5215 Sycamore Avenue

Riverdale | built 1970

Open on the map3 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. 1876

    An 1876 map marks a belvedere, perhaps on the spot of this lot's stone cold-storage structure

    At the west side of this lot, a stone and brick structure is set into a terrace, with a stone retaining wall. It probably served for cold storage, and it may stand where an 1876 map of the estate marks a belvedere, possibly having carried that belvedere on its roof.

    “…may be the same occupied by a belvedere marked on an 1876 map. The structure is thought to have been used for cold storage…”

    Source: NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission

  2. 1969

    Ludwig P. Bono designs a house for John and Patricia Cunningham on land split from Stonehurst

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    This lot was separated from the Stonehurst villa's property in 1969, and Ludwig P. Bono designed the house on it for John P. and Patricia Cunningham, the earlier owners of the Stonehurst house. It is made of three plain blocks: a square center with a large chimney and a steep hipped roof between lower hipped wings, the eastern one holding a two-car garage. The walls are stucco with quoins.

    “The house ... was designed by Ludwig P. Bono for Mr. and Mrs. John P. Cunningham who had previously owned the Stonehurst house.”

    Source: NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission

  3. 1970

    Advertising executive John P. Cunningham moves from Stonehurst into the new house

    John P. Cunningham, born in Lynn, Massachusetts, began in advertising as an artist and copywriter, became a partner in the Newell-Emmet agency in 1930, and from 1954 was president of Cunningham & Walsh; that year he also chaired the American Association of Advertising Agencies. He and his wife, Patricia, bought Stonehurst in 1946 and lived there until about 1970, when they built this house on a lot cut from it.

    Source: NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission

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