Lost Park Slope: Tilyou Penthouse, 35 PPW

In an earlier "Lost Park Slope" post, we visited the George C. Tilyou residence that once stood at 35 Prospect Park West. We established that George Tilyou died in 1914, and that his widow Mary sold the house to developers, who erected the present Emery Roth-designed apartment house in 1929. Mary Tilyou occupied the penthouse apartment until her death, aged 103, in the 1950s.

The Museum of the City of New York's online image collection includes many photographs of the interior of Mary Tilyou's penthouse apartment, a few of which appear below.


The scale of the rooms suggest an extremely spacious apartment:


Although there are at least three penthouse apartments now, it is possible that they were subdivided from a single colossal penthouse once occupied by Mary Tilyou.


The rest of the photographs of the penthouse apartment can be viewed here.

35 Prospect Park West

In case you missed it... the ubiquitous "Montrose Morris" posted a nice set of before-and-after photos on Brownstoner this week, featuring a great shot of the building that once carried the 35 Prospect Park West address:

35 Prospect Park West - then
Photo: New York Public Library

According to the Park Slope Historic District's Designation Report, the building was the residence of George C. Tilyou, who built Steeplechase Park in Coney Island.

Somewhere, probably from our late father-in-law, we heard the story that Tilyou's widow, Mary, sold the building to developers on the condition that she could occupy one of the penthouse apartments for the rest of her days. We have no idea whether this is true or not, but it's a nice story. Do the facts support this tale?

A website gives George Cornelius Tilyou's dates as 1862-1914.

Another website says that the present-day apartment tower was constructed in 1929 by Emery Roth.

35 Prospect Park West - now
Emery Roth, architect - 1929

Yet another website says that Mary E. Tilyou, George's widow, lived in the tower until her death at 103 in the 1950s.