Riverside–West 105th Street Historic District

The Riverside–West 105th Street Historic District is a small residential historic district on the Upper West Side of Manhattan in New York City, New York, US. The district is listed on the National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) and designated by the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission; the national and city designations fully overlap. It encompasses 30 rowhouses or townhouses in an "L"-shaped area extending north along Riverside Drive and east along 105th Street. The rowhouses are situated on both sides of 105th Street, the east side of Riverside Drive, and the south side of 106th Street (one block north). The seven remaining homes on 330–337 Riverside Drive have been nicknamed the Seven Beauties. The houses are sometimes shown on architectural tours of the neighborhood. Building details Janes & Leo were the sole architects of the ten buildings at 302–320 West 105th Street, on the south side of 105th Street. These buildings are grouped into five pairs, which have one of three general designs and are all made of stone with mansard roofs. The outermost pairs of houses, at 302–304 and 318–320 West 105th Street, generally have symmetrical first-floor doorways flanked by arched windows; elaborate brackets supporting second-floor balconies; bowed or curved fronts with pilasters in the Ionic order. The second-outermost pairs, at numbers 306–308 and 314–316, have asymmetrical first-floor doors with Ionic pilasters and cartouches above; second-floor iron railings; and elaborate third-floor oriel windows with corbels. The innermost pair, numbers 310–312, have three-story high bowed fronts with decorated pilasters on the third floor, along with elaborate broken pediments on the fourth floor. On the north side of 105th Street, Janes & Leo also designed four buildings at 301–307 West 105th Street, which have brick fronts. The easternmost house at number 301 has a projecting polygonal bay, limited stone ornament, and balconies. Numbers 303 and 305 have similar design details to number 301, except that they have entrances with Doric columns, pediments above the second story, and a cornice above the fourth story. Number 307 has a protruding entrance portico, bowed front, and quoins. Mowbray & Uffinger's seven houses at 309–321 West 105th Street are made of stone and have similar design details to the buildings on the south side, albeit with flat roofs instead of mansards. The buildings have either bowed fronts or polygonal bays, along with design elements such as stone blocks, Ionic pilasters, and broken pediments. Some of Mowbray & Uffinger's houses also have a mixture of details such as rusticated basements and brackets supporting roof cornices. The two buildings at Riverside Drive's corners (330 and 337 Riverside Drive) are much larger than the others on the block. The basement of number 337 is made of stone, surrounded by a spiked iron fence, while the upper stories have limestone-framed windows in their outer bays. Adjoining 337 Riverside Drive is a house at 332 West 106th Street, with a buff brick facade, a rusticated ground-level entrance, French windows, and ornate roof dormers. The residences at 331 and 333 (and formerly 332) Riverside Drive are nearly identical, with brick and limestone facades. Each building has a rusticated first-floor facade with garlands over the entrance; second-floor French windows with broken-arched pediments; and a cornice above the second floor. Number 333 retains decorative iron railings that no longer exist on number 331. Immediately to the north are 334–336 Riverside Drive, which have different designs. Number 334 has a masonry basement and brick facade, with a central arched entrance in the basement, a third-floor balcony and recessed window, and a fifth-floor dormer. Number 335 has a stone basement and a brick facade with stone decorations; its details include an Ionic portico, a balcony, a neo- Palladian window, and dormers. Number 336 has a limestone facade with an entrance stoop, stone balustrade, and brackets; unlike the other houses, the fifth floor is not recessed. ==History==

Development Before European colonization of modern-day New York City, the site was inhabited by the Lenape people. After the British established the Province of New York, the area became part of a land grant given to Isaac Bedlow, a city alderman, in 1667 or 1668. The land remained rural and undeveloped until the late 19th century, though two rural estates were built in the immediate environs: the Humphrey Jones Homestead (established before 1752) to the south and Woodlawn (established 1764) to the north. The Jones Homestead was destroyed in 1857, while Woodlawn persisted until 1864 when it was parceled up into land lots for development. Intense real estate speculation in the 1880s led to further development on the Upper West Side, including near the newly-completed Riverside Park and Riverside Drive on the neighborhood's western fringe. By the early 1890s, lots on the Upper West Side's periphery were being marketed to the upper middle class. The houses were all built between 1899 and 1902. John C. Umberfield and Hamilton M. Weed were responsible for the houses on 105th Street, while Joseph A. Farley and Stewart & Smith built the houses on Riverside Drive; Stewart & Smith also built a single house in the district on 106th Street. Usage The Beaux-Arts style of the buildings was intended to attract well-off residents of other parts of the Upper West Side. By the 1930s, the area had become rundown; for example, the house at number 334 had become a boarding house, where at one point a thief named Bennie the Bum died after an amputation following a botched robbery. The church demolished 332 Riverside Drive The adjacent Davis Mansion at 330 Riverside Drive was acquired by the Brothers of the La Salle Provincialate, which conveyed it in 1978 to a Catholic foundation affiliated with Opus Dei; that house became a retreat known as the Riverside Study Center. 337 Riverside Drive became the John Mace Music School. the effort to designate the buildings as landmarks had been headed by a local resident who wanted to deter crime in the neighborhood. In addition, it is listed on the New York State Register of Historic Places. ==Notable people==

Notable owners and residents of buildings in the district have included: • Saul Bellow, writer; lived at 333 Riverside Drive • Marion Davies, actress; lived at 331 Riverside Drive. • Julia Marlowe, actress; lived at 337 Riverside Drive • Nina Simone, singer; lived at 336 Riverside Drive • Jokichi Takamine, chemist; bought 334 Riverside Drive in 1909 ==In media==

The Riverside Drive buildings were the focus of The Man with the Sawed Off Leg, a 2018 book by Daniel J. Wakin. The houses on Riverside Drive were also detailed in Stephanie Azzarone's 2022 book Mansions, Monuments and Marvels of Riverside Park: Heaven on the Hudson. ==See also==