Principal Court 03 of 09

Colonial Court

The first Sunnyside Gardens unit, built in 1924, combines forty-eight row houses, six paired apartment buildings and a central shared landscape.

Accessible proportional rendering of the NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission existing-conditions plan of Colonial Court. Buildings, streets, paths, open space, fences, gates, and trees remain labeled as documented in the designation report.
LPC existing-conditions plan · not to scale and not a survey. Source: NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission designation report.
First construction1924
Row houses48
Apartment buildings6 paired
Shared landscapeCentral garden court

Plan and composition

How the Court Is Organized

Colonial Court was planned as a distinct community. Seven rows of houses and six paired, three-story apartment buildings occupy a full block and part of the adjoining block along 47th Street.

Six different row-house designs were used. The apartment buildings share a five-bay composition with a slightly raised central tower, paired and single windows, and a centrally placed entrance.

Landscape and circulation

Gardens, Paths and Shared Space

The principal buildings are arranged around a common garden that originally included landscaped grounds, children's play areas and tennis courts, while individual houses and apartment pairs also received private garden space.

The LPC report documents three functioning through-block paths and a fourth route that had become obstructed by fences and a temporary structure. Portions of the shared garden had also been subdivided, but the central open-space framework remained visible.

What makes it distinctive. Colonial Court is the starting point of Sunnyside Gardens. Its combination of house types, cooperative apartment buildings and layered private and common gardens established ideas that later courts would adapt in different ways.