Trust for Architectural Easements - Protections for Districts and Landmarks

Baltimore & Susquehanna Railroad: Calvert Station
Baltimore, MD
Demolished in 1950.
The Baltimore Sun's corporate offices now sit where
the station once did.
Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division
[Reproduction number, HABS, MD, 4-BALT, 40-1].

The Trust for Architectural Easements works in support of area residents and business leaders' efforts to preserve their neighborhoods and landmark buildings. The Trust for Architectural Easements helps these owners and residents obtain a historic designation for these important neighborhoods and buildings on the National Register of Historic Places. This is an important first step in the Trust's mission of protecting these historic neighborhoods ensuring that these neighborhoods will remain a sought-after destination both to live and to visit for a long time to come. The following are some historic districts and landmarks that the Trust helped to obtain certification.

Preserving Historic Neighborhoods
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Reservoir Hill Historic District in Maryland
Carnegie Hill Historic District in New York
Ladies Mile Historic District in New York
Madison Square North Historic District in New York
Metropolitan Museum Historic District in New York
Riverside/West End Historic District in New York
Treadwell Farm Historic District in New York
Wall Street Historic District in New York
304 Park Avenue South in New York
Blum and Blum Loft in New York
Fred F. French Building in New York
General Electric Building in New York
Look Building in New York
R.C. Williams Warehouse in New York

Reservoir Hill Historic District in Maryland

Reservoir Hill (Certified in 2004)
Reservoir Hill, a 32 block area, is home to the most diverse, intact collection of late 19th and early 20th century urban architecture in Baltimore City. The area is architecturally significant because of the range of residential building types located there and how they reveal housing trends in Baltimore City from the period of 1870 to 1940. Virtually every street in this community offers an array of eclectic styles of architecture ranging from Italianate row houses to Renaissance Revival apartment buildings to free standing Victorian and Queen Anne style houses. Among the notable non-residential buildings in the neighborhood are two synagogues, a church and a former streetcar barn.

Carnegie Hill Historic District in New York

Watercolor by Adam Van Doren Depicting New York City's Carnegie Hill Historic District

Carnegie Hill (Certified in 2003)
To get a glimpse of New York City more than 100 years ago, take a stroll along upper Fifth Avenue. Varied and harmonious streetscapes abound in Carnegie Hill where a variety of architectural styles comprise its mansions, rowhouses, apartments and institutional buildings.

About 400 historic buildings are included in the neighborhood known as Carnegie Hill, named for the famous industrialist and philanthropist Andrew Carnegie, who built his mansion at 91st Street and Fifth Avenue in the late 1890s. With Carnegie's mansion adding to the attractiveness of the area, other wealthy members of the upper class at that time built their homes in the neighborhood and extended Carnegie Hill along Fifth Avenue from 86th Street to 98th Street, and eastward to Madison Avenue.

Ladies Mile Historic District in New York

Ladies Mile (Certified in 2003)
During the Gilded Age, at the turn of the century, this twenty-eight block area south of Madison Square was the shopping center of New York City and the nation. The affluent members of society came here to shop in the internationally renowned department stores and specialty shops that lined the streets. The early skyscrapers designed in the Beaux-Arts, neo-Romanesque and neo-Classical styles and the enormous 19th century department stores that stood five and six stories in height and stretched entire blocks set this district apart from others of its era. In total there are more than 300 contributing historic buildings located in this historic commercial district. One of New York City’s best known skyscrapers, the Flatiron Building is located in Ladies Mile along with the Church of the Holy Communion, the Theodore Roosevelt Birthplace National Historic Site and the Scribner Building. These landmarks are also individually listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

Madison Square North Historic District in New York

Madison Square North (Certified in 2004)
This historic district consists of approximately 78 buildings representing New York City’s commercial history from 1849 to 1930. Converted row houses, Art Deco-style towers, and modest 20th century commercial structures provide examples of all stages in New York’s commercial development. Madison Square North evolved over the years from a fashionable residential neighborhood into a major entertainment district and then a mercantile district of high-rise offices and loft buildings. Construction of the luxurious Fifth Avenue Hotel in the late 1800s gave rise to a new hotel district along Broadway. Though that hotel no longer stands, six others dating back to 1890 still survive including the Prince George Hotel, which is also individually listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Another significant building, the Queen Anne style, seven-story Black Building, one of New York City’s earliest apartment buildings, is also located in the Madison Square North Historic District. The area along Broadway north of 23rd Street gained notoriety in the 1890s as the “Great White Way.” Popular because of its famous restaurants and theaters, it was one of the first sections of New York to have electric street lights. After 1900 the area along Fifth Avenue attracted a number of financial institutions and became known for several distinguished bank buildings designed in the neo-classical style by noted architects John Duncan, C.P.H. Gilbert and McKim, Mead & White.

Metropolitan Museum Historic District in New York

Watercolor by Adam Van Doren depicting New York City's Metropolitan Museum Historic District

Metropolitan Museum District (Certified in 2002)
Few historic neighborhoods can match the diversity of New York City's Metropolitan Museum District. With 124 townhouses, mansions, apartment buildings and hotels displaying a variety of architectural styles from the 1860s to the 1930s, the district is well deserving of its historic status.

Bordering Central Park, the federally designated area captures and preserves a significant part of the City's buildings and history indefinitely. From four-story townhouses built in neo-Grec, Queen Anne or Italianate architectural style, to neo-Renaissance mansions designed by renowned architectural firms, to the multi-story, limestone-clad apartment buildings that line Fifth Avenue, the district is a showcase of the residential style and elegance that defined New York for decades.

Riverside/West End Historic District in New York

Riverside/West End (Certified in 2004)
The Riverside-West End Historic District represents the period of New York City’s residential history from 1884 to 1939. During that time this small community on the Upper West Side of Manhattan evolved from a sparsely inhabited district into a densely developed, fashionable residential district. In 1898 the area consisted of several Renaissance Revival mansions and row houses designed in the Renaissance Revival, neo-Georgian and Beaux-Arts Classic styles. Most of the mansions were built along Riverside Drive with scenic views of Riverside Park and the Hudson River. The only mansion to survive from this era is the Isaac L. Rice Mansion. Designed in the neo-Georgian/Beaux-Arts style, it is also individually listed on the National Register. Luxury apartment buildings and flats were popular constructions from 1910 to 1939 when the majority of new construction ended in this area. Apartment buildings exemplifying Renaissance Revival, neo-Georgian, Beaux-Arts Classic, Beaux-Arts, neo-Gothic, neo-Romanesque, Art Deco and Moderne styles of architecture were erected during that period. Similar in height and construction material, the apartment buildings form a solid and imposing wall of buildings along West End Avenue.

Treadwell Farm Historic District in New York

Treadwell Farm (Certified in 2004)
The Treadwell Farm historic district is a two-block, 19th century residential enclave, with low-rise row houses and tree-lined streets located on East 61st and East 62nd streets between Second and Third Avenues on Manhattan’s East Side. Surrounded by mid-to-high rise, primarily 20th century commercial and residential masonry structures, this collection of well-preserved mid-19th century homes is a historical treasure. The district consists primarily of three and four-story brownstone row houses built initially in the Italianate and neo-Grec styles between 1868 and 1875. It is architecturally significant because of its high concentration of hybrid row houses, built in the mid-19th century and redesigned in the 1920s. During these years, many of the building exteriors were modified to create a simplified elegance representative of the time. Treadwell Farm is also considered historically significant because it is an early example of a planned community. The restrictive covenants adopted in 1868 are still exemplified in the buildings today.

Wall Street Historic District in New York

The Wall Street Historic District, located at the very tip of Manhattan Island, is among the most historically significant districts in the city and state of New York, as well as the nation. The historic district is of national significance for its architecture, commerce, economics and role in politics and government. The district's periods of significance are ca. 1656 to 1956 - encompassing the period from the time of the Dutch colonial street plan through the beginning of Manhattan's downtown post-World War II redevelopment; 1960, the year of completion of Chase Manhattan Plaza; and 1967, the year of completion of 140 Broadway. The latter two buildings are each of exceptional significance.

The district's significance derives from several distinct aspects of its history:

1) Its founding in the mid-17th century with one of the earliest town plans in North America, one that predates the standard North American grid and reflects medieval European patterns.

2) Its role in the years immediately following the end of the Revolutionary War as the nation's first capital, where George Washington took the oath of office and Congress adopted the Bill of Rights.

3) Its emergence, by the 1820s, as the new nation's financial district and, later in the 19th century, as one of the word's chief financial centers, a distinction that it continues to hold today.

4) Its collection of major architectural monuments, much of it related to the architecture of finance, and including designs by some of the nation's most prominent architects.

5) Its role in the development of the skyscraper, the nation's chief contribution to world architecture.

304 Park Avenue South in New York

304 Park Avenue South (Listed in 2005)
Originally 44 East 23rd Street, New York City (Clinton & Russell, 1903-1904)
This building is a handsome example of a turn-of-the-20th-century office building. It draws its ornamental detail and stylistic inspiration from the architecture of the Italian Renaissance. Originally an 11-story building it is famous for two major penthouse additions. The first was built in 1916 for Jules Guerin, a muralist commissioned to design two sixty-foot-long, 12-foot high canvas murals for the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, DC. Guerin’s penthouse was designed by the prominent architectural firm of Starrett & Van Fleck. It was a single space the height of two normal stories to accommodate the large canvases needed for the murals, and featured a wall of floor-to-ceiling end-to-end windows to accommodate the north light. The second penthouse was built in 1925-1926 adjacent to Guerin’s studio for the then owner of the building, William F. Kenny, a multi-millionaire contractor and childhood friend of Governor Al Smith. The penthouse, known around the city as the "Tiger Room", was named for the Tammany Tigers. Tiger skins, brass tigers and tiger paintings adorned the major retreat for Smith and dozens of other figures from the late 1920’s political scene of New York.

Blum and Blum Loft in New York

Blum and Blum Loft (Listed in 2004)
312-325 West 36th Street, New York City (George and Edward Blum, 1926)
The Blum and Blum loft is a sixteen-story loft, office and showroom building in the heart of New York’s garment district. Its design is indicative of the architectural character of the garment district during the 1920s, and features the setbacks and height so common to the buildings in this district as well as the steep, narrow canyons and asphalt, brick and concrete vistas. The building is unique, however, for a number of ornamental elements that make it one of the most architecturally distinguished buildings in the garment district. These include setbacks that are varied to create a pavilion-like arrangement, with three outer bays of windows on either side framing the building’s central portion, a three-story entrance adorned by wide sections of decorative metal spandrels with abstract floral patterns, and Art Deco style stone-reliefs.

Fred F. French Building in New York

Fred F. French Building (Listed in 2004)
551 Fifth Avenue, New York City (H. Douglas Ives and Sloan & Robertson, 1926-27)
The prominent Fred F. French real estate firm erected this skyscraper with massed setbacks for use as its corporate headquarters. The use of detail inspired by ancient Mesopotamian art is an indication of the exotic historicism that was prevalent during the 1920's. The exotic influence is especially evident at the base, where the bronze entrances and storefronts are embellished with mythological figures and Near Eastern ornament, and at the crown, with its vivid polychromatic terra-cotta decoration.

General Electric Building in New York

General Electric Building (former), (Listed in 2004)
570 Lexington Avenue, New York City (Cross & Cross, 1929-31)
The Radio Corporation of America (RCA-Victor) was a subsidiary of General Electric when it commissioned this Art Deco building as its headquarters. In 1931, as part of an effort to gain corporate independence, the firm moved to Rockefeller Center and deeded this building to General Electric. The octagonal brick tower, rising from a base with rounded corner, is one of the most expressive skyscrapers of its era. Especially noteworthy features are the complex brickwork and terra cotta colors chosen to blend with the neighboring Saint Bartholomew's Church and the use of details symbolic of the building's original tenant. Although many mistakenly attribute these details, which resemble electric rays, to symbolize General Electric, they were in fact designed as radio waves intended to symbolize RCA.

Look Building in New York

Look Building (former), (Listed in 2004)
488 Madison Avenue, New York City (Emery Roth & Sons, 1949-50)
The Look Building survives today as a fine example of mid-twentieth-century commercial Modernism. Designed by a firm that almost single-handedly rebuilt much of Midtown Manhattan’s commercial precincts, the Look Building became a cultural landmark with ties to Madison Avenue’s publishing and advertising heritage and as the historic home of Look magazine, one of the most influential publications in 20th century America.

R.C. Williams Warehouse in New York

R.C. Williams Warehouse (Listed in 2005)
259 10th Avenue, New York City (Cass Gilbert, 1927-1928)
This ten-story building occupying the entire block of Tenth Avenue between West 25th and 26th streets was originally built for the R.C. Williams Company, a major wholesale grocer in the mid-1920s. The building is famous both for the material used to construct it and its architect. Designed by prominent American architect Cass Gilbert, who also designed such notable structures as the U.S. Custom House and the Woolworth Building, this warehouse is one of the first industrial buildings made from reinforced concrete. Its design is essentially a smaller version of Gilbert’s Brooklyn Army Terminal, one of the earliest reinforced-concrete complexes in the world.