Astor Row is the name given to 28 row houses on the south side of West 130th Street, between Fifth and Lenox Avenues in the Harlem neighborhood of Manhattan, New York City, which were among the first speculative townhouses built in the area. Designed by Charles Buek,[1] the houses were built between 1880 and 1883 in three spurts, on land John Jacob Astor had purchased in 1844 for $10,000. Astor's grandson, William Backhouse Astor, Jr., was the driving force behind the development.
The design of the three-story brick, single-family houses[2] is unusual, in that they are set back from the street. All have front and side yards – an oddity in Manhattan – as well as wooden porches. The first group of houses, numbers 8 through 22, comprises freestanding pairs, while the remainder, numbers 24 through 60, are connected together at the rear.[1]
The Astor Row houses were designated New York City Landmarks on August 11, 1981.[3]
- ^ a b New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission; Dolkart, Andrew S.; Postal, Matthew A. (2009). Postal, Matthew A. (ed.). Guide to New York City Landmarks (4th ed.). New York: John Wiley & Sons. p. 207. ISBN 978-0-470-28963-1.
- ^ Cite error: The named reference
aiawas invoked but never defined (see the help page). - ^ New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission (August 11, 1981). "8 West 130th Street Designation Report" (PDF). Neighborhood Preservation Center.