304 Alexander Avenue

Mott Haven | built 1881

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.

1880
John Rogers designs No. 304 for Andrew J. O'Dell
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No. 304 Alexander Avenue is one of the first three houses, Nos. 302-306, of a six-house row commissioned by Andrew J. O'Dell. John Rogers designed these three, which went up in 1880-1881; the remaining three were added in 1888-89 to designs by B. E. Lowe. Delicately incised ornament decorates the stone lintels above the windows of the three-story houses.
Source: NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission
1969
Landmark report recalls No. 304's avenue as "the Irish Fifth Avenue"
The 1969 designation report for the Mott Haven Historic District, which includes No. 304, noted that Alexander Avenue had once been nicknamed "the Irish Fifth Avenue" and "Politicians' Row," though even then many nationalities lived there. By 1969, the report said, the avenue's residents were mostly Puerto Rican families who had recently settled in the area, and it described the district as an oasis amid tall housing projects.
Source: NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission

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