NINETEENTH CENTURY PRESERVATION
My late wife and I moved into our home on Manhattan’s Upper West Side in 1965. The dwelling is one in a row of nine brownstones built in 1890 in the English-basement mode; that is, with a stoop to the parlor floor, and the basement a half-storey below curb level. The first owner–occupants were the Schweers family, who moved in during the spring of 1890 and remained in residence for 75 years.
Sensitively preserved in all the house with high ceilings, handsome woodwork, and stained glass feels opulent. Yet, when it was built as part of a speculative row, in 1890, it was not as a millionaire’s house. Today the interior feels timeless.
