5. The Dr. Maurice T. Lewis House is the neighborhood’s last remaining mansion
Sunset Park has just one remaining mansion, the Dr. Maurice T. Lewis House located at 404 55th Street, and it isn’t going anywhere. The Landmarks Preservation Commission named the mansion a New York City Landmark in 2018, saving it from demolition to make way for apartments. The home was built in 1907 and designed by Richard Thomas Short for Dr. Lewis, the president of the Bay Ridge Savings Bank. Richard Thomas Short mostly designed structures in Manhattan as part of the firm Harde & Short, which designed the Red House on the Upper West Side. Lewis lived in the home until his death in 1931
Following Lewis’s death, the home was occupied by Sonya Monen, the first female physician to serve in the Coast Guard Reserve’s SPARS division during World War II. Today, the home is located within the Sunset Park South Historic District.