2 Rutherford Place (New York City, New York) | townhouse

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5-story Italianate residential building originally completed in 1856. Built for developers Thomas Norton & David Morehead, originally part of a row of four houses, it has been heavily altered through a 2-story extension at the lower levels, designed by M. w. Holmes in 1907, which brought the basement and parlor floor out toward the sidewalk.

No. 2 Rutherford Place was first occupied by the Rev. Mr. Darling, and then sold to William D. Drake was by 1864. By 1881 the house was owned by Francis (Frank) B. Austin. The Austin family shared the commodious house with Rev. Daniel C. Weston and his wife. Frank Austin sold the house in 1894 and the Jacob Stout family moved in. In 1906 Mrs. Josefa Neilson Osborn moved into No. 2 Rutherford Place, and after her stepfather, Jacob Stout, died in 1907 she decided to bring the outdated house into the 20th century. She hired architect M. W. Holmes to revamp the lower two floors. Osborn died in the house the following year, and the house would see a succession of several owners. In 1922 Charles R. Sommer sold the home to Salvatore Sitaler. In the early 1930s it was home to Frederick J. Powell. In 1939 the house was leased to Dr. Leon Adler and it may have been at this time that a separate entrance and doctor’s office was installed at street level. By mid-century it was home to the Morris Finkel family, who was still in the house in the early 1950s. It is now divided into a 2-family home.

The facade is clad in white stone. The alterations by M. W. Holmes added an extension to the property line, removed the stoop, and swept the parlor level with tall casements behind stone balustrades. The four sets of French windows at the former parlor floor were connected by a shallow arched filled with delightful sculptures of garlands and naked cherubs. Below, the ground floor has two entrances, each down a couple of steps, with white wood-framed glass doors with white iron grilles, and in between is a double-window behind a planter box. The new extension created a capacious balcony with a stone railing at the 3rd floor, with shell-shaped urns topping each post framing the balusters. The upper floors have three bays of segmental-arched single-windows with molded surrounds including bracketed sills. The facade is crowned by a white metal roof cornice with brackets, and a deep fascia board with ornamented panels.