Audubon Park is a historic district in the Washington Heights neighborhood of Manhattan in New York City, New York, US. It is roughly bounded by 155th Street to the south, 158th Street to the north, Broadway and Edward M. Morgan Place to the east, and Riverside Drive to the west. Audubon Park consists primarily of apartment buildings, along with some houses and the Audubon Terrace cultural complex. Most of the buildings are covered by two official landmark designations: a city historic district, designated by the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission (LPC) in 2009, and a national district, listed on the National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) in 2024. Seventeen apartment buildings and one pair of duplex houses are within both designations, while additional properties fall within only one designation.
Audubon Park consists largely of apartment buildings measuring 5 to 13 stories high, which were designed by prolific apartment-house architects. Built in two phases during the early 20th century, they represent a variety of styles and include ornate facades and light courts. Many of the apartment buildings were developed in groups and were given names relating to the neighborhood's history or occupants. The district also includes two duplex residences at 809 and 811 Riverside Drive; twelve rowhouses on 158th Street (six of which have been demolished); and eight institutional buildings in Audubon Terrace.
Audubon Park was originally a hunting ground for the indigenous Wecquaesgeek people before being settled in the 17th century. In 1841, the naturalist John James Audubon began assembling land for a estate he called Minniesland, where he built a house. After his death in 1851, the estate was subdivided and resold, becoming known as Audubon Park. A small number of houses were built in the district, and the Grinnell family came to own most of the land by the late 19th century. The construction of Riverside Drive and the New York City Subway spurred the construction of apartment houses starting in the 1900s. Apartment development took three decades and was mostly complete by 1932; a small part remained undeveloped into the 1960s. Due to deterioration, the district's quality of life decreased after World War II before improving from the 1980s onward.
Site and boundaries Audubon Park includes two overlapping historic district designations in the Washington Heights neighborhood of Manhattan in New York City. One designation is on the National Register of Historic Places (NRHP), and the other is a New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission (LPC) designation. Both designations are centered around a curved section of Riverside Drive between 155th Street to the south and 158th Street to the north. Just south of the district is the Trinity Church Cemetery, a wooded burial ground facing the district's apartment buildings.
The LPC designation consists of 19 apartment buildings and one pair of duplex houses, spread across five city blocks. Two apartment buildings at 609 and 611 West 158th Street are only part of the LPC designation. The NRHP district consists of 39 contributing properties, which cover across parts of four blocks. These include 19 properties in the LPC designation: 17 apartment houses and the pair of duplex houses. The NRHP designation encompasses the eight-building Audubon Terrace complex (itself a separately-designated city and NRHP district) to the southeast. When the NRHP designation was made in 2024, it included 12 rowhouses on 158th Street that were not part of any LPC designation; six of the houses have since been demolished.
Street grid The district deviates significantly from the Manhattan street grid, which consists mostly of city blocks with wide west–east and narrow north–south dimensions. The district's west–east streets (155th through 158th streets, from south to north) largely parallel the rest of the grid, but the north–south streets have curves and diagonals. This is because of the topography of the district, which has a steep cliff at its western end, dipping toward the Hudson River. The presence of this cliff also requires Riverside Drive West, at the district's western edge, to be carried on a viaduct; this viaduct dates from 1928.
At the district's eastern boundary, what is now Broadway was built as part of the "Grand Boulevard", built after the American Civil War, between 59th Street to the south and 155th Street to the north. North of there was the Boulevard Lafayette, which ran northwest to the Hudson River shoreline and was mostly incorporated into Riverside Drive in the early 20th century.; The section of the former Boulevard Lafayette from 158th to 157th streets, running diagonally northwest–southeast, was renamed Audubon Place in 1909 and Edward M. Morgan Place (after a former US postmaster) in 1926. South of 157th Street, the former Boulevard Lafayette is a slip road that merges into Broadway; this slip road is legally considered part of Broadway.
Near the western end of the district, Riverside Drive curves sharply. As a result, Riverside Drive intersects itself at right angles twice within the district. Approaching from the south, near 155th Street, Riverside Drive turns east at a T-intersection; northbound traffic going straight on Riverside Drive continues onto Riverside Drive West. East of this intersection, Riverside Drive curves north and then northeast. Originally, the western frontage of Riverside Drive had a retaining wall due to the steep topography; the land west of it was or below. Riverside Drive contains a traffic oval known as Riverside Oval (formally known as Charles and Murray Gordon Memorial Park), which contains an octagonal stone fountain, the northernmost of four built on Riverside Drive. At 158th Street and Morgan Place is a five-pointed intersection where northeast-bound Riverside Drive turns northwest. A private road, running between Riverside Drive and Riverside Drive West, was built in the 1850s by the Audubon family, a previous landowner.
Architecture
Apartment buildings
Audubon Park consists largely of early-20th-century apartment buildings measuring 5 to 13 stories high. Many of these buildings are taller than others in Washington Heights (which are generally 5 or 6 stories), leading architectural writer Christopher Gray to call it "a memorable enclave". The buildings were designed by architects with considerable experience designing New York City apartment houses, such as Neville & Bagge, George Blum and Edward Blum, Schwartz & Gross, Denby & Nute, and George F. Pelham. Pelham was the most prolific apartment-building designer in the district, having devised plans for four extant buildings, as well as proposals for several unbuilt structures. The district's oldest apartment buildings date from the 1900s, while the newest buildings date from 1931 or 1932. The buildings represent two phases of construction: the pre- and post-World War I eras. The pre-war buildings were constructed predominantly in the Renaissance Revival style, and some were built in the Beaux Arts style. Arts and Crafts and Medieval Revival buildings were developed in both eras, while the district's Mediterranean Revival buildings mostly date from the post-war era.
As with earlier buildings located farther south, these buildings had ornate facades that were intended to attract what the writer Andrew Alpern called "middle-class families with upper-class pretensions". Brick, limestone, and architectural terracotta in light colors are common to many of the building's apartment buildings, and several also have elaborate pressed metal or tiled cornices. The floor plans vary, but many of the buildings have light courts, creating U-shaped or H-shaped floor plans. Some of the buildings have O-shaped plans, and one building, the Cortez at 625 West 157th Street, has a T-shaped plan because of its narrow lot. Only two buildings in the district—Audubon Hall and Hispania Hall, on the west side of Broadway between 156th and 157th streets—have storefronts; restrictive covenants originally forbade storefronts except on Broadway or Audubon (Morgan) Place. Inside, the buildings were constructed with lobbies with decorations such as brick and faience, and the apartments themselves were divided into communal and private spaces. Many buildings had separate servant entrances, along with amenities such as on-site laundries and en-suite telephones.
Several apartment buildings were built as part of a group. For example, Audubon and Hispania halls were jointly developed by the Fleischmann Brothers Corporation and have similar Renaissance Revival designs, and the Goya and Velasquez on 156th Street, built by O'Brien Estates, also have a Renaissance Revival style with nearly identical O-shaped plans. 765 and 775 Riverside Drive and 15608 Riverside Drive West, at the corner with these two streets, are all designed in a medieval revival style and were intended as a single architectural composition; they are sometimes described as a single complex, originally built with 233 apartments. Some buildings' names, such as the Grinnell and Audubon Hall, were inspired by previous occupants or the district's history. Because of the presence of the Hispanic Society of America at Audubon Terrace, several buildings such as the Cortez, Goya, and Velasquez carry Spanish names. Other names were selected for their cultural or historical undertones, and the newest buildings were referenced solely by their addresses.