West End Avenue - Architecture

Architecture

The street is noteworthy for its almost unbroken street wall of handsome apartment buildings punctuated by brief stretches of nineteenth-century townhouses and several handsome churches and synagogues.

Notable architecturally historicist houses of worship include:

• Ansche Chesed, in Byzantine revival style
• Saint Ignatius of Antioch Episcopal Church in English Gothic revival style
• West End Collegiate Church in Dutch Colonial, a subset of Renaissance revival style
• Annunciation Greek Orthodox Church

Among the more notable apartment buildings are

• The Apthorp
• Cleburne Building at 105th Street
• 520 West End Avenue, the former Leech mansion

Two segments of the thoroughfare lie within designated New York City historic districts: both sides of the avenue from West 87th to West 94th Streets can be found in the Riverside-West End Historic District. The west side of the avenue from West 75th Street through mid-block between West 78th and West 79th streets and the east side between West 76th and West 77th streets are contained within the West End-Collegiate Historic District. Concern over building demolition filings coming upon the demolition of three row houses and a six-story elevator apartment building at the southwest corner of West End Avenue and West 86th Streets spurred a grass roots effort to seek historic district designation for the entire stretch north of Lincoln Towers from West 70th to West 107th streets. On March 18, 2009, the West End Avenue Preservation Society formally submitted a request for evaluation to the chair of the city's Landmarks Preservation Commission along with a 260 page survey prepared by Andrew Dolkart.