60-48 Catalpa Avenue

Ridgewood | built 1909

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.

1907
German immigrant mason Paul Stier, builder of this house, begins his Ridgewood building boom
Paul Stier, born in Mecklenburg in 1874, came to America alone as a teenager in 1891 and apprenticed as a mason in Buffalo before moving to the Ridgewood area in 1902. After buying much of the old Debevoise farm in 1906, he started building there in earnest in 1907, and between 1907 and 1909 he put up 392 of the 481 buildings he would develop in the district, this house among them. A small street nearby, Stier Place, carries his name.
“His most active years were from 1907 to 1909, when he built 392 of the 481 buildings that he eventually developed within the historic district.”
Source: NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission
1909
Louis Berger & Company designs 60-48 Catalpa Avenue as the last of a 23-house row for Paul Stier
Read more
This two-family house of buff iron-spot brick, built around 1909 under permit NB 1379-1909, ends a run of 23 two-family houses from 60-04 to 60-48 Catalpa Avenue, bracketed by corner store-and-flats buildings at each end. Its full-height rounded bay, limestone door hood with a carved pediment, and a cornice hung with festoons and egg-and-dart molding all survive, and the landmarks report lists the cornice as original.
Source: NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission

Nearby