Architectural Whimsy and Wonder in So Bro

We certainly enjoyed Christopher Gray’s article about the four “outrageously varied” three-story townhouses on a “frantically diverse” stretch of East 140th Street in the Mott Haven section of the South Bronx (or So Bro, depending on your tolerance for cutesy neighborhood abbreviations). Built by the developer William O’Gorman at the turn of the century, the eleven-building row has a consistent pattern throughout: one whimsical grand house followed by two conventional houses. (The row was capped off by the neo-Gothic St. Peter’s German Evangelical Lutheran Church in 1912.) It’s unclear whether Gorman acted as his own architect on the project. Gorman’s own house, Gray reports, is in a sad state of disrepair:

None of the paneling, doors or other varnished trim has ever been painted, but despite the good preservation of many of the details of No. 427, the building is a near wreck. Past damage has left large sections of the floors open from one level to another. On a recent visit, snow was coming in a back window on the second floor. And perhaps a half ton of stone blocks over one of the second-floor windows fell off last year, landing around the stoop. Leftover bits the size of watermelons could recently still be found there.

The house was most recently owned by St. Peter’s but was taken over by the City in 1981 when the church fell far behind on tax payments. Whoever does end up restoring it will have to do so under the close watch of the Landmarks Preservation Commission.
Whimsy Elevates the Ordinary [NY Times] GMAP