27TH AVENUE, NO. 805, ASTORIA
MAY 25, 1937. ABBOTT FILE 244

This Astoria house was built circa 1850 for Josiah Blackwell, a New York dry goods merchant and descendant of Robert Blackwell, who settled Blackwell's Island (now Roosevelt Island) in the seventeenth century. The house remained in the Blackwell family until 1921, when it was sold and converted into a boarding house, with the addition of a fire escape (right). The young couple relaxing in beach chairs presents a distinctly modern rendition of bucolic contentment.

Today the site is occupied by a six-story apartment building, adjacent to the much larger Astoria Houses, a public housing project built between 1944 and 1951.

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