They are two stories high, with exposed basements giving them the appearance of three and a main entrance below street level.

[1] The opening of the New York and Harlem Railroad, supplemented by horse cars of the Third Avenue Railway after 1852 made what was then the village of Yorkville attractive to developers, as its horse cars brought the suburb within commuting distance of the commercial heart of New York, which was still concentrated below 14th Street.

The city was already rapidly expanding northward, and wealthy residents had built many large mansions constructed along Fifth Avenue up to 42nd Street.

But East 78th was opened that year, and a painter named John Turner bought lots 24–28.

[1] Builder Henry Armstrong erected the original row of 11 on the property as speculative housing the next year, 1861.

All were finished within that year, making the five survivors the oldest townhouses on the Upper East Side today,[1] beating out this six at 208-218 East 78th, which were part of an original row of 15 started in 1861 but not finished for four years due to material shortages caused by the Civil War.