On Seaman Avenue, at the west end of 204th Street, sit twin houses that date back to the 1920’s.
The two-family homes, with their terra cotta tile roofs and whimsical brick patterns, stand out on a street otherwise dominated by much taller apartment buildings.
As early as 1930 Morris Galt owned the home on the right, 114 Seaman Avenue.
Galt, who was fifty-four at the time of the 1930 Federal Census, was born in Russia around 1876. A builder by trade, he immigrated to the United States in 1890. Morris Galt and his wife, Leah, had three children, Irving, Bernice and Mildred. Irving would later become a New York State Assistant Attorney General.
While Morris was off on work sites around the city, he specialized in garage structures, Leah stayed active in the community. Mrs. Galt was an organizer of the Sisterhood of the Inwood Hebrew Congregation, located at 111 Vermilyea Avenue, and a founder of the Inwood Chapter of Hadassah. The family spoke Yiddish at home—as did many of their neighbors who were also of Russian descent.
Leah Galt died in 1948.
Her husband, Morris, passed away in 1955.
The Twin Houses, so long a part of the Inwood landscape, are now slated for demolition.
A new apartment building will soon take their place.
