Seaman-Drake Arch on Broadway between 216th and 218th Streets, 1927.

In 1855 John Ferris and Valentine Seaman, the sons of Dr. Valentine Seaman, bought the land for and had built a large marble mansion at the top of a hill in Inwood. The large home and surrounding land, which stretched all the way to Spuyten Duyvil Creek, was meant as a country house for the family, who lived full time elsewhere in the city.

The marble archway was the street-level entrance to the road which led to the mansion. Both the mansion and the house were constructed from stone mined from a quarry at the foot of the hill along Broadway. The 40-foot wide, 35-foot-high, 20-foot-deep arch has still half-dozen window openings, which suggests that a gatekeeper might have occupied the structure while it was active as an entryway.

The mansion transferred from the Seaman to the Drake family in the late 19th century. By 1905 it was sold again to a contractor who lived in the house and used the arch for his business. It was during his ownership in the 1910s that low brick buildings began to surround the arch. The estate was sold off and the home demolished for residential development in the 1930s. Only the arch remained and it has seen a succession of automobile related businesses from dealerships to auto body shops.