Of All Places

Every house has a history.

Beautifully researched and illustrated books about the places we call home.

Create a bookSee inside

An 8 × 8 inch linen hardcover, from $149.

In March 1936 a small federal crew let itself into a house onEast Fourth Street with tape measures, drawing boards anda camera, and set about recording every molding in it.The crew worked for the Historic American Buildings Survey, and thedrawings are marked as a Works Progress Administration project. The titlesheet of their drawings gives the schedule: measured March 12 to 27, 1936;drawn March 30 to May 8. Alfred F. Bohn checked the measurements.Arnold Moses had already photographed the front and the parlors onMarch 5. A second firm, Wohlfahrt Studio, came back on May 25 for thestair, the plaster, the kitchen and the beds. On May 7, 1936, the day before the draftsmen finished, the houseopened to the public as a museum. The survey caught it at the hinge: nolonger a family home, and only weeks into its life as a museum. What the crew produced is the reason this book can exist. Ten sheets ofdrawings, twenty-one photographs and a typed page of title history, allmade by the federal government and free for anyone to use, sit in theLibrary of Congress under the survey number NY-440. Most of thepictures in these pages come from that folder.No. 29 on May 25, 1936, eighteendays after it opened as amuseum. Its neighbors inBrewster’s row of six no longermatch it; this one kept its stoop,dormers and shutters.Wohlfahrt Studio for the HistoricAmerican Buildings Survey,1936. Library of Congress, Printsand Photographs Division, HABSNY,31-NEYO,30-1.Chapter oneSixteen days in MarchThe survey of 1936

The collection

Made for one house. Yours.

Somewhere in the archives is a map that shows your street before it was a street, a photograph of your front door before it was your door, and the names of the people who climbed your stairs long before you did. We gather them all into one book, made for a single address and bound in a linen chosen for the house itself: a warm flax for a slate-roofed Colonial, oxblood for a brick row house in New York.

421 Mockingbird Lane, Maplewood
29 East Fourth Street, New York
9000 Richmond Highway, Alexandria
8 Sandpiper Way, Kennebunkport
Your address, Your town

Inside the books

Every house keeps its secrets. We go looking.

We dig through all of the records. Every book is a deep dive into the house’s history, uncovering the facts, archives, photographs, maps and everything else that surrounds it. Then we tell it the way it deserves to be told: as a story, with the care of a good biography.

The survey’s historian, Nixon E. Paulk, traced the title back through thecity’s Hall of Records. Before 1796 the ground was part of the MatthewBuys farm. That November the farm was divided, and the half thatincluded this site went to George Warner and became known as the GeorgeWarner farm. In 1825 Warner conveyed it to his daughter Ann and others. On June 3, 1831, Ann Warner sold one lot to Joseph Brewster for$3,550. The deed placed it between 178 and 180 East Fourth Street, becausethe street was numbered differently then; the city’s 1981 report gives thehouse’s first address as No. 180. The best clock for this house is the tax assessor. In 1831, the yearBrewster bought the lot, the Ninth Ward assessment recorded him as ownerof a house and lot here valued at $3,000. In 1832 the same entry stood at$8,500, and in 1834 at $10,000. The jump suggests that the house recordedin 1831 was still going up, and that it was finished, or nearly, by the 1832roll.The survey’s typed title history. The 1831 entry places the lot “between 178 and 180East 4th Street,” before the street was renumbered. Nixon E. Paulk, Historic AmericanBuildings Survey data pages, approved January 29, 1937. Library of Congress.Chapter twoBetween 178 and 180The lot and the date, 1796 to 1835

Before the house

The survey’s typed title history, back to a farm divided in 1796. The 1831 deed places the lot “between 178 and 180” East Fourth Street, before the street was renumbered.

Pages 8 and 9

From the sidewalk, No. 29 is a red brick house three and a half stories tallover a high basement, with a white marble stoop, marble sills and lintels,and a slate roof with two dormers in the front slope. It is 25 feet 6 incheswide and 54 feet deep on a lot 110 feet deep. The city’s 1981 report sayshouses of this type were built by the hundreds below 14th Street between1825 and 1835, and names only one other it considered still in originalcondition, at 59 Morton Street. The front is conservative, essentially Federal, and it saves its news for thedoorway. The survey drew it at three-quarter scale: fluted Ionic columns, asemicircular fanlight of carved wood, and an eight-panel door, with a notein the draftsman’s hand that the door, the trim and the fanlight are all woodpainted white. The surround is stone; the drawing labels it limestone, the1981 report calls it marble. Inside, the house changes its mind. The parlors are finished in the newGreek Revival style, with heavy cornices, deep ceiling rosettes and a screenof freestanding fluted columns between the two rooms. This was commonin New York: new fashions arrived first in the decoration and only later inthe shape of a building. Much of that decoration could be bought ready-made. By 1832, thecity’s report explains, steam mills were planing lumber and polishingmarble, and plaster cornices and rosettes were cast in workshops andshipped across the country. Its design, the report concludes, likely camefrom a skilled builder choosing well among mass-produced parts.Chapter threeFederal in front, GreekinsideThe architectureThe doorway is where the plain Federalfront shows off: fluted columns, afanlight of carved wood, and iron stooprailings, photographed in March 1936.Arnold Moses for the Historic AmericanBuildings Survey, March 5, 1936. Libraryof Congress, HABS NY,31-NEYO,30-3.The vestibule ceiling, the first thing over a visitor’s head: anegg-and-dart cornice and a rosette of curled acanthus leaves,likely cast in a workshop and bought ready-made. WohlfahrtStudio for the Historic American Buildings Survey, May 25,1936. Library of Congress, HABS NY,31-NEYO,30-9.

The house itself

The doorway as a federal crew photographed it in March 1936: fluted columns, a fanlight of carved wood, iron stoop railings. Overhead, a rosette of curled acanthus leaves.

Pages 12 and 13

No. 29 has always faced two different cities. To the west, at the end of theblock, ran Lafayette Place, where in 1854 the Astor Library opened itsdoors as a free reference library, around the corner on the same block. Tothe east ran the Bowery, and from 1878 the Third Avenue elevated railroadran down it, with stations at Ninth Street and Houston Street. The fire insurance atlas of 1891 shows the block as a solid run of brick,colored pink, from Lafayette to the Bowery. The Astor Library takes up along stretch of the Lafayette side. A stable sits behind the Fourth Street lots,and beginning a door or two east of No. 29 the mapmakers lettered EverettHall across several lots.Chapter eightLafayette Place to the BoweryThe block around itA strip of the 1891 atlas from Washington Square to the Bowery, every lot drawn andnearly every one built on in brick (pink). The Tredwells’ block sits between LafayettePlace and the Bowery, toward the right. G. W. and W. S. Bromley, Atlas of the City ofNew York, Manhattan Island, 1891, plate 11. New York Public Library.

The block around it

The 1891 fire insurance atlas, from Washington Square to the Bowery, every lot drawn and nearly every one built on in brick, the Astor Library around the corner.

Pages 24 and 25

How it works

  1. 1

    Tell us the address.

    That is all we need to begin. We find your house in the record, open the archives and start following its trail.

  2. 2

    Make the story yours.

    Your book arrives written and designed, ready to read. Add the photographs, the dedication, the year you carried the first box through the door, and change it however you’d like.

  3. 3

    We print and deliver your book.

    Bound in linen and sent to your door, or straight to the people who will treasure it most.

More about the process

Make it personal

We find the story. You make it yours.

Your book opens ready to read. Click any sentence to change it, swap a picture for one of your own, or choose another layout for a page. Add the photograph taken on the front steps on moving day, the pencil marks on the kitchen doorframe, the letter that came the first week. They take their place in the house’s story, right where they belong.

  • Add family photographs, letters and memories
  • Write a dedication
  • Correct a caption or a date
  • Choose the linen for the cover
421 Mockingbird LaneSaved
In March 1936 a small federal crew let itself into a house onEast Fourth Street with tape measures, drawing boards anda camera, and set about recording every molding in it.The crew worked for the Historic American Buildings Survey, and thedrawings are marked as a Works Progress Administration project. The titlesheet of their drawings gives the schedule: measured March 12 to 27, 1936;drawn March 30 to May 8. Alfred F. Bohn checked the measurements.Arnold Moses had already photographed the front and the parlors onMarch 5. A second firm, Wohlfahrt Studio, came back on May 25 for thestair, the plaster, the kitchen and the beds. On May 7, 1936, the day before the draftsmen finished, the houseopened to the public as a museum. The survey caught it at the hinge: nolonger a family home, and only weeks into its life as a museum. What the crew produced is the reason this book can exist. Ten sheets ofdrawings, twenty-one photographs and a typed page of title history, allmade by the federal government and free for anyone to use, sit in theLibrary of Congress under the survey number NY-440. Most of thepictures in these pages come from that folder.No. 29 on May 25, 1936, eighteendays after it opened as amuseum. Its neighbors inBrewster’s row of six no longermatch it; this one kept its stoop,dormers and shutters.Wohlfahrt Studio for the HistoricAmerican Buildings Survey,1936. Library of Congress, Printsand Photographs Division, HABSNY,31-NEYO,30-1.Chapter oneSixteen days in MarchThe survey of 1936
The survey’s historian, Nixon E. Paulk, traced the title back through thecity’s Hall of Records. Before 1796 the ground was part of the MatthewBuys farm. That November the farm was divided, and the half thatincluded this site went to George Warner and became known as the GeorgeWarner farm. In 1825 Warner conveyed it to his daughter Ann and others. On June 3, 1831, Ann Warner sold one lot to Joseph Brewster for$3,550. The deed placed it between 178 and 180 East Fourth Street, becausethe street was numbered differently then; the city’s 1981 report gives thehouse’s first address as No. 180. The best clock for this house is the tax assessor. In 1831, the yearBrewster bought the lot, the Ninth Ward assessment recorded him as ownerof a house and lot here valued at $3,000. In 1832 the same entry stood at$8,500, and in 1834 at $10,000. The jump suggests that the house recordedin 1831 was still going up, and that it was finished, or nearly, by the 1832roll.The survey’s typed title history. The 1831 entry places the lot “between 178 and 180East 4th Street,” before the street was renumbered. Nixon E. Paulk, Historic AmericanBuildings Survey data pages, approved January 29, 1937. Library of Congress.Chapter twoBetween 178 and 180The lot and the date, 1796 to 1835
From the sidewalk, No. 29 is a red brick house three and a half stories tallover a high basement, with a white marble stoop, marble sills and lintels,and a slate roof with two dormers in the front slope. It is 25 feet 6 incheswide and 54 feet deep on a lot 110 feet deep. The city’s 1981 report sayshouses of this type were built by the hundreds below 14th Street between1825 and 1835, and names only one other it considered still in originalcondition, at 59 Morton Street. The front is conservative, essentially Federal, and it saves its news for thedoorway. The survey drew it at three-quarter scale: fluted Ionic columns, asemicircular fanlight of carved wood, and an eight-panel door, with a notein the draftsman’s hand that the door, the trim and the fanlight are all woodpainted white. The surround is stone; the drawing labels it limestone, the1981 report calls it marble. Inside, the house changes its mind. The parlors are finished in the newGreek Revival style, with heavy cornices, deep ceiling rosettes and a screenof freestanding fluted columns between the two rooms. This was commonin New York: new fashions arrived first in the decoration and only later inthe shape of a building. Much of that decoration could be bought ready-made. By 1832, thecity’s report explains, steam mills were planing lumber and polishingmarble, and plaster cornices and rosettes were cast in workshops andshipped across the country. Its design, the report concludes, likely camefrom a skilled builder choosing well among mass-produced parts.Chapter threeFederal in front, GreekinsideThe architectureThe doorway is where the plain Federalfront shows off: fluted columns, afanlight of carved wood, and iron stooprailings, photographed in March 1936.Arnold Moses for the Historic AmericanBuildings Survey, March 5, 1936. Libraryof Congress, HABS NY,31-NEYO,30-3.The vestibule ceiling, the first thing over a visitor’s head: anegg-and-dart cornice and a rosette of curled acanthus leaves,likely cast in a workshop and bought ready-made. WohlfahrtStudio for the Historic American Buildings Survey, May 25,1936. Library of Congress, HABS NY,31-NEYO,30-9.
The survey’s floor plans show the arrangement the city would later call theprototypical New York row house plan, and they show it room by room. Ahall runs the full depth of the east side on every floor. The basement, halfabove ground and entered under the stoop, holds a dining room at the frontand a kitchen at the back, with a pantry and two closets between. Theparlor floor holds the front and back parlors, 24 feet and 23 feet 2 incheslong. Above are bedrooms, and at the top, under the slate, what the 1936drawing labels store rooms. Most of the daily life of the house happened downstairs. The 1981 reportargues that the front basement room was less a formal dining room than afamily room: meals, sewing, accounts, small children, all kept out of visitors’sight, warm in winter and cool in summer. The kitchen behind it has acooking fireplace that fills most of a wall, a brick oven beside it, a stone sinkwith a copper pump that drew water from a cistern in the yard, and two setsof brass bells for summoning servants upstairs. Upstairs everything is about symmetry. The two parlors are identical.The report points out that the southernmost door in the front parlor opensonto nothing at all; it was installed so the wall would match.11Every floor as measured in March 1936: kitchen and diningroom in the basement, twin parlors above, the hall runningthe full depth of the east side, and store rooms at the top.Richard S. Hertzberg and Oleg Devorn, delineators.Historic American Buildings Survey, 1936, sheet 1 of 9.Library of Congress.2Front, back and a slice through the middle. The sectionshows the whole stack at once: cellar, half-sunk kitchenfloor, tall parlors, bedrooms, and store rooms under theslate. Historic American Buildings Survey, 1936, sheet 2 of9. Library of Congress.3The main stair and its carved newel. In the 1850s this stairwas moved 42 inches toward the back of the house tomake room for Sarah Tredwell’s rope elevator. HistoricAmerican Buildings Survey, 1936, sheet 9 of 9. Library ofCongress.Chapter fiveKitchen below, parlorsaboveThe plan as drawn in 193623
Inside, March and May 1936The front parlor looking toward the back parlor: mahogany sliding doors betweenfreestanding fluted columns, the Greek Revival interior behind a Federal front. ArnoldMoses for the Historic American Buildings Survey, March 5, 1936. Library of Congress,HABS NY,31-NEYO,30-12.The basement kitchen in 1936, its cooking fireplace filling most of a wall. The sink andstove had been taken out for the museum; both were later put back. WohlfahrtStudio for the Historic American Buildings Survey, May 25, 1936. Library of Congress,HABS NY,31-NEYO,30-17.
From the sidewalk, No. 29 is a red brick house three and a half stories tallover a high basement, with a white marble stoop, marble sills and lintels,and a slate roof with two dormers in the front slope. It is 25 feet 6 incheswide and 54 feet deep on a lot 110 feet deep. The city’s 1981 report sayshouses of this type were built by the hundreds below 14th Street between1825 and 1835, and names only one other it considered still in originalcondition, at 59 Morton Street. The front is conservative, essentially Federal, and it saves its news for thedoorway. The survey drew it at three-quarter scale: fluted Ionic columns, asemicircular fanlight of carved wood, and an eight-panel door, with a notein the draftsman’s hand that the door, the trim and the fanlight are all woodpainted white. The surround is stone; the drawing labels it limestone, the1981 report calls it marble. Inside, the house changes its mind. The parlors are finished in the newGreek Revival style, with heavy cornices, deep ceiling rosettes and a screenof freestanding fluted columns between the two rooms. This was commonin New York: new fashions arrived first in the decoration and only later inthe shape of a building. Much of that decoration could be bought ready-made. By 1832, thecity’s report explains, steam mills were planing lumber and polishingmarble, and plaster cornices and rosettes were cast in workshops andshipped across the country. Its design, the report concludes, likely camefrom a skilled builder choosing well among mass-produced parts.Chapter threeFederal in front, GreekinsideThe architectureThe doorway is where the plain Federalfront shows off: fluted columns, afanlight of carved wood, and iron stooprailings, photographed in March 1936.Arnold Moses for the Historic AmericanBuildings Survey, March 5, 1936. Libraryof Congress, HABS NY,31-NEYO,30-3.The vestibule ceiling, the first thing over a visitor’s head: anegg-and-dart cornice and a rosette of curled acanthus leaves,likely cast in a workshop and bought ready-made. WohlfahrtStudio for the Historic American Buildings Survey, May 25,1936. Library of Congress, HABS NY,31-NEYO,30-9.

Caption

The doorway is where the plain Federal front shows off: fluted columns, a fanlight of carved wood, and iron stoop railings, photographed in March 1936.

Picture

ReplaceCrop

Layout

Text in two columns

Made to keep

Made to be handed down.

Linen over hard boards, soft matte pages, the address stamped on the cover. A book for the shelf, not the drawer, pulled down every time someone asks who lived here before.

Format
8 × 8 inches, hardcover
Cover
Linen cloth, the address stamped on the front board and the spine
Pages
Matte paper; usually 24 to 40 pages, as the material allows
Sources
We find everything we can in the public record, and you can add attributions of your own if you’d like

For real estate professionals

The gift they keep long after the keys.

Flowers fade, and the wine is gone by Sunday. A book about the house itself becomes part of it: the first thing on the new shelf, the story they tell every guest, the keepsake that stays with the family. Order when the contract is signed, add a dedication in your name, and we will send it to their new front door.

For real estate professionals

Your house has a story worth keeping.

Start with the address. We will take it from there, all the way back to the beginning.

Create a book