{"nrhp_refnum":"83001732","name":"Houses at 208-218 East 78th Street","other_names":[],"category":"building","location":{"address":"208-218 E. 78th St.","address_restricted":false,"city":"New York","county":"Manhattan","state":"NY","lat":40.77310765000004,"lon":-73.95742652899997,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1983-06-30","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Architecture"],"significance_levels":["local"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"A row of six brick Italianate row houses at 208-218 East 78th Street in Manhattan, built between 1861 and 1865 as a speculative development. They are the survivors of an original row of fifteen.","why_significant":"The nomination argues the row is an intact Manhattan example of nineteenth-century middle-class residential architecture. The houses are distinctive for their narrow two-bay facades and unusual elliptical window and door openings, which are rare in Italianate design.","narrative":"Six brick row houses at 208-218 East 78th Street in Manhattan are all that remain of a row of fifteen built between 1861 and 1865. Howard A. Martin bought the land in 1861 and divided it into lots 13 feet 4 inches wide. Builders Warren and Ransom Beman and John Buckley put up the houses, and construction stretched over four years, a long span affected by the Civil War. Each house has three stories above a basement and a two-bay facade with a tall stoop, original double doors, stone enframements with decorated keystones, and a bracketed cornice. Elliptically arched openings are very unusual for Italianate design. The block lay within the village of Yorkville, which became more accessible after the Third Avenue Railroad opened in 1852. The other houses in the original row were demolished for apartment buildings. The surviving six were listed as an intact example of middle-class housing of the period and are still used as residences.","period_of_significance":"1861-1865","architect_builder":"Warren and Ransom Beman, John Buckley","architectural_style":"Italianate","criteria":[],"status_note":"Still in use as private residences; no major facade alterations, though some original ironwork was replaced at Nos. 214 and 216 and the stoop at No. 218 was replaced with concrete steps.","vacant_flag":false,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:50:41.844276-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/lz/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_NY/83001732.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/83001732/77b64fbba1-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/83001732/77b64fbba1-1600.webp","licence":"CC BY-SA 3.0","author":"Daniel Case","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:208-218_East_78_St,_New_York,_NY.jpg\" rel=\"noopener\">Daniel Case</a>, <a href=\"http://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:208-218_East_78_St,_New_York,_NY.jpg"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/75319626","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Houses_at_208%E2%80%93218_East_78th_Street","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q1619768"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/new-york/manhattan/houses-at-208-218-east-78th-street-83001732/"}