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23-526: Theodore Roosevelt Birthplace National Historic Site is a recreated brownstone at 28 East 20th Street , between Broadway and Park Avenue South , in the Flatiron District of Manhattan , New York City . It is a replica of the birthplace and childhood home of 26th president of the United States , Theodore Roosevelt . The house that originally stood on the site was built in 1848 and

46-676: A residence known as the Quaker Mill House. Brownstone was prized by tombstone carvers in southern New England and the Mid Atlantic region during the Colonial era. Table-type memorials in particular were often carved out of brownstone as well as regular headstones. Especially valued for being easy to carve, those same characteristics often resulted in stones being less durable and prone to heavy erosion and wear over time, especially when compared to slate or schist graves of

69-531: Is a "Greystone Belt" in Chicago, with large numbers of such structures located in the south and northwest quadrants of the city. It is estimated that around 30,000 of Chicago's greystones built between 1890 and 1930 are still standing. Brownstone, also known as freestone because it can be cut freely in any direction, was used by early Pennsylvanian Quakers to construct stone mills and mill houses. In central Pennsylvania, some 1700s-era structures survive, including

92-495: Is known for its Victorian brownstone homes – considered some of the best-preserved examples of 19th-century urban design in the United States. Although some brownstones exist in Chicago, a similar residential form known as "greystones" is far more prevalent. A greystone is a type of residential structure that utilizes Indiana limestone for its facade , regardless of its overall architectural style. As in Brooklyn, there

115-685: Is the stoop , a steep staircase rising from the street to the entrance on what amounts to almost the second-floor level. This design was seen as hygienic at the time many were built, because the streets were so foul with animal waste. It has become fashionable to use the term "brownstone" to refer to almost any townhouse from a certain period, even though they may not have been built of brownstone. For example, many townhouses in Boerum Hill in Brooklyn are built of brick, but have concrete masonry cladding which resembles stone. There are also many brick townhouses that have brownstone-built stoops throughout

138-679: Is the largest provider of brownstone on the east coast. Typically, the stone was transported out of Hummelstown through the Brownstone and Middletown Railroad. Portland brownstone , also known as Connecticut River Brownstone, is also very popular. The stone from quarries located in Portland, Connecticut and nearby localities was used in a number of landmark buildings in Chicago , Boston , New York City , Philadelphia , New Haven , Hartford , Washington, D.C. , and Baltimore . Quarries from

161-919: The Lower East Side to Washington Heights , with notable concentrations in the Upper West Side , Upper East Side , Harlem and East Harlem . In Queens and The Bronx, the historic districts of Long Island City and Mott Haven also host many brownstones. Brownstones also predominate in some Hudson County neighborhoods directly across the Hudson River from Manhattan, especially in Hoboken and around Van Vorst Park and Hamilton Park in Jersey City . New York City brownstones can cost several million dollars to purchase. A typical architectural detail of brownstones in and around New York City

184-969: The Passaic Formation in northern New Jersey once supplied most of the brownstone used in New York City and New Jersey. Devonian aged sandstone is commonly used in Southern Wales . There are many brownstones throughout numerous NYC neighborhoods , especially in the Brooklyn neighborhoods of Park Slope , Clinton Hill , Fort Greene , Cobble Hill , Carroll Gardens , Boerum Hill , Gowanus , Windsor Terrace , Prospect Heights , Crown Heights , Brooklyn Heights , Bedford Stuyvesant , and Sunset Park . Smaller concentrations exist in parts of Bay Ridge , Williamsburg , Bushwick , Greenpoint , and Prospect Lefferts Gardens . Brownstones are also scattered throughout Manhattan from

207-632: The Women's Roosevelt Memorial Association, which eventually merged with the Roosevelt Memorial Association in 1953 to form the Theodore Roosevelt Association . Noted female American architect Theodate Pope Riddle was given the task of reconstructing a replica of the house, as well as designing the museum, situated next door, that serves to complete the site. The row house next door at number 26, which

230-642: The construction of the first Milwaukee County Courthouse in the 1860s. Hummelstown brownstone is extremely popular along the East Coast of the United States, with numerous government buildings throughout West Virginia, Pennsylvania, New York, Maryland, and Delaware being faced entirely with the stone, which comes from the Hummelstown Quarry in Hummelstown, Pennsylvania , a small town outside of Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. The Hummelstown Quarry

253-447: The dining-room scratched the bare legs of the children when they sat on it. The middle room was a library, with tables, chairs, and bookcases of gloomy respectability. It was without windows, and so was available only at night. The front room, the parlor, seemed to us children to be a room of much splendor, but was open for general use only on Sunday evening or on rare occasions when there were parties. The Sunday evening family gathering

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276-614: The fall of 2014 to identify outstanding and diverse sites and spaces designed, engineered and built by women. Notes Sources Brownstone In the 19th century, Basswood Island , Wisconsin was the site of a quarry run by the Bass Island Brownstone Company , which operated from 1868 into the 1890s. The brownstone from this and other quarries in the Apostle Islands was in great demand, with brownstone from Basswood Island being used in

299-583: The home's interior in Chapter 1 of his 1913 autobiography: On October 27, 1858, I was born at No. 28 East Twentieth Street, New York City, in the house in which we lived during the time that my two sisters and my brother and I were small children. It was furnished in the canonical taste of the New York which George William Curtis described in the Potiphar Papers . The black haircloth furniture in

322-402: The hunter might come on it and kill it. There was also a Russian moujik drawing a gilt sledge on a piece of malachite. Some one mentioned in my hearing that malachite was a valuable marble. This fixed in my mind that it was valuable exactly as diamonds are valuable. I accepted that moujik as a priceless work of art, and it was not until I was well in middle age that it occurred to me that I

345-584: The interior's appearance during Roosevelt's residency. The Theodore Roosevelt Association donated the birthplace to the National Park Service in 1963. As a National Historic Site, it was automatically listed on the National Register of Historic Places at its creation on October 15, 1966. It now serves as a museum dedicated to the life and contributions of the 26th president of the United States . Roosevelt described his memories of

368-655: The outer boroughs. Such neighborhoods that consist of these homes are Borough Park , Dyker Heights , Bensonhurst , Bath Beach , Sunset Park , Kensington , Flatbush , Midwood , East New York , Cypress Hills in Brooklyn, Ridgewood , Glendale , Astoria , Woodhaven in Queens, and Longwood and Morrisania in the Bronx. The Rittenhouse Square and Fairmount neighborhoods of Philadelphia also include examples of brownstone architecture. Many of these homes have been converted into apartment buildings. Back Bay, Boston ,

391-586: The same time period. Brownstone began losing popularity among carvers during the first few decades of the 1800s owing to the rising popularity of marble though it continued to be used for obelisks and other grave monuments until much later. Brownstone used for headstones was usually quarried from the Connecticut River Valley and New Jersey, and many grave carvers especially in Connecticut, New York and New Jersey carved from it. Brownstone

414-418: The treasure, a delight always alloyed with fear that I would be found out and convicted of larceny. There was a Swiss wood-carving representing a very big hunter on one side of an exceedingly small mountain, and a herd of chamois , disproportionately small for the hunter and large for the mountain, just across the ridge. This always fascinated us; but there was a small chamois kid for which we felt agonies lest

437-585: Was a twin to the Roosevelts', was used as a model, and some architectural elements from it were incorporated into the replica. The twin house was demolished to make space for the museum. The restoration recreates the house as it was in 1865. The house was rededicated in 1923 and was subsequently refurbished with many furnishings from the original house by the President's widow, Edith , and his two sisters. The widow and sisters also supplied information about

460-409: Was bought by the Roosevelts in 1854. Theodore Roosevelt was born there on October 27, 1858, and lived in the house with his family until 1872, when the neighborhood began to become more commercial and the family moved uptown to 57th Street . The original building was demolished in 1916 to make way for retail space, but upon the death of Roosevelt in 1919 the lot was purchased and the house rebuilt by

483-517: Was deemed "not really much good as a building material" by Vincent Scully, professor emeritus of the history of art at Yale University . Brownstone was popular because it is unusually easy to carve and quarry , but these qualities also made houses clad in it susceptible to weathering and damage over time. Malachite Too Many Requests If you report this error to the Wikimedia System Administrators, please include

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506-565: Was mistaken. The three-story brownstone house features a mansard roof , and a high stoop above the basement. The hooded moldings above the windows and doorway are in the Gothic Revival style. In 2014, Theodate Pope Riddle was recognized for her work rebuilding the home, a winning site of Built by Women New York City, a competition launched by the Beverly Willis Architecture Foundation during

529-463: Was the redeeming feature in a day which otherwise we children did not enjoy--chiefly because we were all of us made to wear clean clothes and keep neat. The ornaments of that parlor I remember now, including the glass chandelier decorated with a great quantity of cut-glass prisms. These prisms struck me as possessing peculiar magnificence. One of them fell off one day, and I hastily grabbed it and stowed it away, passing several days of furtive delight in

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