The One Thing You Need to Know About Dating an Old House
How can you know the age of your house or apartment building? Here’s the one rule you should be sure to follow in New York City. Don’t. Trust. The city’s. Tax records. Most people — from real estate agents to curious residents — will believe that a building’s tax records state the year it was built. But 99 times…
How can you know the age of your house or apartment building? Here’s the one rule you should be sure to follow in New York City.
Don’t. Trust. The city’s. Tax records.
Most people — from real estate agents to curious residents — will believe that a building’s tax records state the year it was built. But 99 times out of 100, that number is just plain wrong.
Your Carroll Gardens brownstone with marble mantels was not built in 1936. Sorry.
The city’s number is just an estimate. Sometimes it dates from a 20th-century alteration or other change. Your best bet is to just ignore it.
Fortunately, there are any number of more reliable ways to gauge the age of your home. We suggest you start with these:
- Architectural style. Do you suspect just by looking that the house is older than the 1920s? Fireplaces are a clue, as are high ceilings, old staircases, stoops and — in row-house areas — an extra-wide lot.
- Old newspapers. If you’re in Brooklyn, check the online archive of the Brooklyn Daily Eagle to see if your address appears earlier than the year given by the city. Type in the full address in quotation marks.
- Old maps. Search for old fire insurance maps in the New York Public Library’s image database to see when your building appears.
- Directories. See if an old city directory lists your address and its human inhabitants. The Brooklyn Public Library has a few you can search online.
Whatever you do, don’t stop with the city tax records.
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For an old house the DOB folder is unreliable. Slopefarm has it right.
someone told me you can tell the age of a wood frame house by the type of nails used.
I feel like the easiest way is to go get your blueprints from the DOB. You get a folder, it has the original blueprints and a whole host of other information (like the paperwork submitted to get the building project approved) and they’re all signed and dated. You’ll find out who had the house built, which architect did it, and what date it was completed. You’ll also see plans and paper work for all the additional construction projects that happened over the years like an addition or a garage, etc.
Everything you listed above just leads to more guess-work.
Or if you live in south of Gates and north of Fulton in Bedford Stuyvesant just ask me…
Amzi, I would love to find out, and who was the architect. I was told the usual 1898 but who knows?
It looks like my house is part of a few in the same design that are different from the rest of the block
I’m on Hancock street
Thank you Amzi, that’s older then I expected. What is the best way to research the history of the house, I’m 445 and would love to find out more.
It seems like that row was built sometime in 1891. People are living at 449 in 1892
Thanks Suzanne,
445, 447, 449 and perhaps 451 all seem to be similar in design.
Where could one do research on these buildings?