Daily News from New York, New York • 84

S3 A Doughty Band of Preservationists Is Battling 'Progress' To Defend City's Few Standing Landmarks From Wrecker's Ball "yfjSisSlftisff iii zr I w- rr SUe-Ufeatf 7 JIU City's most impoiin; 17th Century manor it Bil-lopp House (pre-1688) in Tottenville, S. I. House was scene of parleys during Revolution. Bowne House (1661) in Flushing, Queens, was meeting house, sanctuary for Quakers fleeing per secution by Dutch governor, Peter Stuyvesant. it z.

for the national capital. It wo built in 17SG: In the Bronx, Van Cortlandt Mansion in Van Cortlandt Park, lvhich was constructed in 1748 for the Lords of the Manor of Van Cortlandt, contains interior paneling1 and furnishings of the first rank. Not lonp apo, in Douplaston, Queens, interested neighbors put Landmarks on the trail of the Cornelius Van Wyck House, But we did have to have a cutoff date. Thus, a building must have been completed a minimum of three decades." Right now, here is where we stand: "If you take in the five boroughs, on a selective basis we are able, as of this moment, to illustrate the evolving history of New York but not beautifully. "The majority of New York landmarks need to be upgraded, put in better position to interpret worship in continuous service in New York State, built in 1872, is superb Moorish Revival.

Finally, "The Golden Age," which for the most part flourished in the i0s and early 1900s and still lingers here and there along Fifth Ave. Though some of the piles remain, the millionaires have largely gone. Once "the finest town house in America," the Italian Renaissance mansion of Otto Kahn at 1 E. 91st which was built in 1914-18. i now the Convent of the Sacred Heart.

A block away, at 92d and Fifth. Felix M. Warburg's lavish French chateau, about 1908. more meaningful way their period of execution. They need a lot of intelligent, sensitive restoration to bring them back to which assayed out as circa-1732 construction and the home of two delegates to the Continental Congress.

Retired Postman Alerted Historian to Old House .11 i GW Thought Here Jumel Mansion (A). ISOth St. and Edgecomb Manhattan, one or a headquarters, is beautifully and furnished to the period. View is of drawing room. Wyckoff House (f).

Clarendon Road and Ralph Brooklyn, is city's oldest (1636). House is dilapidated but structurally sound. Rj 1 Jt3 Al loll houses the Jewish Museum and other Jewish organizations. Earlier, we mentioned that Landmarks not only is holding the line but is counterattacking. Right jiokt, members of the commission have high hopes for the recreation of the Fraunces- Tavern block, bounded by Broad, Pearl and Water Sts.

and Coen-tits Slip, into "a historic enclave." It, irould demonstrate the city's building achievements from lit to lfiO and could be used to house marine, money or home museums. The Museum of the City of New York has already agreed to sponsor the project and furnish the historical knowhow. According to the plan, eight old buildings on their original sites in the block would be restored. Four old buildings, threatened by widening of Water St. and the new New York Stock Exchange construction, would be moved to the enclave from their present locations on Front and Whitehall Sts.

Since no 17th Century build what they were. Among the treasures of the 19th Century that clamor for preservation. Landmarks runs the architectural gamut from the Police thletic League, Si Itth St. (1855 Avgla-ltalianate) to castles yes, castleg in the Bronx and Queens. At 43-16 Vernon Long Island City, on the East River near Queensboro Bridge, stands Bodine Castle, one of the very few castellated country houses left in the city.

This military-looking structure (about 1840) was followed six years later by Fonthill at Mount Saint Vincent's College in the Bronx. An Actor Built Fonthill In Gothic Revival Style Fonthill was built by actor Edwin Forrest in Gothic Revival, a style as full-bodied as Forrest's acting. Downtown on the East Side, the Henry St, Settlement, 2fio Henry offers a fine example of a late Federal (about 1830) doorway. On the West Side, dating to the same time, there is a Greek Revival "row" of houses at 404-14 W. 20th with Doric doorwavs.

postman who had become an amateur historian alerted Prof. Van Perpool to another landmark, the old Lawrence House. "We like people to send in photographs and any documentation as to dates of construction, alterations and ownership," he sars. "For that, we are very prateful." Vu tpot a gambrti roof, report to Landmark. Of course, only the architectural historian with his specialized knowledge of 17th and 18th Century detail is likely to detect a promising past in what looks like just another drab loft building.

As past national president of the Society of Architectural Historians, national advisory committee chairman for the Historic American Buildinps Survey of the National Park Service, longtime trustee of the American Scenic and Historic Preservation Society, Prof. Van Derpool has more than an ordinary feel for the past. ''You become sensitized to these thinps," he explains. For example, actually raising houses i- i i.iinif: iiirin mi jacKS to insert a I A 1 ings survive in Manhattan, a replica of the original Dutch Stadt Huys would be constructed. Exclusive of land, the enclave would cost an estimated for demolition, moving, reconstruction, restoration, professional fees and expenses and furnishings.

There are hopes that the financial, shipping and insurance industries may pick up the tab. Commission Made An Instant Decision "Certainly the resulting complex should produce an element of great delight for the citizens of New York and many visitors," Prof. Van Derpool says. "There is much genuine enthusiasm, but new urst floor is an old and misleading" trick. "What New Yorkers have done to their houses to increase their aize!" the professor exclaims.

"Not only raising- them to put in commercial first floor, but also adding another story on the top floor. And then wondering why the houses didn't look as good as they did originally! "They changed windows, taking cut the small panes of glass, and removed the shutters. 4 rrl sidelights and transoms and cornices of the same order, with wreathed windows in the frieze. UOR the uninitiated, some of the landmarks don't inspire much enthusiasm. In fact, if euthanasia had to be applied to make room for new roads or buildings.

Flushing Municipal Court of the Civil War era looks like a good candidate. But this pile of Italian Romanesque Revival happens to be the last example in the citv i Rf I II 11 i-; 's aft. 1 we need the money to do it." Aside from financing, there is 1 i ney repiacea Jine original cornices, lost fine period doorways, covered exteriors trith synthetic materials. They replaced old ironwork railings, old stone tteps with concrete ones even put in picture vindotes!" As explains it, the goal of the Landmarks Commission is far more than antiquarian. "We are putting together an evolving history, architecturally epeaking, of the five boroughs on a selective basis," he says.

"Architectural history then can be read with recourse to surviving buildings, rather than to photographs. "We do not try to save everything. Though the weight of our studies is with the earlier buildings, the nearer we get to the present, the better pleased we are. of the small-town courthouse of the period. Similarly, the Bayard Condict Building at 65-9 Bleecker St.

has the appearance of a large commercial structure out of the 1807-98 period. But it is the only building in the city designed by a famous architect, Louis Sullivan, and incorporates features of the "Chicago School." Landmarks has a fondness, too, for the "picturesque." For example, the Jay St. Firehouse in Brooklyn, which the borough's own best architect, Frank Freeman, did in a flourish of Romanesque Revival in the early 90s. Another structure marked for preservation is the Central Synagogue on Lexington Ave. at 55th St.

This oldest Jewish house of ir t'fr another problem, but with its scruples, Landmarks has made an instant decision. For historical accuracy, the Stadt Huys should be built at 71 Pearl its original site. However, the replica will be placed at 5 Coenties Slip and the adjacent 34 and 36 Water St. The 71 Pearl site is flow occupied by a fine old building, circa 1SOO. and the professor says firmly: "H'e could not be a party to tearing down an original structure of merit." He thoroughly agrees with the title some TV documentarians gave to a film on the city's disappearing landmarks.

They called it "The Heritage Murder Case." I lIl'PW 1 Gambrel roof on building at 2 White St. (A) i clue to architect-historians that structure might have interesting past. Old drawing shows how bygone "improvers' jacked up houses before adding facades that today hide landmarks..