Designated 6/20/2000
This small rowhouse is a significant remaining example of the wooden vernacular buildings once constructed throughout Manhattan. The 314 East 53rct Street house was one of the last wood-frame buildings constructed in the neighborhood and is a rare extant example of a wooden building above 23rd Street. Later in 1866, New York City fire laws prohibited the construction of wood-frame buildings in this neighborhood and many existing wooden buildings were subsequently demolished and replaced by masonry structures.
Covered in clapboards, the building is two bays wide and two stories high above a brick basement. The mansard roof, dormers, bracketed wooden cornice and door hood, and molded window enframements on double-hung sash windows distinguish this house as a rare vernacular wooden building with Second Empire and Italianate details.