310 West 90th Street
310 West 90th Street
Date: 1890-91
NB Number: NB 1627-1890
Type: Rowhouse
Architect: True, Clarence
Developer/Owner/Builder: Theodore A Squier
Row Configuration: ABCCBA
NYC Landmarks Designation: Historic District
Landmark Designation Report: Riverside Drive- West End Historic District
National Register Designation: N/A
Primary Style: Elizabethan Revival
Primary Facade: Brownstone
Stories: 4
Window Type/Material: One-over-one double-hung/Wood
Basement Type: Raised
Structure: These six brownstone fronted rowhouses are fifteen to twenty feet wide and four stories above raised basements. The row has three basic house types with slight variations, arranged in an ABCCBA pattern. The houses are unified by a common roofline with a variety of dormers, stepped parapets between the buildings, the use of rock-faced brownstone ashlar with smooth brownstone trim, and wrought iron grilles with a sunflower motif at the basement windows. Some of the houses have been altered but it is likely that all originally had hexagonal slate tile roofs, stoops leading to parlor story entrances, wood and glass doors with transoms, and windows with one-over-one double-hung wood-framed sash.
The type “B” houses (Nos. 304 and 310) – also near mirror images – distinguished by angled three-sided projecting bays rising to the base of the third story. No. 304 has two windows at the third story and two single window peaked dormers with finials at the roof. No. 310 has three windows at the third story and a dormer with paired windows and an arched gable at the roof. Both houses may have had small blind balconies above the original parlor story entrances, as remains at No. 310.
Historic District: Riverside Drive- West End HD
Alterations: The stoop was skillfully removed in 1904 in a very early alteration of this type, and the basement entranceway created. The building has been painted white and all of the windows have exterior storm sash. Some detail has been lost due to weathering, especially near the roofline. The slate on the roof has been covered with tar. The areaway wall has been replaced and has a wrought iron fence. There are two light fixtures beside the door. 1904: Alt 1907-1904 (Source: Alteration Application] Stoop removed during interior alteration to a single-family residence. Architect – Alfred H. Thorp Owner – Fanny Thorp
The architect of the 1904 alteration to No. 310 was Alfred H. Thorp, an early Beaux-Arts-trained architect who also designed the Coogan Building (676 Sixth Avenue, 1875-76). At this time, the owner of No. 310 is listed as Fanny Thorp; this may indicate that this was the Thorp family home.
History: Built in 1890-91 for Theodore A. Squier, a developer of such rows in the district, these houses were designed by Clarence True, a New York architect noted for his rowhouse designs of which many are represented on the Upper West Side.
Selected References: New York City Department of Taxes Photograph Collection, Municipal Archives and Record Collection, E 1295; I 12450.23; C 719. New York Public Library, Photographic Views of New York City 1870’s-1970’s from the Collections of the New York Public Library (Ann Arbor, Mich., 1981), microfiche nos. 0620 B1; 0620 B2. Clarence True, Designs of 141 Dwelling Houses Built on the West Side (New York, c. 1893), n.p.