 The new Rizzoli edition also includes 14 “Best of the Brownstones” Walking
Tours in which the author leads readers to his favorite neighborhoods
and row houses, and discusses their history and significance.
Photography by Christopher Puchalski
Excerpt from Mount Morris Park, Harlem
When
Manhattan’s northward-moving development
reached Harlem in the 1880s, the streets around Mount
Morris Park were a logical
location for upper middle class residences. Many
homes were erected by builders in long rows. Others, including
a few mansions,
were
designed by architects for a specific family. Many
of these brownstones still stand on the streets just
west of the park.
| From the corner of Lenox Avenue and West
123rd Street, walk down Lenox Avenue, a very wide,
once-fashionable street that has late 1880s to early
1890s brownstones, plus some fine churches. The west
blockfront between West 122nd and West 123rd streets
is lined by ten ca. 1885 Italianate brownstones which
have impressive stoops and freestanding front doorway
porches, bold window enframements, and heavy roofline
cornices. |
 |
Walk south to West 122nd Street.
Turn right (west) onto West 122nd Street and start walking toward
Seventh Avenue (now Adam
Clayton
Powell, Jr. Boulevard). This block . . . is a showcase for
the late 1880s architectural styles in all their glory.
 |
Turn around, walk back (east) on West 122nd Street, cross
Lenox Avenue, and stop in front of 240 Lenox Avenue (1883-1884),
a late Second Empire style corner house with richly detailed
front and side facades and a stylish mansard roof with
decorative cresting at the edge. |
Walk
down West 122nd Street toward Mount Morris Park West. The finest
houses on this block are 4-16 (1888-1889), which
were designed
by William Tuthill, architect of Carnegie Hall. Notice
their impressive stoops, stained glass transoms over
the various
windows, and rounded
bay windows. Nos. 4, 6, and 10 still have their original
outer and inner front doors.
Be sure to stop at 13
and 15 West 122nd Street, where graciously (some might say, “sensuously”)
curving stoops lead to the original doorways.
 |
Walk to the end of the block. Turn right (south) onto
Mount Morris Park West, walk one block, and turn right
(west) onto West 121st Street, an exceptional late 1880s
block whose well-preserved facades and stoops form a streetscape
that’s little changed in more than a century. |
From West 121st
Street, return to Lenox Avenue and West 123rd Street
to end your tour. |
