322 West 88th Street

322 West 88th Street

Date: 1890-91

NB Number: NB 227-1890

Type:  Rowhouse

Architect:  True, Clarence

Developer/Owner/Builder: William E Lanchantin

Row Configuration: Individual

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:   Brownstone

Stories: placeholder

Window Type/Material: placeholder

Basement Type: Raised

Stoop Type: Unknown

Roof Type/Material: Peaked/Slate

Structure:  These five brick and brownstone-fronted houses are each twenty feet wide and four stories tall above quarry-faced basements. There are no repeated house types in this row and each building was designed to be perceived as unique, but the row presents a unified appearance through the use of: alternating full-height projecting bays and oriels in the western bay; continuous brownstone lintels, sills, and a carved frieze at the attic story; a common roofline; peaked dormers with metal trim and tall gabled fronts filled with brownstone and brick patterning; stepped parapets between the houses; and decorative sunflower motif grilles at the basement story windows. It is apparent that all of the houses originally had hexagonal slate tile roofs and stone stoops leading to parlor-story entrances. The original windows probably had one-over-one double-hung wood-framed sash.

No 322 is distinguished by a squared two-window oriel at the third story which is supported on brackets and features brownstone quoins and a corbelled brick cornice. The dormer has paired windows.

Historic District: Riverside Drive- West End HD

Alterations: The stoop has been removed and the parlor story entrance replaced by a window. A basement entranceway was created and has a light fixture above the door. The windows all have one-over-one aluminum replacement sash. The facade has been painted between the two eastern windows of the third story and the brick piers of the dormer have been resurfaced with tar. The facade has been repointed. The areaway has been altered and the wrought-iron fence on the areaway wall is not original.

History: This row was built in 1890-91 for William Lanchantin, a developer active in the construction of such rows in this district. Although architect F.A. Minuth is listed as architect of record in the New Buildings Docket, these houses are attributed however to the well-known West Side architect and developer Clarence True. Selected References: New York City Department of Taxes Photograph Collection, Municipal Archives and Record Collection, E 1294; I 2468.16; I 2468.17. Clarence True, Designs of 141 Dwelling Houses Built on the West Side (New York, c. 1893), n.p