520 West End Avenue, 1924. The little home on the corner (at right) is dwarfed by the larger apartment buildings that surround it. But, in fact, this small home is actually a mansion of considerable size. Built on a long and narrow plot (27 feet by 100 feet), the mansion, fashioned in Romanesque, Elizabethan, and Gothic Revival styles, was designed by Clarence True as a speculative development. It was purchased while still being constructed by a cotton broker named John Burgess Leech, who had nine children. The house was completed in 1892 and the family lived there until 1905. After the Leech family left, the home was converted into a school for girls and later into eight separate apartments with a doctor's office in the basement. The mansion was threatened by demolition in the late 1920s by an owner who thought the prime corner lot would better serve him financially as a large apartment building. The Great Depression halted his plans, and today the building remains apartments.

John B. and Isabella Leech House ARCHITECT: Clarence True DATE: 1892 STYLE: Romanesque, Gothic, Elizabethan In the bold form of its rusticated sandstone base, the complex massing of its tan Roman ironspot brick upper stories (now painted), the subtle handling and richness of its carved stone details of Romanesque, Gothic, and Elizabethan derivation, and decorative wrought-ironwork, it is a fine example of the diverse picturesque, eclectic architecture of the late 19th century which once characterized West End Avenue as one of New York City’s most desirable residential avenues. Its corner site, allowing for two principal designed facades linked by a curved corner bay, both enhances the prominence and integrity of its original architectural elements and emphasizes its status as one of the most significant surviving individually-designed large town houses on the Upper West Side.

Take a walk in the beautiful Upper West Side. Start at Columbus Circle and discover the cultural and religious landmarks and the extravagant apartment buildings of this affluent neighborhood.