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East 17th Street/Irving Place Historic District

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Union Square, Manhattan
East 17th Street Irving Place Historic District
East 17th Street Irving Place Historic District

The East 17th Street/Irving Place Historic District is a small historic district located primarily on East 17th Street between Union Square East and Irving Place in the Union Square neighborhood of Manhattan, New York City. It was designated by the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission on June 30, 1988, and encompasses nine mid-19th century rowhouses and apartment buildings on the south side of East 17th Street, from number 104 to number 122, plus one additional building at 47 Irving Place just south of 17th Street. Most of the houses in the district were built in the aftermath of the opening of Union Square in 1839, after which the area became one of the most sought-after residential districts in the city. The houses were primarily made in the Greek Revival and Italianate styles, while later apartment buildings in the district were in the Renaissance Revival style. By 1938, all the single-family dwellings in the district had been converted into apartment buildings. One of the most significant structures in the district is 122 East 17th Street, also known as 49 Irving Place, which was built in 1843-44 as one of three Greek Revival row houses, along with 47 Irving Place and another no longer extant. It was extended along 17th Street c.1853-54, at which time Italianate features were added. Additional changes were made c.1868-70. Despite a historical plaque on the 17th Street facade, there is no historical evidence for the local legend that Washington Irving lived in this house, although his nephew, Edgar Irving, did live next door at 120 East 17th Street, and had a son named Washington Irving after the writer. Elsie de Wolfe and Elisabeth Marbury, called by The New York Times the "most fashionable Lesbian couple of Victorian New York" lived here from 1892–1911, and de Wolfe may have been instrumental in spreading the Irving rumor.

Excerpt from the Wikipedia article East 17th Street/Irving Place Historic District (License: CC BY-SA 3.0, Authors, Images).

East 17th Street/Irving Place Historic District
East 17th Street, New York Manhattan

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Latitude Longitude
N 40.736052 ° E -73.98802 °
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East 17th Street 112
10003 New York, Manhattan
New York, United States
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East 17th Street Irving Place Historic District
East 17th Street Irving Place Historic District
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44 Union Square
44 Union Square

44 Union Square, also known as 100 East 17th Street and the Tammany Hall Building, is a three-story building at 44 Union Square East in Union Square, Manhattan, in New York City. It is at the southeast corner of Union Square East/Park Avenue South and East 17th Street. The neo-Georgian structure was erected in 1928–1929 and designed by architects Thompson, Holmes & Converse and Charles B. Meyers for the Tammany Society political organization, also known as Tammany Hall. It is the organization's oldest surviving headquarters building. The Tammany Society had relocated to 44 Union Square from a previous headquarters on nearby 14th Street. At the time of the building's commission, the society was at its maximum political popularity with members such as U.S. senator Robert F. Wagner, governor Al Smith, and mayor Jimmy Walker. However, after Tammany Hall lost its influence in the 1930s, the building was sold to an affiliate of the International Ladies' Garment Workers' Union in 1943. By the 1980s, it was used by the Union Square Theatre, while the New York Film Academy took space in 1994. The New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission designated the building as a city landmark in 2013, and it was converted into an office and retail structure during a renovation that took place between 2016 and 2020. The renovation preserved the facade while totally gutting the interior, and a glass domed roof was added to honor Chief Tamanend, namesake of the Tammany Society.

Florence Apartment House

The Florence Apartment House (later called the Florence Apartments, the Florence, and Hotel Florence) was an apartment building in New York City on the northeast corner of East 18th Street and Fourth Avenue (later known as East Union Place and today as Park Avenue South). The seven-story, 42-unit building was built in 1878 by Virginia Leedy Matthews, née Brander, for some $500,000 ($15,162,069 today), mostly financed by a $400,000 balloon loan from The Bank for Savings in the City of New-York. Matthews was the wife of Edward Matthews, "a real estate entrepreneur who at one time controlled more property from Wall Street south than anyone else."It was designed by a Belgian emigrant, Emile Gruwé, and built by the firm of White and McEvoy. Faced with pressed brick and a Nova Scotia stone façade, the seven-story building occupied 200 feet on East 18th Street and 53 feet on Fourth Avenue. It had interior plumbing and was intended to be the city's first fireproof apartment house. It was designed so it could be operated as a hotel, and did so for a time; the New-York Historical Society holds a photo and documents about Hotel Florence.Among the building's prominent residents were publisher and editor Francis Pharcellus Church; Jane Louise Melville, the widow of author Herman Melville; and Jane Byrd Mercer, wife of architect Schuyler Hamilton Jr. Since 1909, the site has been occupied by 225 Park Avenue South, a 19-story office building.