21 Tier Street House
21 Tier Street | City Island | built 1901
Open on the map4 entries
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.
- 1896
Mary Delmour hires local builder Samuel H. Booth to put up a summer house on Eastchester Bay
A month after buying the waterfront land, Mary Delmour contracted Samuel H. Booth, a builder whose office stood on City Island's Centre Avenue, to erect a summer home for herself and her husband Lawrence. Her 1902 obituary in the New York Times described her as among the shrewdest women dealing in the city's real estate. The house Booth built is one of the few Shingle style houses left in New York City.
“In July 1896, Mary Delmour (1860-1902) contracted Samuel H. Booth to build the house at 21 Tier Street as a summer home…”
- 1896
Mary's husband, Lawrence "Whispering Larry" Delmour, is the man closest to Tammany boss Richard Croker
Lawrence Delmour, an Irish immigrant who made a fortune in real estate, earned the nickname "Whispering Larry" because he talked so quietly and kept secrets so well. He had served as the city's Collector of Taxes and Under Sheriff, by the mid-1890s was the Thirtieth Assembly District's leader, and was described as the man nearest to Croker. He quit politics when Croker stepped down, and in 1905, three years after Mary died, he married a young nurse, Jean Walsh.
- 1962
Filmmakers use the house as a set for Long Day's Journey Into Night
Because the shingled house and its setting on the water recall the coastal villages of New England, producers chose it as a location for the 1962 film of Long Day's Journey Into Night. In 1977 it was bought by the owner who later spoke for its landmark designation.
“…producers selected it as a set for the 1962 movie, Long Day 's Journey Into Night.”
- 2000
The Landmarks Preservation Commission designates 21 Tier Street a city landmark
The commission held its hearing on April 25, 2000, when the house's owner and speakers for the Historic Districts Council and the Bronx Landmarks Task Force all backed the designation and nobody opposed it. Voting on June 20, the commissioners called the house a rare survivor of the Shingle style, which had never caught on in New York City. It was still in use as a single-family home.
“Three people spoke in favor of designation: the building's owner and representatives of the Bronx Landmarks Task Force and the Historic Districts Council.”
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