DESIGNATION REPORT Dr. Maurice T. Lewis House Landmarks Preservation Designation Report Designation List 504 Commission Dr. Lewis House LP-2608 March 6, 2018

DESIGNATION REPORT Dr. Maurice T. Lewis House LOCATION Borough of Brooklyn Tax Map Block 831, Lot 8 404 55th Street (aka 402-404 55th Street, 5501 4th Avenue ) LANDMARK TYPE Individual SIGNIFICANCE A restrained Renaissance Revival style house designed in 1907 by the prominent architect R. Thomas Short for the president of the Bay Ridge Savings Bank, Dr. Maurice T. Lewis, which is a significant example of single family residential development in a neighborhood comprised mostly of row houses. Landmarks Preservation Designation Report Designation List 504 Commission Dr. Lewis House LP-2608 March 6, 2018

. 55th Street (East) facade and side (South) facade 2018 (above) 4th Avenue (North) Facade 2018 (left) Landmarks Preservation Designation Report Designation List 504 Commission Dr. Lewis House LP-2608 March 6, 2018 3 of 17

Dr. Maurice T. Lewis House Community Development Center Executive Director Chris Cirillo submitted written support. No one 404 55th Street, Brooklyn spoke in opposition to the designation. Designation List 504 LP-2608 Built: 1907 Architect: R. Thomas Short Landmark Site: Borough of Brooklyn, Tax Map Block 831, Lot 8 in part, beginning at the northeast corner of the property line of lot 8, southerly along the eastern property line of lot 8 approximately 65 feet and 4 inches to a point on a line extending easterly from the southernmost façade of the building, and encompassing such façade, then westerly along said line and the southernmost facade of the building to the western property line of lot 8, northerly along the western property line of lot 8 to the northern property line of lot 8, then easterly to the place of beginning, as shown on the attached map. On March 6, 2018, the Landmarks Preservation Commission held a hearing on the proposed designation as a Landmark of the Dr. Maurice T. Lewis House and the proposed designation of the related Landmark Site (Item No. 2). The hearing was advertised in accordance with the provisions of the law. Thirty people spoke in favor of the designation including Councilmember Carlos Menchaca, a representative of US Congresswoman Nydia M. Valazquez, the New York Landmarks Conservancy, Historic Districts Council, and members of the Sunset Park community. Community Board 7 Chairman Cesar Zuniga, and LOTT Landmarks Preservation Designation Report Designation List 504 Commission Dr. Lewis House LP-2608 March 6, 2018 4 of 17

Summary Central Park West Historic District, and the Red House at 350 West 85th Street in the Riverside-West Dr. Maurice T. Lewis House End Historic District Extension. The intact brick and limestone facades of the Lewis House feature a classical tripartite configuration typical of the Renaissance Revival style, and restrained classical ornamentation. It is a fine example of a Renaissance Revival single family The Dr. Maurice Thomas Lewis House is a dwelling, significant to the early-20th century restrained Renaissance Revival style house designed architectural development of Sunset Park in in 1907 by the prominent architect R. Thomas Short Brooklyn. for Dr. Maurice T. Lewis. It is an excellent example of early 20th century residential design and the only mansion in a neighborhood comprised mostly of row houses. Dr. Lewis began a career in banking while continuing his 38-year-long practice as a physician. He was a founder, trustee, and eventually president of the Bay Ridge Savings bank, the area’s largest banking institution of the early 20th Century. The Sunset Park neighborhood developed in the late-19th and early-20th centuries as a residential community for the working waterfront of south Brooklyn. The neighborhood is largely made up of speculatively-built row houses, primarily developed for the working- and middle-classes, with mixed-use and commercial buildings along the avenues. The Lewis House

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