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

The 105 Riverside Drive House, originally 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 105 Riverside Drive 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. This L-shaped house was originally designed with a projecting three-sided bay and a low stoop, but these features (along with those of the adjacent houses) 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 in the True group facing onto Riverside Drive were thus ordered to remove the projections. In 1911 the main facades were removed and rebuilt to follow the diagonal of the Riverside Drive property lines. No. 105 (owned by Goddard and Josephine DuBois, collectors of art and Egyptiana) received a partial new design by the firm of Bosworth & Holden. The True design is characterized by such surviving picturesque elements as contrasting light orange Roman ironspot brick and limestone facing, the steeply pitched tile roof with prominent front and side dormers, and the elaborate stepped end-wall gable and oriel on the southern elevation facing a side courtyard. The Bosworth & Holden design for the Riverside Drive facade is executed in matching materials and features a large arched opening on the second story with a delicate wrought- iron balcony and horizontal window groups on the third and fourth stories surmounted by a bracketed cornice. As seen today the 105 Riverside Drive House is a fine and compatibly integrated architectural design that reflects the work of two architectural firms.

The Development of Riverside Drive

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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

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

The 3-story, limestone-clad Horn & Hardart Automat-Cafeteria Building at 2710-2714 Broadway (at West 104th Street), a distinctive small-scale commercial structure executed in the Art Deco style, is one of the best surviving examples of the popular chain restaurants that proliferated in the city during the first three decades of the 20th century. In 1927, the Horn & Hardart Co. became the leaseholder of this site. This building was constructed in 1930 to the design of F[rederick]. P[utnam]. Platt & Brother [Charles Carsten Platt], who executed numerous New York commissions for Horn & Hardart from about 1916 to 1932. By 1927, F.P. Platt & Bro. had developed a modern and functional design prototype for purpose-built Horn & Hardart automat-cafeteria buildings, with large windows, that assisted the restaurant chain in achieving a consistent commercial image. The Horn & Hardart Co., established in 1911, was the New York subsidiary of the Horn & Hardart Baking Co. of Philadelphia, which had been incorporated in 1898 by Joseph V. Horn and Frank A. Hardart, lunchroom proprietors since 1888. In 1902, Horn & Hardart opened its first waiterless Philadelphia restaurant, or "automat," in which customers could retrieve food directly from windows after depositing nickels in European-made equipment. The first New York automat opened in 1912, with American machinery, at 1557 Broadway in Times Square. Known for uniformly good food at low cost, automats became wildly popular and one of the city's cherished democratic institutions, appealing to a wide clientele.

This automat-cafeteria building is made notable by its glazed polychrome Art Deco style terra-cotta ornament on the third story. Executed in hues of green, blue, tan, and gold luster by the Atlantic Terra Cotta Co., the terra cotta is located on sills, panels above the windows, stylized pilaster capitals, and the building's terminating band. The highly sophisticated panels feature stylized floral motifs and zigzag patterns; the modeler of these panels has not been identified, but the work is strikingly similar to that of preeminent architectural sculptor Rene P. Chambellan. Horn & Hardart remained a tenant on the ground story and mezzanine here until 1953, and the mezzanine level was remodeled as a full story in 1955. There have been a wide variety of commercial and organizational tenants over the years. While the current ground-floor storefront covers historic elements, visible above this are the upper portion of the original central segmental arched opening (with a fluted molded granite surround with a keystone) and the top of the bronze entrance portal and decorative bronze spandrel.

Four lots at the southeast corner of Broadway and West 104th Street were assembled in 1885, 1901, and 1904 by George W. Walker. The combined property, built up with four structures, was leased to D[avid]. A. Schulte, Inc. (Schulte Real Estate Co./ Schulte Cigar Co.) in 1920. In December 1926, this property was sub-leased to the Broadway & 104th Street Realty Co., under Samuel Gershowitz, who, according to the #ew For^ T'wes, "apparently made a business of opening eating places and selling them," and had gangster-related connections.18 The Horn & Hardart Co. became the lessee a year later for $50,000. The #ew For^ T'wes in December 1927 announced that the firm would "upon the expiration of existing leases, erect a new building to house in part a branch automat cafeteria."19 George W. Walker's will, probated in March 1930, left this property jointly to his sons, George L. Walker (who served as a chief engineer of buildings and sanitary inspection for New York City) and Samuel B. Walker, and his daughter, Katherine V. Walker Born.

F.P. Platt & Bro. filed plans in April 1930 for a 2-story plus mezzanine automat-cafeteria and office building, measuring approximately 71 by 69 feet and expected to cost $105,000. Construction began at the end of May and was completed in just five months, in October 1930. T.J. Murphy Co. was the contractor. The Art Deco style design, executed chiefly in limestone, featured on the main Broadway facade: a polished granite veneer base, with decorative metal grilles; a central 1-1/2-story segmental arched opening (with a fluted molded granite surround with a keystone) having an entrance portal (with ornamental bronze enframement) flanked by show windows on the ground story, a decorative bronze spandrel, and multi-pane windows with vertical mullions on the mezzanine level; a storefront at the north end of the ground story, and a storefront window and upstairs entrance at the south end, all flanked by fluted moldings; on the mezzanine level, a rectangular steel casement window (flanked by fluted moldings) above each storefront; and five multi-pane windows with terra-cotta sills on the second story, flanked