Seaman-Drake Arch

5063 Broadway | also 5067 Broadway, 5065 Broadway | Inwood | built 1953

Open on the map9 entries

The lot about 1940
About 1940. Via 1940s.nyc
The lot about 1985
About 1985. Via 80s.nyc

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.

  1. 1855

    The Seaman family builds a marble gateway to its hilltop estate

    Merchant John Ferris Seaman and his brother Valentine bought 25 acres of hilltop land in 1851 and built a marble mansion with this arch, completed in 1855, as its gateway on Broadway. Made of locally quarried Inwood marble, it stands about 35 feet high and 40 feet wide. From 1905 contractor Thomas Dwyer ran his Marble Arch Company from rooms inside it.

    Source: Wikipedia

  2. 1878

    Ann Drake Seaman leaves the marble house to a nephew and 145 relatives contest the will

    John Ferris Seaman died in 1872 and his wife Ann Drake Seaman in 1878, and the couple had no children. Ann left the marble house, grounds and furnishings to her nephew Lawrence Drake. A total of 145 relatives contested the will, and the dispute was not settled until around 1893.

    “Ann Drake Seaman willed the estate to her nephew, Lawrence Drake; 145 relatives contested the will, which was not settled until around 1893.”

    Source: Wikipedia

  3. 1896

    The Suburban Riding and Driving Club turns the Seaman mansion into a clubhouse

    Shortly before 1900 the mansion and grounds were rented to a group of wealthy horsemen, the Suburban Riding and Driving Club, whose clubhouse stood at 217th Street and Kingsbridge Road. Bedrooms became private dining rooms, the dining hall and parlors a cafe and reception room, and the conservatory a smoking and sun room. A Harper's Bazaar description of 1896 says the club had enrolled over 200 members, each paying a $25 initiation fee and $25 in annual dues, and that over $10,000 had gone into alterations and repairs.

    Source: myinwood.net

  4. 1905

    Contractor Thomas Dwyer buys the estate and runs his business from the arch

    In 1905, contractor Thomas Dwyer purchases the former Seaman estate and sets up his Marble Arch Company inside the gatehouse quarters of the marble arch, using it as headquarters for his construction business. By 1912, low brick buildings, some later used as car dealerships, have begun rising around the arch, foreshadowing the site's industrial future.

    Source: Wikipedia

  5. 1912

    Low brick buildings and car dealerships crowd around the arch

    By 1912 low brick buildings had risen around the arch, and some of them were car dealerships that used the archway as their entrance. The arch has belonged to an auto-body shop since the 1960s, and the mansion it once served is long gone.

    “…as early as 1912, low brick buildings had sprung up around the arch – some of them car dealerships which used the archway as an entrance.”

    Source: Wikipedia

  6. 1938

    Dwyer sells the hilltop estate for the Park Terrace Gardens apartments

    In 1938, Thomas Dwyer sells the former Seaman estate for development into the 400-unit Park Terrace Gardens apartment complex. The hilltop mansion the marble arch once led to is demolished, leaving the arch itself as the estate's only surviving structure.

    Source: Wikipedia

  7. 1970

    A fire leaves the Seaman-Drake Arch roofless

    After the mansion was sold for apartments in 1938, the arch survived on its own, and since the 1960s it has been part of an auto-body shop at 5065 Broadway. A fire in 1970 badly damaged it, leaving it without a roof. As of 2015 it was neither a city landmark nor on the National Register of Historic Places.

    Source: Wikipedia

  8. 2003

    A campaign to landmark the Seaman-Drake Arch fails

    In 2003, preservationists mount an effort to win official landmark status for the Seaman-Drake Arch, gaining the backing of City Councilman Robert Jackson. The campaign does not succeed, and the marble arch remains unprotected, standing behind an auto body shop that has occupied the site since the 1960s.

    Source: Wikipedia

  9. 2009

    October

    The overgrown arch is listed for rent at $17,000 a month, with talk of a nightclub

    In October 2009 the arch, a garage and adjoining retail space, about 7,000 square feet in all, were offered for $17,000 a month. Broker Andrew Shell imagined a skylit nightclub and rooftop cafe, and said at least two prospective tenants were interested, one wanting a nightclub. The arch was overrun with weeds, litter and graffiti, the marble was cracking, and the owner had told the broker that a man whose life his father saved during the Second World War had given his father the arch.

    Source: dnainfo.com

Further reading

Nearby

All 11 buildings with stories in Inwood