Former 50th Precinct Police Station House

3101 Kingsbridge Terrace | Van Cortlandt Village | built 1902

Open on the map6 entries

The lot about 1940
About 1940. Via 1940s.nyc
The lot about 1985
About 1985. Via 80s.nyc

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.

  1. 1900

    Tammany favorites Horgan and Slattery design the new Kingsbridge station house

    Arthur J. Horgan and Vincent J. Slattery, partners since 1886 who were listed as builders until they first appeared as architects in 1898, designed the new 40th Precinct station in 1900. Under Mayor Robert Van Wyck the pair received a stream of city work, and newspapers used them to attack his administration as corrupt. Mayor Seth Low later demanded that the city cut all business ties with the firm.

    “…all business relations between the city and Horgan and Slattery, who received the award of all city contracts during the administration of Mayor VanWyck…”

    Source: NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission

  2. 1901

    January 9

    Building officials approve the station house plans after an objection over missing tie rods

    Horgan and Slattery filed plans in December 1900 for a station house, stables and a prison they priced at $70,000, but approval was refused because tie rods were left out of the one-story carriage house. The permit came through on January 9, 1901, once the architects argued that the Roebling System of fireproof construction already tied the floor together. Work started on March 18, 1901.

    “…approval to proceed was denied due to the omission of tie rods between the steel floor and the spruce beams of the one - story carriage house…”

    Source: NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission

  3. 1902

    April 16

    Kingsbridge police leave 'the shanty' for their new station house on Boston Avenue

    Since 1871 the local force had worked out of an adapted frame building on Verveelen Place, whose basement flooded so often that the jail sank out of plumb; the Board of Health condemned it in the late 1880s. The new station on Kingsbridge Terrace, then called Boston Avenue, was finished on April 16, 1902, and the precinct finally abandoned the old quarters a newspaper had nicknamed the shanty.

    “…the basement of the building had f loaded so often that the jail had settled out of plumb…”

    Source: NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission

  4. 1902

    The station is modeled on an Italian Renaissance palace, with a crenellated parapet

    The Landmarks Preservation Commission calls the building an example of Beaux-Arts classicism tied to the City Beautiful Movement. Its form draws on 15th-century Italian palaces such as the Pitti and the Medici, with a rusticated base, a long horizontal mass and battlements along the roof parapet that suggest power and security. The more ornate upper story follows a later model, Bramante's design for the House of Raphael.

    “Strengthening this association are the horizontal extension of the station house, which intensifies the image of its being firmly wedded to its site, and the battlements…”

    Source: NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission

  5. 1975

    Summer

    The Kingsbridge Heights Community Center moves into the empty police station

    The precinct, renumbered the 50th in 1929, moved to 3450 Kingsbridge Avenue in December 1974, and the Kingsbridge Heights Community Center took over the building the next summer. Starting in 1979, city capital funds and federal community development money paid for a rehabilitation by architects Edelman and Salzman, finished in 1981, which adapted the interior while leaving the north and east facades almost unchanged.

    “The police moved from the building to their current location at 3450 Kingsbridge Avenue in December 1974; the present tenant, the Kingsbridge Height s Community Center, took possession in summer 1975…”

    Source: NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission

  6. 1986

    July 15

    The former 50th Precinct station house is designated a city landmark

    The Landmarks Preservation Commission designated the former station house, built in 1901-1902 as the 40th Precinct, on July 15, 1986. The designation followed public hearings held on April 13 and June 8, 1982, at which three witnesses spoke in favor and none against.

    Source: NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission

Nearby

All 1 building with stories in Van Cortlandt Village