RIVERSIDE DRIVE, NO. 857
Between 158th and 160th Streets
NOVEMBER 16, 1937. ABBOTT FILE 264

Six days after photographing the Wheelock House, Abbott returned to the area to photograph a nearby wood-framed house. Set back from the street on a narrow lot lodged between Riverside Drive and the Wheelock estate, the house was built circa 1890 and was soon surrounded by row houses to the north and an apartment building to the south. Abbott was undoubtedly drawn to the anomalous presence of this modest country house sandwiched between densely packed urban structures.

Despite the construction in 1941 of the nearby Riverside Houses and the decline of the neighboring row houses, this house remains, albeit heavily disguised: its porch is removed, its monitor roof modified, and its sides refaced with ersatz stone.

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