McCall's Demonstration House

1929 Richmond Road | Todt Hill | built 1950

Open on the map3 entries

The lot about 1940
About 1940. Via 1940s.nyc
The lot about 1985
About 1985. Via 80s.nyc

The city photographed every building for its tax records around 1940 and again in the 1980s. NYC Municipal Archives.

Written with AI from the source each entry cites, then fact-checked.

  1. 1924

    Ernest Flagg promises McCall's readers a model small house on Richmond Road

    In January 1924 McCall's Magazine offered readers plans for small houses by eight architects, at $15 a set; Ernest Flagg's design was at the low end for both size and cost. In a series of articles for the magazine in 1924-25, Flagg announced he would build the house himself on Richmond Road on Staten Island and keep it open to McCall's readers while it went up and afterward.

    “I am going to build a house for the benefit of the readers of this magazine…”

    Source: NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission

  2. 1925

    May

    Flagg tallies the house's cost at $5,179.66 and posts a sign recommending Franklin's Autobiography

    In a final McCall's article in May 1925, Flagg reported the house cost $5,179.66, or 41.4 cents per cubic foot, figured from a record of every hour of labor and every piece of material. He put up a large sign out front telling passersby it cost less than an ordinary frame house of the same size, crediting honesty and simplicity, and advising them to read Benjamin Franklin's Autobiography.

    Source: NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission

  3. 1925

    Flagg builds the house of quarried serpentine in his mosaic-rubble method

    The walls are serpentine stone from the quarry on Flagg's own estate, set in his mosaic-rubble system, with all materials supplied by his Dongan Hills Stone and Lumber Company. Flagg cut pointing costs by 40% by pressing fine stone chips into soft mortar. Corners use stacked hollow concrete blocks threaded with reinforcing rods and filled with concrete, and the roof laid one layer of slate over rubberoid sheeting to fix leaks seen at his earlier cottages.

    “Serpentine or soapstone taken from the quarry Flagg had established on the grounds of his estate is the material employed for the Demonstration House's mosaic-rubble construction.”

    Source: NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission

Nearby

All 2 buildings with stories in Todt Hill