House at 175 Belden Street
Why it's listed
Set on a broad sloping lawn above Long Island Sound, this wood-frame house on City Island in the Bronx is a rare surviving picturesque cottage within New York City. Built about 1880, it has an asymmetrical cruciform plan with a north wing and a longer south wing. Details include one-story porches with jigsaw brackets, three-sided bays, decorative bargeboards on the gables, patterned brick chimneys and roofs covered in patterned imbricated tile. The cottage type was developed in America in the mid-nineteenth century as simple, inexpensive housing for rural settings, and it spread through pattern books. A design in Bicknell's Victorian Buildings, published in 1878, closely resembles this house in massing, plan and detail. No builder or architect is recorded, and the date rests on style. The house went up when City Island was a bustling maritime community known for oystering, sailmaking and shipbuilding, and it is counted among the island's most notable nineteenth-century buildings.
Significance in brief: The house is a fine, intact example of the picturesque cottage, a small wood-frame dwelling type developed in mid-nineteenth-century America and rarely found in urban areas. It is one of only a few of its type known in New York City. It also reflects City Island's period as a rural farming and maritime community, and it is probably based on a pattern-book design.
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) · National Archives catalog entry. NRHP reference 82003345, listed June 3, 1982. Summary generated October 2026 (model claude-sonnet-5-5, prompt v1.0-2026-10-29, confidence high).
Key facts
| Address | 175 Belden St., New York |
|---|---|
| County | The Bronx |
| Listed | June 3, 1982 |
| Reference number | 82003345 |
| Resource type | Building |
| Period of significance | 1800-1899 (specific date c. 1880) |
| Architectural style | Picturesque cottage |
| Areas of significance | Architecture |
| Level of significance | Local |
| Status (as stated in the nomination) | Listed as occupied and in use as a private residence; condition marked good and unaltered, on its original site. |
| Acreage | 0.9 |
| Coordinates | 40.83814, -73.78217 (NPS GIS) |
What listing means for this property
National Register listing is honorary for a privately owned home: it does not by itself restrict what an owner may do with their own money, and it does not require public access. Restrictions come from local landmark or historic-district ordinances, which are separate (how they differ).
Owner-occupied houses are not eligible for the 20% federal rehabilitation tax credit, which applies to income-producing buildings, but many states offer credits for homeowners. Listing also opens the door to preservation easements and to buying a plaque. Start with what listing means for homeowners, renovating a listed house and selling one.
General information, not legal or tax advice. Rules change; confirm with your State Historic Preservation Office or a qualified adviser.
Sources and further reading
- National Park Service, National Register of Historic Places database (snapshot May 2026), reference 82003345.
- Nomination form (PDF, National Archives) — catalog entry
- Wikipedia article (used for cross-checking only; text not reproduced here)
- Wikidata Q5914000
- This listing as JSON
Last updated October 2026. Found an error? See the editorial policy for how to report it.