21-15 45th Avenue

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.

1861
Union College buys the Van Alst farm, the land where No. 21-15 now stands
The ground under this house was part of two plantations confirmed to George Van Alst on September 16, 1670, which stayed in his family for nearly two centuries. In 1861 the trustees of Union College in Schenectady bought the farm to add to their Hunters Point holdings. Construction on East Twelfth Street, today's 45th Avenue, started in the early 1870s on this former farmland.
“These remained quietly in the family for nearly two hundred years, until 1861 when they were purchased by the trustees of Union College…”
Source: NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission
1872
Root and Rust complete No. 21-15 in their first Italianate row on 45th Avenue
Read more
No. 21-15 belongs to the group of five Italianate houses, 21-09 through 21-17, that Spencer Root and John Rust built by and for themselves in 1871-72. The three-story brick fronts sit on stuccoed basements. Paneled lintels with keystones sit between the cornice brackets, door pediments rest on consoles, and the window heads are segmental arches with cornices. The stoops and cornices of the group were intact when the district was designated in 1968.
“This group of five houses in the Italianate style was built in 1871-2 by and for Spencer Root and John Rust.”
Source: NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission

Nearby