Delavan Terrace Historic District
Why it's listed
Delavan Terrace is a small enclave of eleven large houses in Yonkers, set apart from surrounding apartment complexes and tract housing. The earliest building, the Smith-Collins House on Palisade Avenue, dates from about 1854 and was remodeled in High Victorian Gothic style in 1875, with a composition resembling a design by Andrew Jackson Downing. Most of the other houses went up after 1904, when the Baldwin estate, once part of the lands of Lemuel Wells and earlier the Philipse manor, was divided into lots and Delavan Terrace opened as a private street. The houses show Queen Anne, Shingle Style, Tudor Revival, Bungalow, Mission Revival and Neo-Colonial design, and several were built for local business figures, including a carpet company president and an heir of the elevator inventor Elisha Otis. Despite some alterations, the area keeps the scale and feel of an early residential development, and it contains one of the few surviving Eastlake interiors in Yonkers.
Machine-generated summary. This summary was generated by a language model from the official nomination document and has not been reviewed line by line by an editor. It may contain errors. Check the source document before relying on any detail. Source: nomination document (PDF) · catalog entry. Generated October 2026 (model claude-sonnet-5-5, prompt v1.0-2026-10-29).
| Period of significance | 1854-1926 |
|---|---|
| Styles | Queen Anne, Shingle Style, Bungalow, Tudor Revival, Mission/Spanish Colonial Revival, Neo-Colonial, High Victorian Gothic |
| Areas of significance | Architecture |
| Acreage | 4.2 |
| Boundary source | NPS cultural-resource GIS polygon |
| Full listing page | Delavan Terrace Historic District (property record) |
What listing means for this property
This is a historic district. Buildings within its boundary are either contributing (they add to the district's significance) or non-contributing. Owners of contributing income-producing buildings can claim the 20% federal rehabilitation tax credit; homeowners should look at state credits. National Register districts impose no design review by themselves; a local historic district ordinance, if one exists, does (the difference explained).
General information, not legal or tax advice. Rules change; confirm with your State Historic Preservation Office or a qualified adviser.