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Upper West Side, Manhattan, New York City, New York, United States

The 332 West 83rd Street House, designed by well-known architect and developer Clarence F. True, was built on speculation in 1898-99 as one house of a picturesque group of six houses on the southeast corner of Riverside Drive and West 83rd Street. Today the 332 West 83rd Street House is architecturally significant and as one of the five extant houses in this group represents the first period of development on Riverside Drive. True designed several hundred houses, primarily in groups, on the Upper West Side in the years between 1890 and 1901, and was largely responsible for promoting the development and establishing the character of lower Riverside Drive.

The houses in the group at Riverside and West 83rd Street were designed in True's signature "Elizabethan Revival" style based on French and English Renaissance prototypes and built by True's development firm, the Riverside Building Company; they are the northernmost of True's designs built along the Drive. The design of the 332 West 83rd Street House is characterized by such picturesque elements as an asymmetrically-placed bowfront, contrasting red Roman brick and limestone facing, segmentally- arched and rectangular openings, keyed surrounds, decorative ironwork, a steeply-pitched tile roof with a gable, a dormer, prominent chimneys, and end-walls. All of the houses in the group were originally designed with projecting bowfronts or bays and low stoops, but these features on the houses along Riverside Drive became the focus of an interesting legal controversy several years after construction.

As the result of a lawsuit brought by an adjacent property owner, the court ruled in 1903 that no one had the authority to place permanent encroachments onto public thoroughfares, and the owners of the houses facing onto Riverside Drive were thus ordered to remove the projections. In 1911 these facades were removed and rebuilt to follow the diagonal of the Riverside Drive property lines. The 332 West 83rd Street House (owned by Robert E. Dowling, president of the City Investing Co.) apparently was not subject to the lawsuit as it does not face the Drive. It remains unaltered in its original picturesque Elizabethan Revival design.

The Development of Riverside Drive

The Upper West Side, known as Bloomingdale prior to its urbanization, remained largely undeveloped until the 1880s. In the early eighteenth century, Bloomingdale Road (later renamed the Boulevard and finally Broadway in 1898) was opened through rural Bloomingdale and provided the northern route out of the city which was then concentrated at the southern tip of Manhattan. The Upper West Side was included in the Randel Survey of 1811 (known as the Commissioners' Map) which established a uniform grid of avenues and cross streets in Manhattan as far north as 155th Street, although years elapsed before streets on the Upper West Side were actually laid out, some as late as the 1870s and 1880s, and the land was subdivided into building lots. Improved public transportation to the area contributed to the growth and sustained development of the Upper West Side, particularly the completion in 1879 of the Elevated Railway on Ninth Avenue (renamed Columbus Avenue in 1890).

The biggest boost to the development of the West End (the area west of Broadway), however, was the creation of Riverside Drive and Park (a designated New York City Scenic Landmark). The presence of the Park and Drive was an important factor in making this area desirable for high-quality residential development. In 1865 the first proposal for converting the land on the Upper West Side along the eastern shore of the Hudson River into an ornamental park had been presented by Park Commissioner William R. Martin. The purchase of the park site and initial plans were approved in 1866. The drive, as proposed at this time, was to be a straight 100-foot wide road; however, this plan was impractical due to the existing topography. Hired by the Commissioners in 1873, Frederick Law Olmsted (1822-1903) , already distinguished by his collaboration with Calvert Vaux (1824-1895) in the successful design for Central Park, proposed an alternate scheme.

Olmsted's design for Riverside Park and Drive took into consideration the pre-existing topography, landscape possibilities, and views, resulting in a park and drive that would be amenable for horses and pleasure driving, would provide shaded walks for pedestrians, and would also allow easy access to and scenic vistas from the real estate bordering it on the east. Olmsted's plan was adopted by the Commissioners but the park was not executed under his supervision, due to his departure from New York City; it was actually developed between 1875 and 1900 by other designers including Vaux, Samuel Parsons, and Julius Munckwitz, who did not adhere to Olmsted's original scheme in its entirety. By the fall of 1879, work was completed between 72nd a

Well..... torture was the name of the game for this shot! Not with a 3am start this time, but the slight bit of physical exertion it took to get here! Those of you that know me, will know I am not the worlds fittest person, those who know me even better will know that I am totally unfit, that I don't like heights, or downward slopes, or hills, or climbing! Put a combination of all of the above together several times over and that was what it took to get this shot.

I knew I wanted the shot, it looked like it involved a fair bit of effort, I considered that perhaps the shot was not worth taking.. but in the end i decided that climbing the side of Steel rigg was worth it, I mean toddlers were doing it for goodness sake... some were even running up it! (just to show me up!) so we went for it.
We had a bit of a chuckle that knowing our luck someone would decide to have a picnic at the base of the tree just as we got there.

The interesting shade of purple that I was by the time we finally got to this tree was not complimentary! Stumpy bore the brunt, and the camera equipment which i chucked at him at the first stile during an attack of vertigo.

So anyhow, by the time we got here and I rediscovered what oxygen inhalation felt like and had found the energy to put the tripod up.. a couple of very nice people decided to choose that point to sit down for a picnic, right at the base of the tree! Who would ever have imagined that! Which made me very happy indeed.

After half an hour, they were still sat there, we were looking at them, they were looking at us, they were very interested in the tripod and camera set up that we had pointing at them and they watched us for a good 15 minutes more. It was at this point that Stumpy decided to politely suggest to me that he would be' jolly chuffed if perhaps they would consider popping out of the shot everso slightly', or words to that effect it seems they possibly overheard this gently worded request, and promptly moved out of the shot, much to our relief and gratitude.

Sycamore gap is a natural cleft between two hills, Hadrians Wall runs along the centre and the tree is in the middle. It was used as a location in 'Robin Hood, Prince of Thieves'. I bet Kevin Costner didn't have as many problems with picnic people refusing to budge.

After we finally got the shot in the bag, Stumpy discovered a really easy and flat route back to the car that involved no hills, climbing, or dips, or vertigo. On asking if he had seen this route on the way there.... he replied he had, but thought that the effort of going the hard way would make me appreciate the shot more afterwards. Hmmmm!!!
I said words to the effect of 'you jolly mean person'

Perhaps now.. I do kind of appreciate the effort involved in taking this shot, and begrudgingly I appreciate the suggestion of the crop from him too.