House of John D. Crimmins, Contractor.
The John D. Crimmins (contractor) residence at 40 East 68th Street.
1898
House of John D. Crimmins, Contractor.
The John D. Crimmins (contractor) residence at 40 East 68th Street.
Crimmins House, ca. 1898.
Originally constructed as a fashionable brownstone in 1879 for the construction contractor John D. Crimmins, the home was one of William Schickel's first residential commissions in the city. Crimmin was involved in much of the construction of city infrastructure in the decades around the turn of the century, from the elevated trains, to gas works, and the Croton Aqueduct. In 1898, after deciding he needed a larger home, Crimmins purchased the adjacent brownstone (no. 42), hired Schickel once again, and commissioned a new double wide mansion. The resulting ornate Beaux-Arts facade, rendered in gleaming white, was eye-catching among the older brownstone homes on the block.
Today the Beaux-Arts beauty remains, having been broken into a multi-family building some time in the mid century and sans its central staircase.