38 Westervelt Avenue

New Brighton | built 1874

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.

1874
A mirror-image Second Empire double house stands on the lot by 1874
Nos. 36-38 were built as one orange-red brick structure in a plain local take on the Second Empire style, its two halves reversed to form a single broad front. Windows have brownstone sills and segmental-arched heads with dentils, and the mansard roof is covered in octagonal slates with four gabled dormers facing the avenue. A porch with chamfered wooden posts and a turned balustrade crosses the facade.
“Designed in a vernacular version of the Second Empire style which was employed for several other houses in the district, Nos. 36 - 38 have a mirror-image form…”
Source: NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission
1915
Stenographer Thomas Riley's family lives at No. 38
In the 1880s and 1890s the Newtons' tenants, presumably living in No. 38, included the brokers William T. Williams and Lewis N. Morris. By 1915 the family of stenographer Thomas Riley lived here, and in 1925 several of the Riley children remained, working as housekeepers, telephone operators and office workers.
Source: NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission

Nearby