39-74 44th 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.

1927
Madison Court North turns its houses sideways to the street to enclose shared gardens
Madison Court North, where 39-74 44th Street stands, was built in 1927 at the edge of the Sunnyside property. Clarence Stein wrote that the aim was to face as few houses as possible toward other builders' rows. Apart from the northernmost row, its houses stand at right angles to the street in paired rows of eight around central gardens, reached from 44th Street by brick steps up to a garden raised behind a retaining wall.
“…the buildings in Madison Court North are set perpendicular to the street, in six, paired rows of eight buildings fronting a central court garden…”
Source: NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission
1927
39-74 44th Street gets a gable-front roof turned against the rest of its row
39-74 44th Street is the last house in a 1927 row of eight in Madison Court North, and the only one with a gable-front slate roof set crosswise to the side-gabled roofs of the other seven. Its three-bay side wall faces 44th Street, with a brick chimney between the second and third bays. An original brick wall still lines its back yard along the service driveway.
“The slate shingled, pitched roof of the gable front, last building, 39-74 44th Street, is set perpendicular to the side gable, slate shingled, roofs…”
Source: NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission

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