No. 51, a dignified four-story red rose brick and limestone Neo-Federal townhouse, built by Schwatrz & Gross in 1909, over 6,000 square feet was designed for George Washington Backer, a prosperous builder, and has abundant proportions. The shape and color of the front entry portico contrast nicely with the English bond and white stone Georgian splayed window lintels while delicate ironwork adds formality and embellishments to the structure's facade. The gorgeous curved rear facade that is wrapped and cased in steel frames is also a sight to see.

The wonderful single-family constructed building (still with an adaptable house plan) has two separate entrances and connecting stairs over the four floors. There are six bedrooms, a three-room parlor, and a kitchen, and there are five and a half well-appointed bathrooms. In addition to this, there are twelve hundred square feet of exterior patio garden, terraces, balcony, and side yard retreat, plus a dreamy rooftop where the decking possibilities are sundry. With a significant depth of 93 feet and a coveted width of 25 feet, millions of dollars in renovations in recent decades have far exceeded mere historical preservation to become a centerpiece for any Manhattan descendant. Beneath its stately surface, enlivened with original detail is a match made with thorough contemporary reconstruction that presents a wonderful opportunity to live and love in twenty-one rooms in the heart of the landmarked Hamilton Heights Historic District on one of New York City's most delightfully gracious and secluded streets.

On a three-block turn on picturesque Convent Avenue is a quiet passage lined with magnetic houses: bucolic Hamilton Terrace, an even more prosperous enclave to this day. This splendid tree-lined street takes its name from Hamilton Grange ("a sweet asylum from care and pain", he called it), Alexander Hamilton's former house built in 1802 that currently sits atop a hill nearby. Merchant's clerk, Revolutionary War soldier, first Secretary Treasury of the United States: Alexander Hamilton's life is nationally memorialized there at The Grange, the home he built on a country estate in uptown Manhattan. A faithful testament to early American architecture, it stands today as a tribute to its first owner's many accomplishments. When urbanization came in the late 19th century developers seized the founding father's name-and The Terrace was born.

Each floor of this gracious residence has been maintained with care and displays a unique era style and contemporary details. The same looking after had been given to the modernized mechanicals, electrical, central vacuum, heating & air conditioning, security, and audio systems. The lowest level of the home is multifunctional. It can be accessed directly from the living room as well as the service entrance Yett below the only porticoed Tuscan column entrance on the block.

This fine and quiet residential community is within minutes away from al