21-25 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 land from Union College and start White Collar Row

   Spencer B. Root, from Greenfield, Massachusetts, and Brooklyn's John P. Rust bought this stretch of what was then East Twelfth Street from Union College on December 22, 1870. Their stone houses stood out in a Hunters Point of mostly wooden homes, and the block became the local showplace, nicknamed "White Collar Row." The pair are said to have gone bankrupt before meeting their obligations, and the first old American families were soon followed by Irish ones.

   “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 finish a row of five Italianate houses faced in Westchester stone

   This house belongs to a group of five, Nos. 21-21 to 21-29, put up in 1871-72 by Root and Rust: three stories over a basement, faced entirely in Westchester stone. With a matching five across the avenue at Nos. 21-12 to 21-20, the Landmarks Preservation Commission ranked the ten among the city's finest Italianate town houses, unusual for their stone and well preserved, with rusticated basements and segmental window heads.

   “This group of five houses, of the same date as the preceding ones and also built by Root and Rust, is three stories high with basement and is built of Westchester stone…”

   Source: NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission

Nearby

• 21-23 45th Avenue1 entry
• 21-27 45th Avenue1 entry
• 21-21 45th Avenue2 entries
• 21-29 45th Avenue1 entry
• 21-17 45th Avenue2 entries
• 21-31 45th Avenue1 entry

All 61 buildings with stories in Long Island City