Riverside Drive’s first four row houses were built in 1889—these two sister houses are the only survivors

There’s a curious pair of limestone row houses on the lower end of peaceful, park-facing Riverside Drive. Each looks similar from afar. They share the same color of stone, and both facades have bow fronts. But on closer look, you’ll notice that each sports different ornamental bells and whistles. One has a conical roof and a top floor porch walled in with glass. The other features a set of dormers and has had its stoop removed. Despite their cosmetic differences, they stand together like sisters between Wset 75th and 76th Streets, surrounded on both sides by tall prewar apartment buildings. It turns out they actually are sisters. These two beauties are all that remain of a quartet of limestone row houses completed in 1889, according to Peter Salwen, author of Upper West Side Story. They are the first row houses to be built on the Drive, states Salwen, and a harbinger of the dozens of lovely attached houses of various architectural styles to line the drive in the 1890s and through the…