Phipps Garden Apartments, 1932. The Phipps Garden site had been set aside for development by the City Housing Corporation, a limited-dividend company responsible for the construction of the adjacent Sunnyside Gardens community between 1924-1928. Remaining lots were sold off, including the future Phipps Garden site — two square blocks between 50th (then Fitting) and 52nd Streets (Dickson), north of 39th Avenue (Middleberg) — which was purchased by the Society of Phipps Houses, a “model tenement group.” Henry Phipps, a steel magnate, envisioned a development for “white collar clerical workers” and hired Clarence Stein, the Sunnyside Gardens architect, to design the complex. Phipps Garden is a notable early example of “superblock” architecture; the developer was allowed to close 51st Street (Stone) to accommodate a larger building. The first Phipps building was constructed between 1931-2, with a second building added in 1935. In 2007, the Landmarks Preservation Commission included Phipps Garden in the Sunnyside Gardens Historic District.

47-01 Newtown Road, at the northeast corner of 47th Street, showing an old house, typical of late nineteenth century construction, 1936.

Phipps Garden Apartments, 1932. The Phipps Garden building is notable for architect Clarence Stein’s use of decorative brick in the facade, inspired by German and Dutch housing developments of the 1920s.

"Northern Boulevard, at the north east corner of 51st Street, showing the Kessler Hotel, so called in 1909, 1931."