621 West End Avenue

621 West End Avenue

NB Number: NB 835-1898

Type:  Rowhouse

Architect:  True, Clarence

Developer/Owner/Builder: Terence Farley & Son

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:   Limestone and Red Brick

Stories: 5

Window Type/Material: One-over-One/Wood

Basement Type: American

Roof Type/Material: Flat

Structure: This group of seven five story brick and limestone rowhouses are two to three bays wide and designed with American basements. The row, which turns a corner, encompasses four houses on West End Avenue and three on west 90th Street. They are unified by the use of red brick with contrasting limestone trim; bowed fronts; quoins and keyed limestone surrounds; decorative wrought iron grilles; regularly aligned window heights; continuous paired stringcourses and decorative friezes below the fourth story and cornices above; pitched roofs with a variety of dormers; and stepped gables between the houses. The original window type is one-over-one wood sash. While each house varies in its details, the group as a whole creates a coherent and harmonious ensemble.

The corner house in the row, No. 621, has a frontage of thirty-two feet on West End Avenue and forty feet on West 90th Street. The ground story is faced in coursed limestone and is capped by a stringcourse. The entrance on West End Avenue has an ornately carved limestone surround with a pedimented window flanked by Ionic pilasters above. Limestone balusters are located below the second story windows. The West End Avenue facade has two bays flanking a smaller bay. The southern facade is of similar design but lacks the small windows. It has an entrance at the west side. The fourth story features a decorative limestone medallion in the center. The original design had a Dutch gable roof like that on 307 West 90th Street.

Historic District: Riverside Drive- West End HD

Alterations:  The doors are replacements. The original windows have been replaced by multi pane casement windows. The fifth story was altered in 1950; the pitched roof was removed and a brick addition with a flat roof constructed. A wrought iron grille (painted red) has been installed at the first story window on West End Avenue and wrought iron fences (painted red) are located at the West 90th Street entrance. The areaway fence has been removed and the areaway altered. Light fixtures have been installed at the doors. 1950: Alt 594-1950 [Source: Alteration Application]

History: Built in 1898-99, this seven-house group was designed by the prolific New York architect Clarence True whose work is represented in the district by eight other rows. True, who also often worked as his own developer, is said to have designed over 400 houses in the Upper West Side and Morningside Heights. He popularized the American basement plan for rowhouse design. Terence Farley & Sons, the developers for this row, were known for their work on the Upper East Side where they: “…carried on substantial operations which… stamp a solid, if sombre, character upon the better streets on the East Side.” Selected References: History of Real Estate, Building and Architecture in New York City ( 1898, rpt. New York, 1967), 83. New York City Department of Taxes Photograph Collection, Municipal Archives and Record Collection, C 734; I 2468-19; C 719.