Adams Street, north side, east from Van Nest Avenue to East Tremont Avenue, July 31, 1928.

The row of two-story wood-frame houses seen at left are somewhat unlikely survivors. In the 1910s the regrading and filling of Adams Street (and two of its neighboring thoroughfares) added between 13 and 26 feet to the roadway. A new bridge over the New York, New Haven, and Hartford Railroad tracks was being built at the convergence of Adams Street, 180th Street, and East Tremont Avenue, and the roads needed to be regraded to allow for the connection.

Various city records addressed to, and created by, the Board of Estimate between 1913 and 1919 contemplate the physical and financial costs of this engineering work. The added fill created a street that was level to the tops of the two-story homes. Letters from the homeowners declare that the homes will likely be destroyed and as such they are requesting damages for the full value of their homes.

Today, the west side of Adams Street is lined with contemporary structures built at street level, likely within the last 20 years. The east side, though, is surprisingly historically intact. A few of the two-story homes feared lost by their early 20th century owners remain. They are entered through front doors cut into their second floors, from staircases that descend 10 feet from street level.