20 Carroll Place

New Brighton | built 1885

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. 1885

    The Walsers' mansard-roofed carriage house is shown in use as a club house on an 1885 map

    Mary and Dr. Theodore Walser built this two-story frame and masonry building between the mid-1870s and mid-1880s to house carriages and servants for their homes on Westervelt Avenue and St. Marks Place. Set at the bottom of a steep slope, it rests on rubble-stone foundations, and its gabled dormers match those on the big Walser houses. When a detailed Sanborn map recorded it in 1885, it was serving as a club house.

    “In 1885, when it was depicted on a detailed Sanborn Map, this building was in use as a club house.”

    Source: NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission

  2. 1907

    Servants of Emma and Dr. Charles Townsend's household live in the divided building

    By 1907 the former carriage house had been split into two small semi-detached homes for the servants working at 33 Westervelt Avenue. That was the home of Dr. Charles Townsend and his wife Emma, the Walsers' daughter. The commission learned this from a 1907 newspaper account; its references list a Staten Islander article of February 9, 1907, headlined "Townsend Inquest."

    “…the building had been divided into two small semi-detached residences for the servants employed at 33 Westervelt Avenue…”

    Source: NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission

  3. 1993

    An open porch and fence replace the enclosed entrance porch of the double house

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    A photograph taken around 1980 shows the entrance enclosed by a shed-roofed, clapboarded porch with two separate doors. The wide central opening, which may once have held carriage doors, got new doors and side panels in the 1980s, and the present open porch and fence followed in 1993. The building remains a double house, with bluestone sidewalks.

    “The present open porch and fence were added in 1993.”

    Source: NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission

Nearby

All 55 buildings with stories in New Brighton