151 East 74th Street, 1943.

The brownstone rowhouse at no. 151 was constructed between 1877 and 1878 by architect John B. Snook for speculative developer W.H.Browning. Between 1919 and 1922, the home was owned by Captain Kermit (!) Roosevelt, son of TR. While a fourth story (not visible on the front facade) was added in 1906, the building underwent a drastic facelift in 1923. Then owned by New Yorker Magazine co-founder and publisher Raoul H. Fleischmann, the facade was updated to a sleek Colonial Revival style by architect Henry Lion.

This move was in line with the popular practice in the 1910s and 1920s of updating New York's aging rowhouses. While some respected the styles and ornamentation of the decades old homes, many other drastically altered the look of the facades (and the interiors as well). The most common changes included removing the now passè stoops in exchange for ground floor entrances, discarding the window and door surrounds, and striping the facades of any Victorian adornments in favor of Colonial Revival or Mediterranean styles. (For more on this trend check out Andrew Dolkart's “The Row-House Reborn: Architecture and Neighborhoods in New York City, 1908-1929.”)

The home had one more well-known resident. In 1955, actor Henry Fonda purchased no. 151 from Fleischmann. Two years later he wed a 23-year-old Italian countess Afdera Franchetti in a ceremony in the home. Although that marriage only lasted four years, Fonda resided in the nearly 6,000-square-foot house until his death in 1982.