Charles W. Foster Villa
5291 Independence Avenue | Riverdale | built 1920
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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.
- 1853
Auctioneer Charles W. Foster holds the northernmost Independence Avenue estate, where his villa is built
Charles W. Foster, an auctioneer, belonged from the start to the syndicate that bought land in 1852 to develop Riverdale. The 1853 Map of Riverdale shows him as owner of the northernmost of the five estates along Independence Avenue, an irregular parcel of about 2.3 acres. The villa built on it is this house, much altered in 1886.
“Foster owned the northernmost of the five Independence Avenue estates, an irregular parcel of roughly 2.3 acres on which a villa was constructed…”
- 1860
William S. and Sarah W. Duke acquire the Foster villa, their home into the 1890s
Duncan McDougall bought the Foster estate in 1857, but the people living in the house were William S. and Sarah W. Duke. The Dukes bought the property in 1860 and kept it into the 1890s. An 1876 map shows a carriage house, since lost, at the southwest corner of the grounds on Sycamore Avenue.
“…the house was actually occupied by William S. and Sarah W. Duke who acquired the property in 1860 and owned it until the 1890s…”
- 1886
Frederick Clarke Withers remodels the villa in the Queen Anne style for William S. Duke
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In 1886 William S. Duke hired Frederick Clarke Withers, the English-born architect best known for the Jefferson Market Courthouse, to rework the house. Withers remodeled it in the Queen Anne style, adding a story, a picturesque roof and porches. He also designed a new carriage house and stable to match, now 5286 Sycamore Avenue.
“For William S. Duke in 1886, Withers remodeled the house at 5291 Independence Avenue in the Queen Anne style, adding a story…”
- 1896
The High family buys the estate and keeps it whole until 1935
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After George E. and Charlotte Goodrich Wyeth owned the property briefly between 1894 and 1896, it was sold to John M. and Anna Dorothea High. The Highs held the entire estate until 1935, when they began selling lots, keeping a large parcel with the house on Independence Avenue. Between 1941 and 1946 the house was deeded to the New York Trust Company, and it then passed through various owners.
“It was then sold to John M. and Anna Dorothea High, and the entire estate remained in the possession of the High family until 1935…”
Nearby
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- 5281 Independence Avenue3 entries
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- 5288 Sycamore Avenue3 entries
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