West 73rd-74th Street Historic District

This block on Manhattan's Upper West Side holds 45 buildings, mostly townhouses, along West 73rd Street, West 74th Street and Columbus Avenue. The land was once part of the Richard Somerindyck farm and was assembled for development by Edward Clark, president of the Singer Manufacturing Company, who also commissioned the nearby Dakota Apartments. Henry J. Hardenbergh designed the long rows of West 73rd Street houses in a German Renaissance manner meant to complement the Dakota. Percy Griffin designed a row of eighteen Georgian Revival houses on West 74th Street, and Welch, Smith & Provot, John H. Duncan and George Griebel contributed other buildings, including a light-storage commercial structure on Columbus Avenue. The fifteen-story neo-Gothic Park Royal of 1926 replaced ten demolished Hardenbergh houses. Restrictive covenants on setbacks and height preserved the block's harmonious, residential character, and the district retains a high degree of integrity and architectural quality.