Designated on December 13, 2016
The Italianate style 412 East 85th Street stands as a reminder of Yorkville’s rural past, when the neighborhood was transitioning from farmland and country estates to a denser, middle-class, residential character. The wood-frame house, rare for its age and type, stands three stories tall, three bays wide, and retains its front porch with delicate supporting columns. It is set back slightly from the street, breaking the street wall formed by its neighbors. While the house’s Italianate details, including clapboard siding, wood shutters and cornice, and segmental arched double-hung windows, appear to date to circa 1860, the possibility that it was built much earlier as an ancillary farm structure and then moved to this location and renovated in the Italianate style cannot be ruled out, as this was a common practice in New York City around this time. If it was, in fact, constructed circa 1860, it also stands as one of the last frame buildings to be constructed before the city fire code outlawed such construction south of 86th Street.
*image courtesy of the Landmarks Preservation Commission
STATUS Designated Individual Landmark
The Neighborhood
Yorkville
Yorkville’s heyday as a distinct immigrant community was relatively short-lived. German immigration to New York peaked in 1882, and by the early 20th century, Yorkville’s Germans were already moving farther afield, using the recently built subway to access newer, more affordable neighborhoods in the outer...
Explore the Neighborhood >Landmark Activity
Nov 11, 2015
HDC Designation Testimony for Backlog95 Hearing – November 12, 2015