21-17 45th Avenue

Long Island City | built 1872

Open on the map2 entries

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

1. 1870

   December 22

   Spencer Root and John Rust buy the block's land from Union College to build houses

   Read more

   Spencer B. Root, from Greenfield, Massachusetts, and John P. Rust, from Brooklyn, purchased the land along this stretch from Union College and started building it up with row houses. Their stone-fronted houses were a novelty in Hunters Point, where most homes were of wood. The partners reportedly went bankrupt before they could meet all their obligations, and the first occupants of the new houses were old American families.

   “The development was begun by Spencer B. Root of Greenfield, Massachusetts and John P. Rust of Brooklyn, New York who bought the land from Union College on December 22, 1870.”

   Source: NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission

2. 1872

   Root and Rust build this brick Italianate house as one of a row of five for themselves

   Read more

   Numbers 21-09 through 21-17 were put up in 1871-72 by Spencer Root and John Rust, for their own account, as a group of five Italianate houses three stories tall, brick above a stuccoed basement. Each wooden roof cornice rests on four acanthus-leaf brackets with dentils and smaller consoles between them. Classical pediments on consoles crown the front doors, and the segmental-arched window lintels carry cornices. The stoops and cornices were still intact when the row was surveyed.

   “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

• 21-21 45th Avenue2 entries
• 21-15 45th Avenue2 entries
• 21-23 45th Avenue1 entry
• 21-13 45th Avenue1 entry
• 21-25 45th Avenue2 entries
• 21-11 45th Avenue2 entries

All 61 buildings with stories in Long Island City