39-56 47th Street

Sunnyside | built 1925

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
The northern end of a Hamilton Court row is built turned sideways to face a garden path
Built in 1925 as part of Hamilton Court in Sunnyside Gardens, 39-56 is the northernmost of nine two-story row houses that run south to 39-78 47th Street, drawn in seven designs and two mirror images. Instead of lining up with its neighbors, it stands farther back and sits at a right angle to the row, so its main front looks onto the through-block path rather than the street. Its north side counts as one of the row's front facades.
“…with the northernmost building more recessed and set perpendicular to the row, facing the through-block path…”
Source: NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission
1966
Hamilton Court owners, alone in Sunnyside Gardens, agree to keep their shared garden courts
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The easements that kept Sunnyside Gardens' interior courts as common open space started to lapse on January 1, 1966, after a 1956 push by the trustees for voluntary extensions had failed. In places, owners fenced common land into private yards, built decks and porches at the rear and cut driveways. Hamilton Court, the court this house belongs to, was the lone holdout: its residents consented to renew the easements, wanting to keep their courts from filling with fenced plots and sheds.
“Residents of Hamilton Court were the only ones who agreed to extend the easements.”
Source: NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission

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