8. Twin Wooden Houses in Turtle Bay, 312 and 314 East 53rd Street (1866)

Twin Wooden Houses in Turtle Bay

Months before New York City passed a law banning wooden houses up to 86th Street, two wooden frame houses at 312 and 314 East 53rd Street were constructed. Two carpenters decided to build these twin clapboard houses in the French Empire style on the Old Eastern Post roadbed. The buildings include mansard roods, bracketed cornices, and round-hooded dormer windows.

The twin wooden homes survived in Manhattan despite the industrial change that occurred when factories, tenements, and slaughterhouses were built around them. If you look up as you walk through Turtle Bay, keep an eye open for these sister homes are breathtaking to see.