438 East 136th Street

Mott Haven | built 1895

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.

1895
Edward Bertine builds No. 438 among his last houses on the block
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No. 438 belongs to the four two-family Renaissance Revival rowhouses that Edward D. Bertine put up in 1895 at 434 to 440 East 136th Street, the last buildings he erected in what is now the historic district. Adolph Balschun Jr. was the architect. Unlike Bertine's earlier single-family rows on the street, each house was laid out for two households.
Source: NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission
1900
William Lewis's household of eleven, with a doctor boarder, lives at No. 438
The 1900 census found Canadian-born William Lewis at 438 East 136th Street with his wife, three sons, four daughters and a son-in-law. The household also took in a boarder who was a physician. Neighbors in the same row that year included two builders, a real estate agent and a post office clerk.
Source: NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission
1994
No. 438 shares a broad stoop with No. 440 and keeps its stained-glass transom
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No. 438 and No. 440 are entered from one wide shared stoop lined by three wrought-iron railings, two at the edges and a third in the center. At designation in 1994 No. 438 still had its original stained-glass transom, and an iron gate closed off the base of its stoop. Like its three neighbors it is crowned by a heavy cornice with a paneled frieze, brackets and a parapet.
Source: NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission

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