East 17th Street – Irving Place Historic District

Located east of Union Square, along the south side of East 17th Street, this small residential district is one of the few surviving enclaves from the time when the Union Square area was a fashionable address for wealthy New Yorkers. Most of the residences are single-family row houses built during the 1830s and 1840s. These structures, designed in the Greek Revival style, are faced in red brick and brownstone, with small attic windows, simple molded cornices, and high stoops leading to parlor floor entrances. The Italianate townhouses, dating from the 1850s, have brownstone facades.

Following the Civil War, Union Square became the heart of the city's art and entertainment district, attracting artists and other creative types to the area. Two of the area's most famous residents were actress and interior designer Elsie de Wolfe and her companion, theater agent Elizabeth Marbury. They lived at 49 Irving Place, as did photographer Clarence H. White. According to a prevalent but false legend, the property was also the residence of writer Washington Irving.

By the 1880s, the Union Square area's changing population prompted the conversion of many of the single- family residences to boardinghouses. The changing demographics also led to the construction of two flats buildings, the Fanwood (1890-91) and the Irving (1901-02), both designed in the Renaissance Revival style. Some famous residents of these buildings were painter Percy Moran and Victor D. Brenner, the designer of the Lincoln-head penny. By the end of the 1930s, all of the properties within the district were converted to multiple dwellings and continue to function as such today. ©2014