1893–94
Charles P. H. Gilbert designs the Renaissance Revival townhouse.
1893–94 / Charles P. H. Gilbert
The Edson story.
A house whose history begins with a distinctive vision for West 74th Street.
A notable original ownerJarvis B.
Jarvis B.
Edson.
The mansion was designed by Charles P. H. Gilbert and built in 1893–94. Its Renaissance Revival character and projecting bay distinguish it from the neighboring row.
Jarvis Bonesteel Edson (1845–1911) was an engineer, inventor, and Civil War veteran. After service in the U.S. Navy, he partnered with Thomas Edison and Joseph Murray in the Domestic Telegraph Company, a pioneer in household telegraph and alarm service. He later pursued mechanical inventions, including a pressure-recording gauge and processes connected to early plastics. A sailor as well as an engineer, he belonged to the New York and Columbia yacht clubs. The residence became closely associated with his family and remains a striking record of the neighborhood’s late nineteenth-century development.
The house through timeAn enduring
An enduring
address.
1908
Jarvis B. Edson transfers No. 313 to his wife, Eliza Ward Edson.
1911
Green-Wood Cemetery’s biographical record identifies 313 W 74th Street as Edson’s last address.
A distinctive row.
The townhouse stands in the West End-Collegiate Historic District, part of the Upper West Side’s legacy of substantial residences near Riverside Drive. Its limestone composition and unusual breadth give it a presence that has endured through changes in the neighborhood and the house itself.