{"nrhp_refnum":"80002685","name":"East 78th Street Houses","other_names":[],"category":"building","location":{"address":"157,159,161, and 163-165 E. 78th St.","address_restricted":false,"city":"New York","county":"Manhattan","state":"NY","lat":40.77401905200003,"lon":-73.95859725499997,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1980-03-25","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Architecture"],"significance_levels":["local"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"A group of four vernacular brick rowhouses at 157-165 East 78th Street on Manhattan's Upper East Side, built in 1861 by speculator-builder Henry Armstrong from a single set of plans.","why_significant":"The row is among the oldest rowhouses on the Upper East Side and shows how Italianate elements were adapted to modest working- and middle-class housing. It is a typical product of a speculator-builder who acted as his own architect and repeated one standard plan. The houses are the remnant of an original row of eleven, illustrating the long, nearly uniform rows of the era.","narrative":"Four modest brick rowhouses at 157-165 East 78th Street survive from a row of eleven built in 1861 on Manhattan's Upper East Side. Builder and speculator Henry Armstrong erected them for painter John Turner, using one standard plan repeated for each house. Each is three bays wide, two stories above a low ground floor, and topped with a pressed-metal Italianate cornice with consoles and modillions. Brick was chosen over costlier brownstone, and narrow lots reflected rising land prices that pushed builders of modest homes toward 18-foot widths. The stoops were removed in the early twentieth century, and Numbers 163 and 165 were joined into one residence in 1911. Number 157 later gained a slate mansard roof. The row is valued as one of the oldest on the Upper East Side and as a clear example of how Italianate details were adapted for working- and middle-class New Yorkers moving north in the 1860s. The houses remain private homes.","period_of_significance":"1800-1899","architect_builder":"Henry Armstrong, builder","architectural_style":"Italianate (vernacular rowhouses)","criteria":[],"status_note":"Excellent condition; the houses remain private residences and none has been divided into apartments.","vacant_flag":false,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:50:41.310359-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/lz/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_NY/80002685.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/80002685/7376926683-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/80002685/7376926683-1600.webp","licence":"CC BY-SA 3.0","author":"Americasroof","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Nyc-157e78.jpg\" rel=\"noopener\">Americasroof</a>, <a href=\"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0\" rel=\"license noopener\">CC BY-SA 3.0</a>, via Wikimedia Commons","source_page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Nyc-157e78.jpg"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/75319459","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Houses_at_157%E2%80%93165_East_78th_Street","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q1277705"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/new-york/manhattan/east-78th-street-houses-80002685/"}