34-38 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.

1925
Robert Tappan designs his first Jackson Heights houses, a 16-house row on 87th Street
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Tappan's first houses for the Queensboro Corporation in Jackson Heights were a row of 16 brick houses on 87th Street, built in 1925. A second row followed on 88th Street in 1925-26, with paired garages behind the houses, one per house, and in 1926-27 he designed a through-the-block group of semi-detached double houses on 86th and 87th streets. The detailing of all three groups drew on English, largely Georgian, sources.
“Tappan's first group of houses in Jackson Heights is the row on the east side of 87th Street between 34th and 35th avenues, built in 1925.”
Source: NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission
1927
Robert Tappan's 1927 design for the Queensboro Corporation places 34-38 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 34-34, 34-36 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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