Stokes The Iconography of Manhattan Island

i. n. phelps stokes scion of progressive, wealthy turn-of-the century new york family. leaving harvard university desire reform housing poor, stokes first contribution included model housing built not far 5 points neighborhood of lower manhattan: breeding ground of crime due over-crowded housing, poverty , disease. insights better housing new york s poor enabled better living conditions through improved sanitation brought modern building methods, , shared reformers such jacob riis, stanton coit, charles b. stover , carl schurz. stokes work led new york tenement housing law of 1901.

stokes s 3 other lasting monuments include st. paul s chapel @ columbia university; 953 fifth avenue – italian renaissance palazzo-style fourteen story apartment building occupying west side of fifth avenue near 76th street; , 184 eldridge street, firm of stokes , john mead howells, has housed university settlement society of new york since 1898, , landmark listed on national register of historic places.

stokes s bad real estate investments bankrupted him long after monumental publishing effort left him in dire straits. stokes spent later years working prints curator @ new york public library, specializing in city views.