Indian Pond, 1926. Tucked away at the end of Livingston Avenue, behind a row of large Fieldston homes, sits Indian Pond, a glacial pond in a private park. Delafield Park is named for Major Joseph Delafield, an attorney, landowner, and veteran of the War of 1812. Delafield established his estate in 1829 in what was then Westchester County. In the early 20th century the family subdivided their property for an upscale suburban development, Fieldston. The plots were designed to follow the existing topographical features of the wooded and hilly land. It is unknown whether Indian Pond is a man made feature, or an altered natural one. The earliest appearance of the water is on a 1873 Parks Department map. While the roads of Fieldston where being created and graded as part of the suburb's development, Livingston Avenue was interrupted for the park and pond. Today the small pond remains surrounded by trees and its quaint low stone wall, cared for by the Fieldston Property Owners Association.

This castle-like home was built for Giuseppe Cosulich by Frank F. Forster between 1926-1927. Colsulich was the president of a shipping line that ran between Trieste, Italy, and Manhattan. Its cylindrical corner tower, solid fieldstone walls, pointed-arch hallways, wrought-iron door hardware, and imposing scale make it a fine example of the Norman Revival Style, which references a type of Romanesque architecture built in Normandy. The roof of the home is steeply sloped, featuring shed dormers, copper gutters, and fieldstone chimneys. The house is situated on a terraced garden of perennials on one of the highest points in New York City.

Broadway and Lakeview Place, 1935.

This Mediterranean Revival home was built by architect Dwight James Baum for businessman Dalton E. Perper between 1927 and 1928, at the time that the privately-owned neighborhood of Fieldston was developed. This home, like many others in the neighborhood, is built in a revival style that was encouraged in the area. Above its wrought-iron and glass door is a central roundel, which serves as the "eye" of the rectangular two-story entry block. This portion of the house is topped by a hipped low-pitch roof covered in clay tiles. Flanking the center of the house are two singular-story pavilions that are nearly square in proportion, with flat roofs to contrast the clay-hipped roof of the central block. To the back of the house is a two-story garage. The house is finished with whitewashed stucco.

This sprawling Mediterranean Revival House was built for Elisa T. Galban by architect Dwight James Baum in 1928. Baum had built over forty Mediterranean Revival Houses during his career in New York and Florida. The house is nestled on a terraced lot, bound by stucco-covered perimeter walls and posts flanking its entrance. The house is notably set back from the road, affording it the aesthetic of a Spanish House on a hillside. The house featured clay-tile covered hipped, and gable-on-hip roofs. Its chimneys were hooded, and the entire facade was coated in stucco, with historic battened wood shutters and ornate wrought-iron balconies. Upon entry to the villa-like home, guests would pass through the front door framed with ceramic tile. At the time it was built, the house followed the guidelines of the Fieldston Property Owners Association, who developed the entire neighborhood. The house was sold to Victor House, of the law firm House, Holthusen & Pinkham of Manhattan, in 1936.

Horace Mann School, undated postcard. The elite prep school, Horace Mann was first established in 1887 as an experimental co-educational institution of Teachers College at Columbia. Originally located in Greenwich Village, the school moved to the Columbia Campus in Morningside Heights in 1894, sharing a building with Teachers College. In 1901, they moved into their own building nearby. Horace Mann became independent of the university in the 1940s. The education of male and female students separated in the early 20th century, with the all-boys facility moving to the Bronx in 1914. (The girls' school remained at Teachers College, merging with a new school before closing in 1946). The new campus in the Bronx, seen here, overlooked Van Cortlandt Park. Over the second half of the 20th century a number of new buildings were added to the campus and in 1975 the school once again became co-educational. Famous alumni of Horace Man include Seymour Durst, real estate developer; Beat writer Jack Kerouac; illustrator Rockwell Kent; and Arthur Hays Sulzberger, publisher of The New York Times among other well-known artists, actors, scientists, and politicians.

4600 Fieldston Road was designed by architect Dwight James Baum for George F. Wagner, the owner of George F. Wagner Butter, Cheese, and Egg company. The company would be absorbed by June Dairy Products Company in 1950, as stated in the New York Times. This Norman Revival Style home was built between 1926-27, and, like other homes in the privately-owned area of Fieldston, it is of a picturesque style that was encouraged. The entrance to the house is marked by a cylindrical tower, covered in randomly placed ashlar fieldstone with wide mortar joints and capped by a steep conical roof of slate shingles. The Landmarks Preservation Commission describes it as "a ragged-butt, slate-shingle roof with overhanging flared eaves and stone block modillions, and by a wrought-iron weather-vane." "Ragged-butt," here, of course, refers to the jaded bottom edge of each slate shingle. The entry tower is adorned with a cast stone sundial and narrow, deep windows. The facades of the house are finished in textured stucco, with a steep-sloped hipped roof. A fieldstone chimney rises from the back of the house to feed the central hearth.

West 253rd Street and Fieldston Road, northeast corner, 1935.

The area of Fieldston in the Bronx is a privately owned neighborhood that was largely developed in the 1920s. The area was managed by the Fieldston Property Owners Association. Buyers of land in the area followed strict requirements: first, they were required to buy a minimum of three lots which each averaged $5,000; second, their home was to be designed by an association-approved architect; third, the drafted plans of their design were to be approved by the Architectural Committee of the Fieldston Property Owners Association. Lots were by design varied in terrain in order to discourage "flat uninteresting rows of suburban houses" according to engineer Albert Wheeler, who finalized the plan of the area in 1914. Houses of the area exemplified various styles of American Revival Style Architecture. This story provides a look at some of the picturesque homes in Fieldston designed by architect Dwight J. Baum, many of which have remained almost completely untouched. Baum was chosen by the Property Owners Association for his work in Revival Architecture. Recognizing the opportunity that this presented, Baum moved his office to a lot across the street from the Fieldston sales office after building his own house in Fieldston in 1915.

West 253rd Street and Fieldston Road, northwest corner, 1935.

Old Albany Post Road (221 West 251st Street is the apartment at left), 1935. The buildings at left front Post Road, but their back (seen here) line an old dirt road that was once a vital intrastate thoroughfare. This dirt road (which still looks much the same today) is a remnant of the Old Albany Post Road, one of the oldest routes in New York State. Following a well-worn Native American trail, the early Dutch settlers of the city used this path to traverse the island of Manhattan from their settlement at the south to the island's northern tip. In the mid 17th century the city's government designated a postal route between the city and Albany, given the need for communication between the the area's two most populated communities. Though not much more than a narrow, wooded path (often following Native trails) at the beginning, by the start of the 18th century, the road was widened to a "breadth of 4 rods" (whatever that means). During the next century the road was more properly surveyed, laid out, and marked with milestones. The road provided for important early mail service and, in times of war, the movement of troops and supplies between the city and the eventual state capital (so named in 1797). By the middle of the 19th century, with the introduction of train service, the stage coach path was less necessary. The Old Albany Post Road was straightened and became the thoroughfare known today as Route 9 (and all its various local designations).