The Gingerbread House

8220 Narrows Avenue | Bay Ridge | built 1917

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. 1917

    Shipping executive Howard E. Jones commissions an Arts and Crafts stone house on Narrows Avenue

    Howard E. Jones, a Brooklyn-born shipping man, hired the Canadian-born architect James Sarsfield Kennedy to design his new home in 1917. Kennedy built it of large natural boulders and rocks, with stucco swirls around some ground-floor openings and an asphalt-shingle roof shaped to suggest an English thatched cottage. The city later called it a rare New York example of the Arts and Crafts style.

    “…designed in 1917 by James Sarsfield Kennedy, a Brooklyn architect, for shipping merchant Howard E. Jones.”

    Source: NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission

  2. 1919

    Howard E. Jones, the house's owner, becomes president of the shipping firm James W. Elwell & Co.

    Jones, born in Brooklyn in 1884, headed the shipping company James W. Elwell & Co. from 1919 until 1942, two years before he died. He held a directorship on the Maritime Association Board of New York and in 1932 was elected a vice president. Jones also served as administrative chairman of the Brooklyn Civilian Defense Volunteers and as president of Victory Memorial Hospital, where his wife Jessie was also involved.

    “In 1919 he became president of the shipping firm, James W. Elwell & Co., retaining that position until 1942, two years before his death.”

    Source: NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission

  3. 1988

    March 8

    The Landmarks Preservation Commission designates the house a city landmark after the owners voice reservations

    At a public hearing on May 15, 1987, nobody spoke against designating the house, but the owners voiced reservations. On March 8, 1988, the commission designated the 8200 Narrows Avenue House and its tax lot as a landmark, citing its rare Arts and Crafts design and its place in Bay Ridge's residential growth in the 1910s.

    “…the owners of the property expressed reservations about the designation.”

    Source: NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission

Nearby

All 9 buildings with stories in Bay Ridge