Building: 307 East 12th Street

Designed by Calvert Vaux, 307 East 12th Street is a picturesque, High Victorian Gothic style building in brick and sandstone with a Dutch-influenced stepped gable. On October 30th, 2007, New York City’s Landmark Preservation Commission officially chose this building as a designated New York City Landmark. Its picturesque façade is significant for its architecture and as an evocation of the working class history of the Lower East Side, although the area in which it is located is now known as the East Village.

In 1858, Calvert Vaux and Frederick Law Olmstead entered the completion for Central Park with their plan for a “Greensward,” the first public park in the country (a designated New York City Scenic Landmark). Their design, based on the tradition of English landscape gardening, became a major influence on the development of public parks throughout the country. Vaux was responsible for the design of many of the architectural features of the park, including the bridges, the Bethesda Terrace and Fountain. Vaux also designed Prospect Park in Brooklyn; Riverside, Illinois; Morningside Park and Riverside Park on the Upper West Side. Vaux also designed the Master Plan for the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the American Museum of Natural History, both of which are Designated New York City Landmarks. In addition, Vaux designed the Jefferson Market Courthouse, now the Jefferson Market Branch of the New York Public Library located at 11th Street & 6th Avenue. The Jefferson Market building is a U.S. National Historic Landmark.

Description provided by John McDermott