39-55 48th Street

Sunnyside | built 1927

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.

1926
September 15
Deed covenants for Jefferson Court's block set rules to protect its shared gardens
A declaration of easements for tax block 133, the block holding Jefferson Court and this house, is dated September 15, 1926. Buyers at Sunnyside Gardens signed such covenants when purchasing their lots. Because the mortgage banks insisted, most of them were set to expire after forty years, generally in 1966, while a few, such as those keeping setbacks for light and air and letting utilities cross the land, were permanent.
“Block 133 (dated September 15, 1926) ... most easements were not made permanent but were intended to last for forty years (generally until 1966).”
Source: NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission
1927
A Jefferson Court row house is built facing a shared garden instead of the street
Number 39-55 is the fourth of seven houses, dated 1927, forming the southern arm of a U-shaped Jefferson Court group around a central garden. It is a flat-roofed type B, its front turned to the court behind a small lawn. The row's brickwork includes soldier courses, corner pilasters and a stepped parapet with corbels and faceted colonettes, and most houses kept their wooden door surrounds and bracketed hoods.
“These houses compose the southern perpendicular to the street portion of a U-shaped row of buildings surrounding a central garden court.”
Source: NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission

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