![\"\"](\"https:\/\/ephemeralnewyork.wordpress.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/55east176thstreetholdouthouse.jpeg\")
<\/a><\/p>\nThen there are the holdouts that stand on their own, unsupported by neighbors, lonely relics of a different era that don\u2019t offer hints about their backstory. <\/p>\n
Number 55 East 176th Street in the Morris Heights-Mount Hope section of the Bronx fits into the latter category. Its terra cotta entryway and wide-brimmed cornice place it as a late 19th century example of the kind of row house going up across the Bronx\u2014a respectable home for the family of a professional, perhaps, or a business owner.<\/p>\n
Property Shark dates it to 1899, when the great estates of this neck of the borough were being sold off and parceled out, and a middle class in need of housing was flooding the Bronx from the lower reaches of Manhattan. <\/p>\n It was likely part of a row of houses built by a developer on speculation. Similar survivors can be found in other pockets of the neighborhood. Here\u2019s two for sale on Zillow<\/a> that have the same bow front and window lintels. <\/p>\n It\u2019s a style that seems specific to the Bronx, as it doesn\u2019t match the row houses going up in other late 19th century developing residential areas, like the Upper West Side.<\/p>\n What makes this former row house so alluring is its miniature, dollhouse-like appearance, and the small details on its facade. But it\u2019s a curious dwelling because of its lack of a backstory. All houses have stories. But records and information about this one have been hard to come by. <\/p>\n In 1909, a New York Times article<\/a> describes it as a two-family dwelling. It made the small print of the newspaper because it was traded to another owner in exchange for a different house in the Bronx.<\/p>\n Another article a year later in the New York Tribune says the house, with a slender 25-foot frontage on a 125 foot plot, was sold again; no price was given.<\/p>\n By 1940 (third photo), the house was already the lone survivor of its (probable) row, with the same apartment house on one side and a fruit exchange, dry cleaner, and laundry on the other. Curtains cover the windows, which seem to be open though the people on the street are wearing coats.<\/p>\n Not long after the photo was taken, this part of the Bronx would begin to see its middle class depart and poorer residents move in.<\/p>\n In later decades, the house transitioned into a three-unit apartment<\/a> residence. The Bronx fell into hard times; window bars went up on the parlor floor. In 2020, a woman who lived at Number 55<\/a> was found murdered in another Bronx building. <\/p>\n A sign for a construction company is affixed below the parlor windows. Is Number 55 getting a renovation? Its past is as yet unknown, and it\u2019s future is uncertain. <\/p>\n Hopefully this unusual holdout is headed for better times, and by peeling back its layers during an upgrade, its story will emerge.<\/p>\n [Third photo: NYC Department of Records & Information Services<\/a>]<\/p>\n Tags: 55 East 176th Street Bronx<\/a>, Brick house 1899 Mount Hope Bronx<\/a>, Bronx Holdout Houses<\/a>, Bronx Row Houses from 19th century<\/a>, Holdout house 55 East 176th Street Bronx<\/a>, Morris Heights Historic House Bronx<\/a>, Mount Hope Historic House Bronx<\/a>, Unusual old houses Bronx<\/a><\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tThis entry was posted on January 5, 2026 at 5:05 am and is filed under Bronx and City Island<\/a>.\t\t\t\t\t\tYou can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0<\/a> feed.<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n
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