8. 940 Fox Street/941 Simpson Street

This building in Longwood has a bit of a European feel with its archway and passageway leading to an entrance in a courtyard. It was completed about 1910, when Parisian inspired architecture was all the rage. Foreign influences aside, it was built by a firm called the American Real Estate Company.

This was one of many buildings the company developed in the now forgotten “ARECO District,” named after its initials.  The New York Sun referred to the area as “a great apartment house district” but the name faded after the over-leveraged company went into bankruptcy in 1916.

After the recent “Piano District” rebranding effort in nearby Mott Haven, perhaps a revival of the ARECO District name will be forthcoming one-hundred years after the fall of its namesake.