New York City Structures: 32nd Precinct House

New York City Structures, One Building at a Time: 32nd Precinct House.
New York City Structures: 32nd Precinct House
STATION HOUSE: The former 32nd precinct New York City police station at 152nd Street and Amsterdam Avenue. (Tim McDevitt/The Epoch TImes)
5/31/2011
Updated:
10/1/2015

<a><img src="https://www.theepochtimes.com/assets/uploads/2015/09/32ndprecinct.jpg" alt="STATION HOUSE: The former 32nd precinct New York City police station at 152nd Street and Amsterdam Avenue.  (Tim McDevitt/The Epoch TImes)" title="STATION HOUSE: The former 32nd precinct New York City police station at 152nd Street and Amsterdam Avenue.  (Tim McDevitt/The Epoch TImes)" width="320" class="size-medium wp-image-1803323"/></a>
STATION HOUSE: The former 32nd precinct New York City police station at 152nd Street and Amsterdam Avenue.  (Tim McDevitt/The Epoch TImes)

32nd Precinct House,
1854 Amsterdam Avenue at 152nd Street
Architect: Nathanial D. Bush
Year built: 1871

NEW YORK—In the mid 19th century the area just north of Hamilton Heights and south of Washington Heights in Harlem was a bucolic suburb. The 32nd New York Police precinct, built in 1871, was located at the corner of 152nd Street and Amsterdam Avenue in what was the small village known Carmansville. The village was named for real estate speculator Richard F. Carman, who had profited in the rebuilding of lower Manhattan following the great fire of 1835, after which he purchased land parcels in northern Manhattan with the intention to sell them to Trinity Church. He eventually made the deal and the church built the historic Trinity Church Cemetery, where John James Audubon and other notable New Yorkers are buried.

Designed by Nathanial D. Bush in the French Second Empire style, it was likely built to match other structures in the rural area at the time, mostly private residences for suburbanites that traveled to Manhattan proper on the Hudson River Railway from the Carmansville Station at the foot of 152nd Street.

The New York City police department hired Bush as their first fulltime architect in 1862 and over two decades he designed more than 20 New York City police station houses. The new station houses were part of a transition from a largely volunteer force that took patrol shifts in the evenings after their day jobs, to a uniformed, paid force that required new station houses.

The four-story brick structure with a full basement was originally painted off-white that contrasted with the brownstone quoining and window frames. A simple wrought iron fence surrounds the property and is echoed above in the delicate ironwork trellis that skirts the scalloped, slate shingled Mansard roof.

The façade is divided into three section delineated by brownstone quoining; a heavy brownstone curved arch pediment above the front entrance is decorated with dentils and is repeated above in the second floor center window. Other windows are trimmed in lintels, triangular pediments, and curved pediments.

The building was designated a New York City Landmark in 1986 and currently houses the St. Luke Methodist church.