Vanderbilt Hotel Once the New York home of Enrico Caruso and other notables, this hotel, in its use of brick and terra cotta, evokes memories of the best of the new architecture of the early 'twenties which it inspired. The Adamesque detail of the windows and lanterns suggests an English precedent, while the glass sunburst marquee that once graced the entrance represented the epitome of elegance.

James Hampden Robb and Cornelia Van Rennselaer Robb House ARCHITECT: McKim, Mead & White; Stanford White DATE: 1889-92 STYLE: Renaissance Revival This elegant and imposing structure is considered one of the finest urban residences designed by Stanford White of the prominent architectural firm of McKim, Mead & White and was one of the earliest Renaissance Revival townhouses by White. Articulated by White with an exceptional command of proportion and design, the building is composed with simple cubic forms which contribute greatly to its monumental character. The handsome tawny-orange Roman iron-spot brick facing complements the color of the boldly modeled brownstone base and matching tan brick and terra-cotta ornament. The richly-textured facades are beautifully detailed with a wealth of Renaissance-inspired ornament for which White is so justly renowned. Other notable features include the double-story entrance porch with paired corner columns, the beautiful iron balustrades, balustraded roof parapets, and the two-story oriel on the East 35th Street facade.

Streetcar emerging from the Park Avenue tunnel, with the Church of the Messiah across 34th Street, ca. 1890. The Park Avenue Tunnel, then called the Murray Hill Tunnel, was built in 1834 as an open cut trench for New York and Harlem Railroad traffic, including both steam engine-powered trains and horse-drawn vehicles. In 1850, the tunnel was covered over. In 1871, tunnel traffic shifted to horse-drawn cars only, and three stations were added at the north and south ends, and at 38th Street, inside the tunnel. Electric streetcar service operated from 1898-1935, when the tunnel was closed for conversion to automobile traffic.

The The James F.D. and Harriet Lanier House, East 35th Street, ca. 1975. This Beaux-Arts mansion was built for James F.D. Lanier, a well known banker from a prominent family, and his wife Harriet (neé Bishop). The house, designed by the Hoppin & Koen firm, was completed in 1903, replacing a pair of brownstone townhouses which had previously stood on the site.

Waterside Generating Plant, November 9, 1938. Constructed between 1896 and 1900 in a Beaux Arts style by architect C. Wellesley Smith, the Waterside Generating Plant (later Con Edison) was the first generating facility in New York City to produce alternating current. This section of the East River waterfront was once lined with industrial businesses. Starting in the mid century the area was slowly deindustrialized and redeveloped due to the construction and functioning of the nearby United Nations and high-rise residential development. Con Ed sold a number of adjacent plots in the late 1990s, and in 2005 took this facility offline (moving the additional functions to the east 14th Street facility). The building was demolished soon thereafter.

The Empire State Building, viewed across the partially-dismantled tracks of the Third Avenue El, 1955.

St. Gabriel's Park Branch, June 26, 1928. Designed by McKim, Mead & White and completed in 1908, this Carnegie library is no longer is extant. The St. Gabriel's Park Branch (which replaced a small, earlier, non-Carnegie library on 34th Street) was demolished for the construction of the Queens-Midtown Tunnel in the 1930s. Ironically the earlier library building at 215 East 34th Street was also demolished for the tunnel. The St. Gabriel's Park branch was torn down in the 1930s to make way for the Queens Midtown Tunnel. The library building had a similar look to other McKim, Mead & White designed Carnegie libraries, though it also included one of the few open air reading room. These open air gardens were often on the roof with glass coverings. This branch was particular in that the open air section constituted a whole fourth floor, surrounded by classic loggia (columned portico) and covered by full peaked roof.

James F. D. and Harriet Lanier Residence ARCHITECT: Hoppin & Koen DATE: 1901-03 STYLE: Beaux-Arts This imposing residence of Beaux-Arts design was built in 1901-03 for James and Harriet Lanier in the fashionable Murray Hill section of New York. Designed by the architectural firm of Hoppin & Koen, it remains one of their finest residential works in New York City. Among its significant features are the rusticated ground floor base, the two-story pilasters, the mansard roof, and the gracefully carved stonework.

Nighttime view of the Empire State Building, ca. 1975. The building at the extreme right is No. 139 East 35th Street.

34th Street, viewed from the exit of the Queens-Midtown Tunnel, ca. 1985. This is the view that greeted motorists entering Manhattan via the Queens-Midtown tunnel: the dilapidated remains of No. 214 East 34th Street, the former “Furniture Exhibition Building.” Today, a new building has replaced No. 214, but the 34th Street sign (upper right) remains.

Kips Bay Brewing Company Building, ca. 1978. The brewery, built in 1895 and shuttered in 1947, retains its twin mansard-covered cupolas over the corners of 37th and 38th Streets. In this late 70s photo by Edmund Vincent Gillon, the southern half of the block-long structure is occupied by The Florentine Craftsmen, a garden supply and furniture depot. The smokestacks belong to the Consolidated Edison Waterside Generating plant, a massive Beaux-Arts structure demolished in 2006.

Church of Our Saviour, ca. 1975. A mid-century take on Romanesque ecclesiastical architecture, Our Saviour was designed by the architect Paul C. Reilly and completed in 1959, for a Roman Catholic parish established in 1955.

The New York Association for the Blind, today known as the Lighthouse Guild, was founded to provide "Light through Work." The association, which still operates today, is dedicated to advocacy and vision rehabilitation for the blind. The foundation was established in 1903 by sisters Winifred and Edith Holt. It began at first as the "Lighthouse Free Ticket Bureau," which gave free concert tickets to blind children. The Holts were inspired by a similar project while visiting Italy. Looking to establish a program in their hometown, Winifred and Edith Holt started their own project. An article in the New York Times, dated January 13, 1907, wrote that: "When Misses Winifred and Edith Holt established a ticket bureau for the blind four years ago their sole thought was that they might relieve the somber lives of these sufferers," however, "it seemed that something more thoroughgoing should be attempted." Thus, the "Lighthouse Free Ticket Bureau" was transformed into the New York Association for the Blind, which offered education, vocational training, job placement, and recreation. The Association was modeled after a settlement house, which Winifred Holt was familiar with: she had been a regular volunteer at houses on the Bowery before dedicating her life to aiding the visually impaired. The Holt's charitable organization was formally incorporated as The New York Association for the Blind in 1906. In addition to founding the Association, Winifred also campaigned for the first census of blind residents in New York. The census counted over nine-thousand New York residents who were visually impaired. She also helped found the New York State Commission for the Blind and Visually Handicapped. In 1914, Holt was recognized for her ceaseless social welfare work and awarded a gold model by the National Institute of Social Sciences. Within the Association for the Blind, Winifred and Edith served as the secretary and recording secretary of the Association, respectively. The poet Richard Watson Gilder served as president with vice-president Helen Keller. The Association started, at first, in the Brownstone home of the Holts, at 44 East 78th Street. They employed teachers who were visually impaired and therefore had a greater understanding of what it meant to instruct those who were also blind. Edith and Winifred came to a quick understanding that many of those who were blind needed steady employment in addition to educational services. In response, they converted their family Brownstone into a space for women to work and opened a workshop for men at East 42nd Street. In these spaces, men and women produced sellable wares, such as brooms, brushes, furniture, and mats, all of which would be sold on their behalf. According to the Times, "the home of the Misses Holt is a hive of workers engaged in advancing the interests of the blind in many ways." Additionally, adults were trained in the realm of clerical, sales, and business work. The program grew so quickly that an expansion known as the Bourne Workshop was opened at East 35th Street in 1912. While providing employment, training, and education for adults, the New York Association for the Blind also took care of children. Various outdoor summer camps for children were opened around the state. Winifred also lobbied the New York Department of Education to allow visually impaired children to be admitted into public schools for the first time. With the onset of World War I, and, seeing the success of the program in New York City, Winifred Holt worked to expand the Association onto the world's stage. Le Phare de Bordeaux was opened in France in 1915, as were offices, or "Lighthouses," in Paris, Rome, Warsaw, China, Japan, the Middle East, India, and South America, thus making the Association an international foundation. The New York Association for the Blind took on the name Lighthouse Incorporated in 1989 and was later re-named Lighthouse International. In 2005, the Guild celebrated its 100th anniversary. The offices of the Lighthouse Guild are now located at 250 West 64th Street.

Packard Commercial School, ca. 1910. In 1858 Silas Packard started a commercial school out of two rooms at Cooper Union. His students learned the math, business, and secretarial skills needed to work as clerks in commercial firms. He would go to write a number of popular textbooks on the topic. Outgrowing a succession of buildings in the late 29th century, the school purchased a plot at 35th Street in 1910. Designed by architect H. F. Ballantyne, the Packard Commercial School was described by the architect himself as, "Georgian, or rather a modern adaptation of that early American style sometimes called Colonial.” The Commercial School closed by the mid century and the building was purchased by Yeshiva University for a women's educational facility (Stern College for Women), which it remains today.

George S. Bowdoin Stable, ca. 1976. This charming Dutch Revival stable, designed by architect Ralph S. Townsend, was built in 1902 for William R.H. Martin, a real estate developer. Martin sold the building to George S. Bowdoin, a banker and partner of J.P. Morgan, in 1907. After Bowdoin’s death in 1913, his daughter Edith Bowdoin took over the property. During Edith tenure, the downstairs level was converted to a garage, while the second story remained her living quarters until 1944. Since then, the building has had several private owners, with a brief period as a non-profit arts center, the Carriage House Center for the Arts.

This streetscape of the north side of East 38th Street, east of Third Avenue looks very different today. While the two-story brick building at no. 215 still stands, the rest of these buildings are long gone. In their place, the northbound Queens Midtown Tunnel exit street cuts through from 37th Street to 41st Street.

Adelaide L.T. Douglas Residence (right), ca. 1911. The buildings at left were later razed for the construction of the Roman Catholic Church of Our Saviour. By 1908, Adelaide L.T. Douglas, a prominent socialite, was separated from her husband William Proctor Douglas — and widely believed to be carrying on an affair with J.P. Morgan. In 1909, with her husband living at a separate residence uptown, Mrs. Douglas commissioned the architect Horace Trumbauer to build a new Louis XVI-style mansion on Park Avenue (the previous building on this site had been damaged during subway construction in 1902). Trumbauer’s opulent design was befitting of a client of Adelaide Douglas’s status — though it’s rumored that J.P. Morgan underwrote construction. The six-story mansion, completed in 1911, includes a rusticated limestone base, intricate relief carvings, a fourth floor colonnade, mansard roof, and wrought iron detail at every level. After Douglas’s death in 1935, the mansion was converted to apartments. In 1959, it was acquired by the United States Olympic Association. Nineteen years later, it was sold to the government of Guatemala, which established its United Nations mission there.

Vanderbilt Hotel, February 27, 1931.

Union League Club, Park Avenue, 1931. The Union League Club was founded in 1863 by a group of prominent New Yorkers who shared a firm commitment to the Union cause in the Civil War. The members were part of a breakaway from the Union Club, which had maintained support for Confederate Members. Frederick Law Olmsted was among the Club’s founders, and later members were a veritable directory of the city’s Gilded Age society, including John D. Rockefeller, J.P. Morgan, and several former and future Presidents of the United States. The Club first occupied a building on Union Square, followed by clubhouses on Madison Square and Fifth Avenue. The present neo-Classical building on Park Avenue was designed by architect Benjamin Wistar Morris III, and erected on a lot assembled by J.P. Morgan and his son J.P. “Jack” Morgan, Jr. The new club opened in February, 1931, with the first four floors dedicated to social and dining spaces, and the upper levels including 64 bedrooms. The club, which continues to operate today, extended membership to women in 1988, and was designated a New York City landmark in 2011.

71st Regiment Armory, ca. 1955. The Armory, although basically Romanesque in design, flaunts a very high medieval Italian tower complete with machicolations and American flags built into the masonry at the top as a decorative element. The architect reputedly asked his little son what he thought ought to go at the top of the tower, to which he replied, "Flags, Daddy."

Photographer Edmund Vincent Gillon captured an enchanting nighttime view of the Empire State Building, but his long exposure also caught a fleeting image of passing traffic — note the advertisement text "Bagel Wheel, Inc." seemingly floating over 35th Street.

People's Baths Milbank Memorial, 1904. In 1902, Elizabeth Milbank Anderson, heiress to the Borden Condensed Milk Company fortune, pledged to donate funds to the New York Association for Improving the Condition of the Poor (AICP) for the construction of a public bath. The resulting facility was completed in early 1904 at the cost of $140, 000. The facility was large enough to service more than 3000 bathers in one day. Today the building is occupied by the Republic of Indonesia's mission to the United Nations.

The Advertising Club of New York at Robb House, Park Avenue, ca. 1975. This Stanford White-designed Italian Renaissance Revival mansion was completed in 1892 for James Hampden Robb, a veteran of city and state politics and New York City Parks Commissioner at the time of construction. The house was acquired by the Advertising Club of New York in 1923, and converted to co-op residences in 1977.

152 East 38th Street ARCHITECT: Unknown DATE: 1858 STYLE: Federal Elegance and charm are abundantly evident in the architectural quality of this three-story Federal-style brick house. Separated from the street by a spacious forecourt and an inner landscaped garden, this outstanding townhouse is partly shielded from view by a one-story brick wall dividing the forecourt from the garden. The wall and six slender columns with modified Ionic capitals support a covered walkway intended to provide shelter for those about to pass through the two entrance gates in the arched openings of the wall.

Contrasting 331 East 39th Street with Chrysler and Daily News Buildings ca. 1938 Standing near an abandoned tenement between First and Second Avenues, Abbott looked northeast toward two glamorous corporate headquarters on East 42nd Street. The campaign posters for Congress affixed to the tenement, for incumbent Republican John J. Connor and his opponent the Communist Israel Amter, speak to the neighborhood’s Irish and Jewish working-class constituents. Today, a garage and parking lot for Con Edison occupy 331 East 39th Street, and apartment buildings block the view of the famous skyscrapers.

📚In 1901 after selling his corporation for $500 million, steel magnate and philanthropist Andrew Carnegie announced a $5.2 million donation to the City of New York for the construction of public library buildings. With this gift, 67 branch libraries were constructed in the five boroughs between 1903 and 1929. 📚

150 East 38th Street In 1934, Mr. Pettengill, an engineer and antiques dealer hired architect Robertson Ward to combine 150 and 152 East 38th Street into an office and home. House & Garden praised the design in 1936, called the "Pettengill Project," which placed offices and a conference room in the front house and living quarters in the set-back house at 152. Robertson Ward later designed resort buildings in Acapulco and Barbados, and the Mill Reef Club in Antigua. Eventually, the two properties were severed, although the LPC designated 152 East 38th Street in 1967.

Between 1954 and 1957, the Municipal Art Society surveyed historic buildings in all five boroughs to create a database of potential landmarks to preserve. Local residents and MAS staff compiled individual sheets devoted to about 200 buildings. Each sheet outlined the building’s date, location, and style and provided a description and a small photograph. This is the list of Manhattan buildings.

Lexington Avenue at 33rd Street, ca. 1975. The building at right is No. 141 East 33rd Street. The Chrysler Building is visible through the haze, further up Lexington Avenue.

Homecoming of the 71st Regiment from the Spanish-American War, August 29, 1898.

The names of Andrew Carnegie and Henry Clay Frick are well known in New York City and beyond for Carnegie Hall and for the Frick Collection. Though the institutions built by these two steel magnates are important to the city’s cultural identity, the organization built by their lesser known (but just as wealthy) associate, Henry Phipps, has had and continues to have, a more material effect on the lives of New Yorkers. His legacy, Phipps Houses, is the oldest non-profit developer of affordable housing, erecting its first buildings in 1906 and actively developing and managing properties today.

Phipps Houses, ca. 1905. In the early part of the twentieth century, the entire block span between First and Second Avenues on East 31st Street was the site of the Phipps Houses. Completed in 1906 and designed by Grosvenor Atterbury, the building was commissioned by steel magnate Henry Phipps. Also a philanthropist, the building was Phipps' first attempt to curb the rising tuberculosis epidemic in the city by improving living conditions for paying tenement tenants. Home to 142 apartments, each unit at the Phipps Houses included two to five rooms, individual bathrooms, and a finished courtyard. Although rent was $14 monthly, which was $4 more expensive than usual tenement rent at the time, the building was designed to maximize the wellbeing of those who would live there. An early brochure said: "This enterprise is not a charity. Tenants are not asked to accept anything free. All that they pay for in their rent they will receive." Atterbury's design for the Phipps Houses was the first of its kind in the city. The complex was grand and constructed with varied brickwork to maximize airflow. Unlike other tenement buildings, Phipps also designated the bottom floor of his development as space for tenants to receive social services and counsel.

Carriage houses on Sniffen Court, a private mews off East 36th Street, ca. 1980. This set of ten carriage houses dates to the 1860s. The building at left (with oriel window) is No. 156 East 36th Street, also 2 Sniffen Court. Preservation documents state that the mews was named for John Sniffen, the builder purportedly responsible for the mews layout and the construction of the houses. However, Christopher Gray, in a 1991 “Streetscapes” column for the New York Times, disputes this claim, finding no evidence to connect John Sniffen to the property or its developers. In the early 20th century, the service buildings were converted to private residences, and in 1966, Sniffen Court received Landmark designation, forever cementing the Sniffen name, whether it arose from fact or tradition.

Vanderbilt Hotel (at right), date unknown. Built by the great-grandson of railroad magnate, Cornelius Vanderbilt, in 1912, the Hotel Vanderbilt was designed by Warren and Wetmore, one of the firms involved in the creation of Grand Central Terminal. At 22-stories, the facade was largely restrained, though with fanciful terra cotta ornamentation at the top. The interiors were grand and packed with new modern technologies: a Gustavino ceiling graced the basement Della Robbia Room and pneumatic tubes carried messages between floors. Vanderbilt, who lived in a lavish two-story apartment on the top floors died saving a fellow passenger when the Lusitania sank in 1915. His family sold the hotel in 1925 and in 1967 it was converted into office and residential spaces. During and after this conversion the lower floors were stripped and reclad with a modern facade and much of the terra cotta was removed (some of it has ended up in the garden at the Brooklyn Museum). Today the building looks as it has since the 1970s. The Della Robbia Room was designated an interior landmark in 1985, though the building's exterior remains unprotected.

Buildings on East 32nd Street. At far right (No. 207) is the former Tammany Central Association, ca. 1965. In 1901, the Tammany Central Association, at the time an influential faction of the political machine, broke ground on this ostentatious Beaux-Arts clubhouse. However, internecine conflicts soon saw the district’s patron, Richard Croker, out of power. The clubhouse was completed all the same, but reform efforts and the financial strain of upkeep saw the facility rented out a soon as 1911. Later tenants included the City of New York, itself. In 1965, the old Tammany clubhouse became the headquarters of New York Magazine, when Milton Glaser, New York’s founder, purchased the building. When the magazine moved to new offices in 1974, Glaser remained; he maintains his studio there to this day. The buildings at left have since been demolished.

Kips Bay Towers, 1966. The two towers of the Kips Bay Plaza Apartments were completed between 1960 and 1963. Designed by I.M. Pei and S. J. Kessler, the Brutalist style complex was erected on what had been the first Phipps Houses, a series of tenements created as working class housing just after the turn of the century. The two towers are massive 21-stories of glass and raw concrete facades. They were conceived as a middle-income rental project, but just 20 years later were converted to condominium apartments over the objections of a substantial number of residents.

Adams Memorial Church, 1942. Architect J.Cleaveland Cady designed this church with the double spires as the Adams-Parkhurst Memorial Presbyterian Church. It was a mission church of the Madison Square Presbyterian Church, just a few blocks away. Dedicated in 1875 over the next decades it was home not only the Adams-Parkhurst church but also a German Lutheran congregation and an Armenian Evangelical Church. Left empty and abandoned after a stint as a radio station, the church became the CBS 30th Street Studio from 1948 to 1981. The Columbia Records studio was the location of thousands of recordings, including Miles Davis' Kind of Blue (1959), Leonard Bernstein's West Side Story (Original Broadway Cast recording, 1957), and Pink Floyd's The Wall (1979). It was aptly nicknamed "the Church." Columbia Records moved out in 1981, and after changing hands a few times, the building was razed and replaced with a 10-story apartment building called "The Wilshire," completed in 1985.

George S. Bowdoin Stable ARCHITECT: Ralph S. Townsend DATE: 1902 STYLE: Dutch Revival This two-story stable building was constructed in 1902 for William R. H. Martin, a businessman and real estate developer active in the Murray Hill section of the city. Architect Ralph S. Townsend designed this small building in a distinctive Dutch Revival style, with an elaborate stepped gable and oversized stone quoins and voussoirs

The Civic Club ARCHITECT: Thomas A. Gray DATE: 1898-99 STYLE: French Beaux-Art The elegant building of the Civic Club, now known as Estonian House, was designed in the French Beaux-Arts style by Thomas A. Gray. Erected in 1898-99, the Civic Club building was commissioned by Frederick Norton Goddard (1861-1905), the founder of the club and a leading social reformer in the city.