745 Fox Street
also 730 Beck Street | Longwood | built 1850
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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.
- 1850
A private house rises on a landed estate, the oldest building left in the Longwood district
Around 1850 this building was put up as a private residence belonging to a large landed estate, and records from 1885 list S.B. White as its owner. The landmarks report calls it the oldest surviving building in the Longwood district. It first stood between Southern Boulevard and Leggett Lane, and the report suggests it was probably moved when Longwood's streets were laid out late in the century.
“…the oldest existing building in the Longwood District and was erected C.1850 as a private residence. The house was part of a large, landed estate…”
- 1898
Developer George Johnson buys the White estate and runs his real estate office from the mansion
Around 1898 the developer George B. Johnson, who built virtually all of the Longwood district, bought the abandoned S.B. White estate. Johnson and his sons ran their profitable real estate business out of the empty White mansion. The landmarks report notes that the house still stood in 1980 as the Patrolman P. Lynch center, though completely altered.
“Johnson and his sons operated their lucrative real estate office out of the abandoned White mansion, which still stands at 734 Beck Street…”
- 1900
Warren C. Dickerson remodels the old mansion as a clubhouse
In 1900, once Johnson had finished building on Dawson, Kelly, Beck and East 156th Streets, architect Warren C. Dickerson remodeled the old house as a clubhouse. Over the following decades it hosted the Unity Club, the Longwood Club, the Martinique Club and the Juvenile Service League, and at various times held a bowling alley, a ballroom, a dance hall and a nursery.
- 1980
Landmarks report finds little left of the mansion's original design
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By 1980 heavy alterations had erased nearly all of the house's first design, according to the Longwood report. A six-column portico that once stood in front had been cut down to a small porch on Doric columns, and every window of the three-bay main front had been removed. Corner Doric pilasters, possibly original, and a dentilled galvanized-iron cornice remained.
Nearby
- 726 Beck Street2 entries
- 724 Beck Street2 entries
- 722 Beck Street1 entry
- 744 Beck Street1 entry
- 720 Beck Street1 entry
- 718 Beck Street1 entry