151 Avenue B | Block : 392 | Lot #5

Description & Building Alterations

151 Avenue B was built circa 1849 as a three-stories tall, three-bay wide Gothic Revival row house. It is possible that the building was constructed along with St. Brigid’s Church on Avenue B. Like its neighbor at 149 Avenue B, the single family home was used as a nursery school in the earliest part of the 20th century. When the school moved out in the mid-1940s, the brownstone row house was converted into apartments, one per floor.

Now stuccoed and painted, 151 still retains some of its original Gothic Revival details. In 1998 the building was designated a New York City Landmark known as the Charlie Parker Residence. The designation report reads: “the most significant architectural element is the well-preserved pointed arch entranceway with clustered colonettes that is surmounted by a prominent horizontal hood mold. Original details include the double wood doors, a trefoil relief beneath the projecting box cornice, as well as the slender hood moldings above most windows.” While the well-preserved facade adds architectural interest to the block, the row house adds social interest in that it was the home of alto saxophonist and jazz innovator Charlie “Bird” Parker from 1950-1954, just after it was converted to a multiple dwelling. This is the only East Village row house east of Second Avenue to be designated, and it is rare that the LPC has designated a building primarily for its cultural value, as it has in this instance.