258 East 7th Street | Block : 376 | Lot #21

Description & Building Alterations

Tax records indicate that this three story Greek Revival row house, along with several others on the block, was constructed between 1842 and 1843. The three bay wide building features an intact double door recessed behind molded pilasters and an entablature with a curved molding. The windows have saw tooth molded double lintels with a cap molding over a curved molding. The building also showcases bracketed sills, a simple cornice, and iron railings with swirling horizontal volutes at the top of the stoop, descending to vertical volutes at sidewalk level.

During the mid-19th century, this house was part of a row of adjacent houses known as the Dry Dock District and later the Political Row: the block of Seventh Street between Avenue C and Avenue D where many of the Eleventh Ward’s political figures lived. This area was therefore linked to the early development of New York’s waterfront. By the turn of the 20th century, the erosion of the Political Row was underway as many of its original occupants moved away due to the onslaught of tenement construction. By 1908 this row house was occupied as a tenement and altered with interior partitions, doors, windows and a rear fire escape. A certificate of occupancy from 1926 shows that the basement and first story were used as doctor’s offices for Dr. Isidore Jacobwitz, who also owned the building until at least 1953.