WHEELOCK HOUSE
661 West 158th Street
NOVEMBER 10, 1937. ABBOTT FILE 259

WHEELOCK HOUSE
661 West 158th Street
NOVEMBER 10, 1937. ABBOTT FILE 260

WHEELOCK HOUSE
661 West 158th Street
NOVEMBER 10, 1937. ABBOTT FILE 261

This Victorian mansion, with grounds spreading from West 158th to 160th Street, was built circa 1860 for William A. Wheelock. It was the last survivor of the many grand homes built in northern Manhattan with superb river views. A 1936 article by Elizabeth McCausland, which described an FAP researcher's discovery of 200 Civil War era maps of the area and featured the Wheelock House, probably sparked Abbott's interest in the site.†

On the day she photographed the Riverside Drive Viaduct, Abbott made three photographs of the Wheelock House from the West 158th Street side. The images progress from the street (Abbott File 259), toward the house (Abbott File 260), to a fragment of the main entrance tower (Abbott File 261). The second exposure was chosen for Changing New York; it features a Victorian garden sculpture surrounded by overgrown rose bushes and most strongly suggests a bygone era.

In 1941, the city purchased the Wheelock estate for Riverside Houses, a low-income housing project. At the back of the Houses on West 158th Street, a portion of the original wall from the estate can still be seen.

† Springfield Sunday Union and Republican, June 21, 1936.

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