34-34 85th Street

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.

1917
Future architect of the house, Robert Tappan, wins a contest for a low-cost home design
Robert Tappan, who designed this house a decade later, cared about affordable housing from early in his career. In 1917 he took first prize in a competition run by the journal American Architect for a house with a cost cap of $5,500. He went on to design groups of houses for the Queensboro Corporation in Jackson Heights, starting with a 16-house row on 87th Street in 1925.
“…won first prize in 1917 for a "Competition for a house to cost not to exceed $5,500 [sic]," sponsored by the American Architect.”
Source: NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission
1927
Robert Tappan's 1927 design for the Queensboro Corporation places 34-34 85th Street in a mirrored four-house cluster
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This house went up in 1927 for the developer Queensboro Corporation, filed with the city as NB 2935-1927 together with its cluster-mates at 34-36, 34-38 and 34-40 85th Street. Architect Robert Tappan grouped 32 houses on the block between 34th and 35th avenues into eight back-to-back clusters, four facing each street. Within a cluster the houses mirror one another so the four read as one larger building, and garages paired behind the houses open onto a common drive.
Source: NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission

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