Master masons restoring Harlem's historic façades, stoops, and ironwork since 1995. LPC-approved for Manhattan historic districts.
Harlem contains some of Manhattan's most architecturally significant row houses — particularly the famed Strivers' Row, designed by McKim, Mead & White, Bruce Price, and Clarence Luce in 1891, and the Mount Morris Park historic district to the south. Multiple separate historic districts protect different sections.
Harlem's row houses were built during the 1880s and 1890s residential expansion northward in Manhattan, ahead of the planned but never-built elite residential district. Many of the buildings were speculative — the original wealthy buyers never materialized, and the neighborhood instead became the cultural heart of African-American New York in the 1920s. The architecture is uniquely sophisticated for a row house district — McKim, Mead & White's involvement on Strivers' Row is unmatched anywhere else in NYC.
Notable streets: Strivers' Row (138th & 139th Streets), Mount Morris Park West, Hamilton Terrace, Convent Avenue, Sugar Hill.
Harlem's brownstone has a slightly different mineral composition from Brooklyn's — sourced from different quarries — and the weathering pattern is consequently different. Match samples must be tested for color and grain against the specific block, not against generic 'NYC brownstone.' The Manhattan-side air pollution exposure (historically much higher than Brooklyn) has also weathered the stone surfaces more aggressively.
Renaissance Revival façade restoration on the Strivers' Row buildings; Romanesque Revival rough-face stone work; carved limestone restoration on the Mount Morris area buildings; cornice and parapet work on the larger Manhattan-scale row houses; LPC filings for multiple separate historic districts.
Free on-site assessment. Written estimate within five business days. We know your block.
