I’ve spent some time looking over satellite images of the Bronx and Upper Manhattan, and here’s what I’ve found:
1. As mentioned earlier, there’s a row of five small detached Victorians on Terrace View Avenue in Marble Hill.
2. There is a good number of large, (possibly) Victorian-era detached houses on either side of University Avenue, just south of 183rd Street, near the old N.Y.U. campus. Presumably, most of the houses here date from either the very-late-Victorian period or after 1900. (Note that the architectural detailing is not very elaborate on most; and that N.Y.U. arrived in 1894.)
3. There are random extant detached Victorian houses throughout the Bronx and Marble Hill. They are frequently sandwiched between more recent apartment buildings, and their original details have often been neglected or obscured by modern siding, roofing, pavement, or other modifications.
4. The houses on Woodycrest Avenue are unique. They combine (1) large houses and lots, (2) green, spacious landscaping, (3) distinct architectural details, and (4) an uninterrupted series of original structures. Together, these qualities preserve a small but remarkable slice of New York City’s suburban Victorian fabric.
5. This fabric deserves legal protection. Here’s a spreadsheet that I put together. It lists the land parcels that might comprise a small historic district. It also provides a photo of each. Not every one of these houses is individually noteworthy, but some are. And those that are not are included because they remain part of the historical context, and play an interstitial role in the cohesion of this small but noteworthy district.
