59-15 Catalpa Avenue farmhouse

59-15 Catalpa Avenue | Ridgewood | built 1902

Open on the map3 entries

Written with AI from the source each entry cites, then fact-checked.

1. 1866

   A two-story frame farmhouse rises at 59-15 Catalpa Avenue, probably the district's oldest surviving house

   The Landmarks Preservation Commission dates this wood farmhouse to sometime between 1866 and 1873 and suggests it may have been built for a J. Jarvis. It stands two stories tall over a basement below grade, with an attic tucked under a gabled roof. The Commission calls it probably the oldest house still standing in the Central Ridgewood Historic District, though additions and alterations have changed it heavily.

   “Probably the oldest extant house in the historic district, 59-15 Catalpa Avenue appears to have been built between 1866 and 1873, possibly for J. Jarvis.”

   Source: NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission

2. 1914

   The old farmhouse gains a brick wing trimmed in diaperwork sometime between 1914 and 1940

   A brick extension at the northwest, with west and east entrance vestibules, was added to the frame house between 1914 and 1940, all of it decorated with patterned diaperwork brick. The house already appears on the 1902 Sanborn fire insurance map. After 1940 the front's brick veneer was replaced and a pitched-roof addition went onto the west side, which blocked a first-story window and changed the east vestibule's entrance and stoop.

   “…brick northwestern extension with west and east vestibules, all decorated with diaperwork, installed between 1914 and 1940…”

   Source: NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission

3. 2014

   The former farmhouse, once a VFW meeting hall, is a Romanian community center when Central Ridgewood is landmarked

   Later on, the house at 59-15 Catalpa Avenue became a meeting hall for the Veterans of Foreign Wars. By the time the Landmarks Preservation Commission designated the Central Ridgewood Historic District on December 9, 2014, the building housed a Romanian community center. The designation report notes that the house still keeps its historic wood cornice, though that cornice has been altered.

   Source: NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission

Nearby

• 59-11 Catalpa Avenue1 entry
• 59-19 Catalpa Avenue1 entry
• 59-09 Catalpa Avenue1 entry
• 59-21 Catalpa Avenue1 entry
• 59-07 Catalpa Avenue2 entries
• 59-23 Catalpa Avenue3 entries

All 1,266 buildings with stories in Ridgewood