1909
Type: Apartment Building
Architect: Townsend, Steinle & Haskell
Developer/Owner/Builder: Townsend Realty Company
NYC Landmarks Designation: Historic District
Landmark Designation Report:Riverside Drive- West End Historic District
National Register Designation: N/A
Primary Style: Beaux-Arts
Primary Facade: Buff brick and Limestone
Stories: 11
Structure: This eleven story apartment building is located on a lot at the northeast corner of Riverside Drive and West 91st Street which extends approximately eighty-seven feet along the drive and 125 feet along the street. In plan the building is organized around an interior court which opens to the north. It is clad in limestone and buff colored brick. This elaborately ornamented building is lined at the sidewalk level with a shrub bed enclosed by the original wrought iron fence.
Riverside Drive Facade: The facade is divided into a three story base, seven story midsection, and one story top and articulated by four major bays. The rusticated stone base features classically inspired ornament such as stone balconies with green copper railings at the second story and stone balconies and pediments at the third story. Above the base, the three window openings of the southern bay and the three openings adjacent to the northern bay are grouped into projecting three sided stone faced bays that rise from the third to the tenth story. The flush bays of stories four through ten are faced in buff colored brick. The eleventh story is faced in stone and contains window openings flanked by ornamental panels supporting a green copper modillioned cornice. Stone quoins further enhance the facade.
West 91st Street Facade: This facade, thirteen bays wide, continues the same overall design and articulation of detail as the Riverside Drive facade. Located in the sixth bay from the west is a classically inspired stone entrance enframement flanking the original paired glass and wrought iron doors with transoms and sidelights. The doorway is flanked by classically inspired wrought iron lanterns and stone urns. This facade contains an additional projecting bay above the entrance.
Eastern Elevation: The elevation is faced in yellow brick with two window openings per story, crowned by a stepped parapet. The copper clad projecting bay of the northern elevation is visible at the north end.
Northern Elevation: A wide alleyway, enclosed by a wrought iron fence at the western end, separates the northern elevation from the neighboring building. The northern elevation features two wings separated by a courtyard. The western wing has a return of the rusticated stone of the Riverside Drive facade on the first three stories, with buff colored brick above. In the center is a fire escape running from the first story to the eleventh, spanning window openings with stone enframements. The projecting three-sided western bay is sheathed in green copper with ornamental panels in the center flanked by side windows with one-over-one sash. The eastern wing of the northern elevation is similar.
Historic District: Riverside Drive- West End HD
Alterations: : The windows have been replaced by dark gray one-over-one aluminum sash.
History: Built in 1909-10 for the Townsend Realty Company, 190 Riverside Drive was designed by the prolific architectural firm of Townsend, Steinle & Haskell. This apartment building was constructed on the site of a two story wood framed dwelling located on Riverside Drive adjacent to the present alleyway. The alleyway is the remnant of a path or lane that once led from the old Bloomingdale Road (slightly off line with Broadway) to Twelfth Avenue. It separated the farms of Brouckholst Livingston to the south and R.L. Schieffelin to the north. Selected References: George Bromley, Atlas of the City of New York, Borough of Manhattan (Philadelphia, 1899), vol. 3 plate 11. New York City Department of Taxes Photograph Collection, Municipal Archives and Record Collection, C 734.