The 171 East 73rd Street Building is one of only two surviving Italianate style rowhouses on East 73rd Street between Lexington and Third Avenues. The house was originally one of a row of six modest brick houses constructed in 1860 for E. H. Robbins. Although most of its original ornament remains, the house has been altered by the addition of a vestibule and garden wall, designed in 1924 by the owner of the house, architect Electus D. Litchfield.