10 Grove Street

This fine row of Federal two and one-half story houses from 4-10 Grove Street is one of the most delightful in the Village. They are frame structures with brick fronts in Flemish bond and were built between,1825 and 1834 on land leased from Trinity Church and St. Luke’s Chapel. The builder associated with the row is James N. Wells, who, like Samuel Winant and John Degraw, had started out as a carpenter, but soon achieved recognition as a builder. He did a great deal of work for Trinity Church and built St. Luke’s Chapel. With the exception of No. 2 1/2, subsequently altered by the addition of a third story with bracketed cornice and steel casement windows, this row of houses has been modified very little. They faithfully reflect the type of modest dwelling which a conscientious builder erected in the late Eighteen-twenties and early Eighteen-thirties.

No. 6, built in 1827 by and for D. G. Van Winkle, a house carpenter, and No. 8, erected in 1829 for Abraham Storms, Jr., merchant, were extensively remodeled by James N. Wells in 1833-34, as was No. 2 1/2, the earliest house of the row, which Wells had originally built in 1825. No. 4, erected by Wells in 1833-34, replaced a shop owned by William J. Roome, a house painter. Consequently, Wells should certainly be credited with the fine proportions and good taste so evident here. All of these Federal houses, with the exception of No. 2 1/2, are three windows wide, two and one-half stories high, and surmounted by two dormer windows at roof level. A low stoop leads to a doorway framed by paneled reveals. Although No. 4 was the last house in the row to be built, it is interesting to note that it has a prototype Federal doorway flanked by columns, standing in front of rusticated wood blocks simulating stone. The three other doors are similar, but have pilasters instead of columns.

The transom of No. 10 retains its handsome leadwork applied over the glass. The eight-paneled entrance doors of these houses, surmounted by a rectangular transom, are also typical of the era. The stone lintels, flush with the brickwork, above the doorways and windows have lost their cornices, but the plain wood cornices with undecorated fascia board may be the originals. The dormer windows at Nos. 4, 8, and 10, have double-hung muntined sash; they have frames with small square paneled blocks at the meeting of vertical and horizontal trim members and are crowned with little pediments. At No. 6, the two dormers have been combined under a low gambrel-shaped gable with a small diamond-shaped window inserted between the two original ones.