Atherton Estate carriage house

5220 Sycamore Avenue | Riverdale | built 1903

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. 1882

    George and Mary McGill buy the Atherton estate, where they later add this carriage house

    George and Mary L.H. McGill owned the old Henry L. Atherton estate from 1882 until 1907. City directories from around 1900 list George McGill with a fastener business at 25 Park Place in Manhattan. The couple made several changes to the estate's main house and had a carriage house put up on the Sycamore Avenue side of the property.

    Source: NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission

  2. 1903

    Clarence L. Sefert designs a stable, coach house and dwelling for Mary McGill

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    Mary McGill, then owner of the Atherton estate, had architect Clarence L. Sefert design this two-story Colonial Revival building in 1903. Downstairs it had a large coach room plus stable, feed and harness rooms, while the upper floor had a bedroom, living room, kitchen, bath and feed loft. The balloon-frame walls carry wood siding below and fish-scale shingles above, under a bracketed hipped roof that once had a cupola.

    “This building was designed in 1903 by Clarence L. Sefert for Mary McGill who then owned the Atherton Estate.”

    Source: NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission

  3. 1907

    Loring R. Gale buys the Atherton estate, which his daughter later splits into separate lots

    A 1907 map shows a driveway running from the bend of Sycamore Avenue to this carriage house, the same year the Atherton estate was sold to Loring R. Gale. His daughter, Lucille Gale Knapp, and her husband Sanford later divided the land: the villa on Independence Avenue, this carriage house on Sycamore Avenue, and three empty lots south of the villa each became separate parcels.

    Source: NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission

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