400 Madison Avenue ARCHITECT: H. Craig Severance, Inc. DATE: 1928-29 STYLE: Neo-Gothic With its dramatic massing, intricate neo-Gothic detailing, and bright, expansive terra-cotta facade commanding a full Madison Avenue blockfront, the 400 Madison Avenue Building is one of East Midtown’s most striking prewar skyscrapers. Designed by H. Craig Severance and constructed by the George A. Fuller Company, one of the nation’s most experienced skyscraper builders, it was completed in 1929 as the area surrounding Grand Central Terminal was experiencing a boom in skyscraper construction and transformation into one of the country’s leading financial centers.

Shelton Hotel ARCHITECT: Arthur Loomis Harmon DATE: 1924 STYLE: Lombard Revival, Hotel Even while it was under construction the Shelton Hotel was recognized as the first successful embodiment of the massing requirements of the 1916 Zoning Law, notable for its soaring expression of height, powerful simple massing, striking silhouette, and exceptional handling of materials and details. The 31-story-plus-penthouse building is designed in the Lombard Revival style incorporating Medieval and Renaissance details. Above a beautifully detailed limestone base, its facades are clad with multi-hued greyish-brown brick and terra cotta. There are three setbacks, stepping up to a central tower, and a picturesque hipped-roofed penthouse.

William Lescaze House and Office ARCHITECT: William Lescaze DATE: 1933-34 STYLE: Modern The Lescaze House of 1933-34, designed by William Lescaze for his own use as a combined residence and architectural office, is an embodiment of the theory and practice of one of the most influential exponents of modern architecture in the United States. The sudden appearance on East 48th Street of this startlingly “modern” facade of 1934 set between deteriorating brownstones of the post-Civil War period, had a dramatic impact upon the streetscape and the neighborhood.

In the mid-summer of 1863, tensions in New York had reached a boiling point. To replenish the Union Army after devastating casualties, Congress had passed the enrollment act, enacting the first draft. In New York, many of the newly arrived immigrants had been pushed by Tammany Hall and other political machines to become citizens, which made them eligible for this new draft. These newly minted citizens became incensed by the prospect of being drafted, and the anger quickly grew. The drawing of the draft numbers was a spark that drove the city into what would become the worst race riot of its history. Days later, anywhere from a hundred and twenty to more than a thousand were killed, thousands more injured, and with many prominent African-American and Abolitionist buildings destroyed.

Lexington Avenue at East 47th Street, east of the Grand Central rail yards, August 25, 1914. The building at left, with smokestacks, was the station's steam powerhouse until 1929, when it was demolished in favor of electric power. After the Waldorf-Astoria was completed in 1931, across 49th Street, certain of the hotel's most prominent guests made use of a private train platform originally built for service cars calling at the powerhouse.

Racquet and Tennis Club, ca. 1918. While the Racquet and Tennis Club was formed in 1890 by the merger of the Racquet Court Club and the Racquet Tennis Club, it initially occupied a clubhouse at 27 West 43d Street. It wasn't until 30 years later that it moved uptown. Offered a lease by one of its members, construction began in 1916 on its Charles McKim designed Italian Renaissance Park Avenue Clubhouse . Completed in 1918, this five story building was built with stone and brick over a steel frame, occupying a full block of Park Avenue. Though the clubhouse provides its members with a dining room, pool, gym, and other amenities, it is most notable for its racquet sports facilities. These include squash and racquets courts, but more unusually two court tennis (or real tennis) courts of the 43 extant in the world. Moreover, it served as the site of a conference in 1931 that standardized and set the rules of the board game Backgammon. Controversially, the Racquet and Tennis Club has adhered to a strict male only policy, only permitting women to attend social events at the club. This has provoked some outrage, as when Evelyn Davis, a notable female Court Tennis player, requested to train for the Women's World Tennis Championship and was flatly refused.

Lady Chapel, St. Patrick's Cathedral ca. 1905 A sophisticated version of French Gothic architecture, this delicate little chapel attaches itself as a jewel to the coarser fabric of the cathedral proper. It reminds us of that period of medieval architecture when the builders were straining stone masonry construction to the limit in order to achieve new effects of lightness and daring.

East 56th Street from Third Avenue, looking toward Lexington Avenue, 1940. On the north side of 56th Street is no. 141, completed in 1940. The 12-story building was designed by H.I. Feldman, a prolific city architect whose projects include the Park Lane Tower on Third Avenue between 85th and 86th Streets, the NYCHA LaGuardia Houses on the Lower East Side.

St. Patrick's Cathedral, 1946. Construction on James Renwick Jr.'s massive Gothic Revival cathedral began in 1858 to replace the 1815-completed St. Patrick's Church on Mulberry Street. Church construction was paused during the Civil War and resumed in 1865. Dedicated on May 25, 1879, the church towered over nearly all of the built environment of the then sparsely developed neighborhood. The church rose even taller in 1888 when the spires were added to the Fifth Avenue facade. Between 2012 and 2015, a $177 million restoration project repaired the stained glass windows, restored the ceiling, and cleaned and re-cut stones of the spires. Some fun facts:🎉 The church seats more than 2200 people. It has three organs. The Archbishops of New York are buried in a crypt under the high altar. The Pieta is three times larger than the Pieta in St. Peter's, Rome.

Mrs. O.H.P Belmont Residence, ca. 1910. This neoclassical three-story townhouse was designed by the architecture firm of Hunt & Hunt for Alva Belmont and her second husband Oliver Belmont (though he died before the home was finished). Following her husband's death, she commissioned an additional wing on the home to house his collection of medieval and early Renaissance armor. The Armory as the large gallery was known hosted women suffragists events during Alva's later progressive years. She sold the home in 1923 (the armor collection went to the Metropolitan Museum). The Catholic Charities of the New York Archdiocese later occupied the mansion. The Archdiocese sold the building to a developer in the early 1950s who demolished it for a 23-story office building designed by Kahn & Jacobs.

Hotel Shelton, 1924. The Shelton Hotel was the brainchild of James T. Lee (grandfather of Jackie Kennedy). He wanted to build a massive bachelor hotel. And massive it was. When completed in 1923, the structure, designed by Arthur Loomis Harmon, had 1200 rooms. Designed in a Romanesque Revival style, the building was considered the first major successful example to adhere to the massing requirements of the 1916 Zoning Law. The three setbacks culminate in a central tower. The building became a model for other skyscrapers and its architect would go to design the Empire State Building a few years later. Originally opened as a men's only residence, the building began admitting women and families soon after it opened. Georgia O’Keeffe and photographer Alfred Stieglitz lived on the 30th floor from 1935 until 1937. And in 1926 Houdini had himself locked in a box and submerged in the basement swimming pool, eventually emerging unharmed. Today the building is the New York Marriott East Side.

Upon its completion in 1931, the new Waldorf Astoria became both the tallest and the largest hotel in the world. At 625 feet, and with 1.68 million sq. ft. in floor area, the Waldorf occupied an entire city block between Lexington and Park Avenue and offered more than 2,000 rooms. Designed by architect Lloyd Morgan of the firm Schultze and Weaver, the new Waldorf Astoria was a mountain of construction, with its limestone base matched above with gray bricks, custom-made for the hotel and named “Waldorf Gray.” The wide base was topped by two towers which were filled mostly with private residences. Ornamental spires with a streamlined classicism gave the hotel a modernist “Art Deco” character. Dubbed “New York’s Unofficial Palace,” the Waldorf Astoria’s luxurious suites have been home to many high-profile residents, including William Randolph Hearst Jr. and the Duke and Duchess of Windsor. Every president since Herbert Hoover has stayed in the hotel’s Presidential Suite, and the Waldorf is the official residence of the United States’ UN Ambassador.

277 Park Avenue, 1962. This Emery Roth & Sons office tower is a quintessential example of the modernist steel and glass towers that sprung up along Park Avenue in the late 50s through the 60s. This building is still owned by the Stahl Organization, the original developer of the project. The tower has 1.74 million square feet of office space spread over 50 stories. The famed architecture firm Emery Roth & Sons were known for "marketable designs that maximized the net rentable area," particularly after World War 2. This block-spanning lot had previously been occupied by a McKim Mead & White apartment building, though it was never meant to stand the test of time. In order to prepare for Midtown's development as a business district, the New York and Harlem Rail Road Company, who owned the lot at the time, had a foundation poured that could support a 75-story tower.

"Madison Ave., east side, north from and including East 52nd Street. The 2-story building on the N.E. corner of East 52nd Street, is the Walker-Gordon Laboratory with the Juillard Music Foundation Building adjoining it on the east." Walker-Gordon was a company established in 1891 by Dr. Thomas M. Rotch, scientist Gustavus A. Gordon, and business man George H. Walker in response to high infant mortality. The men of science knew they could greatly reduce these deaths by careful prescription feeding and Walker financed the company. Walker-Gordon produced high quality milk products from labs in Boston, New York City (the building seen in this photograph), and a 180-acre farm in Plainsboro, New Jersey.

The Vanderbilt YMCA, ca. 1937. Opened in 1932 and designed by Warren and Wetmore, this Young Men's Christian Association building was originally called the "Railroad YMCA" because of its housing program for railroad workers. In 1972, it was renamed the Vanderbilt YMCA, to recognize Cornelius Vanderbilt, the railroad tycoon.

Martin Erdmann House ARCHITECT: Taylor & Levi DATE: 1908-09 STYLE: English Renaissance Revival The Martin Erdmann House is an outstanding example of a fashionable English Renaissance Revival townhouse that was built 1908-09 to the designs of the prominent New York City architectural firm of Taylor & Levi. It was designed in a period-revival style that reflected the upper-class tastes of the wealthy art collector, Martin Erdmann, and as such, is a rare survivor of the time when the area around Fifth Avenue was an affluent residential neighborhood.

This synagogue building (seen at center at 221-223 East 51 Street) began its life as the Good Will Chapel, a Presbyterian mission of the nearby Madison Avenue Church, sometime in the late 19th century. The building was then purchased by Congregation Orach Chaim, a Orthodox congregation, in 1898. The congregation occupied the ornate building for only eight years before moving uptown to an even more elaborate structure. In 1906 the building was purchased by Congregation Beth Hamedrash Hachodosh Talmud Torah, an Orthodox synagogue established in 1901. By the mid 1950s the congregation had became a conservative synagogue known as the East 51st Street Synagogue. In the 1960s and 1970s many changes came to the building and the nearby streetscape. The congregation purchased the land at nos. 225 and 227 and constructed a new building, while also selling the parcel at no. 221 to the Rockefeller family. No. 221, along with two properties to the west, became Greenacre Park, a “vest pocket park,” with a 25 foot waterfall next door to the new Sutton Place Synagogue.

New York Central Building/Helmsley Building ARCHITECT: Warren & Wetmore DATE: 1927-29 STYLE: Beaux-Arts, Skyscraper The New York Central Building is the skyscraping counterpart of Grand Central Terminal. It was designed by the same architects in the same materials and Beaux-Arts style, simultaneously developing some of the depot’s most innovative circulation systems. Swallowing Park Avenue traffic and thereby relieving congestion around the terminal, the building functions as an open gate to the “Gateway to a Continent.” With a distinction all but unique in a grid patterned Manhattan, it has a double focus, as powerful by day as it is dramatic by night.

“55th Street, north side, east of Lexington Avenue. The church is the Swedish Baptist Church, and beyond it is the Babies Hospital. March 28, 1928.” In 1929, both the First Swedish Baptist Church and Babies Hospital left their 55th Street locations, the former for a new building on East 61st Street, while the latter shifted operations to Columbia Presbyterian Hospital on West 168th Street in Upper Manhattan.

Turtle Bay Gardens, 1937. Purchased by socialite Charlotte Hunnewell Martin in 1918, the eleven 1860s-built townhouses on the south side of 49th Street and nine on the north side of 48th Street underwent two years of renovation. The extensive work included the creation of a communal garden space at the center of the block. The individual backyards are separated only with low brick walls, while a broad esplanade at the center is shared by all. When the work was complete on the homes, Martin did the unexpected; she sold the homes at cost (to her friends). Residents of the homes have included Katharine Hepburn, Tyrone Power, Stephen Sondheim, and E. B. White.

Loew's Lexington Theatre, 1925. This structure was originally called the Lexington Opera House and was opened by Oscar Hammerstein I in 1914. Due to a negotiation with the Metropolitan Opera which disallowed Hammerstein from staging opera, the so-called "opera house" opened with a program of vaudeville acts and films. Hammerstein sold the theater to Marcus Loew, who utilized it as one of his circuit's most popular venues. Leow's Lexington Theatre was kept in pristine condition, and the Beaux Arts design was hardly altered until its demolition in 1961. The theatre sat 2,500 and had 40 boxes. It was razed to make room for another of Loew's ventures, the Loew's Summit Hotel

"The second Waldorf Astoria (without the hyphen) is the present one located at Park Avenue and East 49th Street. Opened in 1931, it was the largest, the tallest and the most expensive hotel ever built, not just succeeding its illustrious predecessor , but surpassing it in every way imaginable. Today, more than eighty years after its completion, the Waldorf Astoria remains the epitome of the grand hotel. New York City’s Waldorf Astoria may well be the best known hotel in the world. Synonymous with grandeur, luxury and sophistication, its name has been appropriated by numerous pretenders from London to Shanghai, by the Waldorf’s own ubiquitous salad, and, somewhat amusingly, by one of Jim Henson’s Muppets. The Waldorf Astoria has been celebrated (and occasionally excoriated) in both song and verse by such talents as Irving Berlin, Langston Hughes, Cole Porter, Wallace Stevens, and Thomas E. “Fats” Waller. It has been featured in countless books, plays, and movies, including a top-billed role in M-G-M’s 1945 melodrama, Weekend at the Waldorf. Thousands of people who have never set foot through its doors know the Waldorf Astoria by sight and reputation. Set in the very heart of the fashionable Fifth Avenue residential district, the new hotel was intended to cater specifically to the socially prominent ladies and gentlemen of New York and the increasing number of distinguished foreign visitors to the city from abroad. To them, the Waldorf proffered the finest in French cuisine, a telephone in every room, and the privacy of meals served in their chambers, the first room service. It surrounded them with the art and trappings of a European royal court and an army of servants seeing to their every wish. Clearly, the Waldorf was their hotel. And how did all this come about? It begins as a tale of two cousins..." To learn more about all the Waldorf Astoria, check out William Alan Morrison's article in Gotham: A Blog for Scholars of New York City History.

An exterior photograph looking North on Lexington Avenue. The intersection at 55th Street is visible in the distance. Apartment houses line the street, with several businesses, such as a laundry and a grocer, occupying the ground floor. In the distance, there is a throng of pedestrians and streetcars and a horsedrawn carriage can be seen. To the extreme right, there is a statue of a Native American in front of a shop.

135 East 52nd Street, 1912. Constructed on land purchased with donations by a number of wealthy New York society women, the Young Women's Christian Association building was completed and dedicated in 1912. The building housed the national headquarters of the charity. The section of the building entered through 135 East 52nd Street was known as "the Annex;" it provided space for the National Board Training program and residences for its trainees. Affectionately known as as "600," it was the first building to be built in the United States solely for the use of a woman's movement. The National Board of the organization decided to sell the building (which they had received many previous offers for) in 1981. The building was demolished and redeveloped. The Y.W.C.A moved into a number of rented headquarters through the 1980s and 1990s, including a stint in the Empire State Building. Following a reorganization in 2003, they consolidated their activities into their Washington, D.C. office.

Hotel Beverly, 1930. Built in the "hotel alley" of Lexington Avenue north of Grand Central Terminal as part of the two decade development known as Terminal City, the Beverly Hotel was completed in 1927. Designed by Emery Roth with tiered, set back massing, the hotel was marketed to “sophisticated New Yorkers” and advertised their "many sunny outdoor terraces." The building's striking silhouette made it a favorite subject for artists. Today, the neo-Romanesque building is the boutique Hotel Benjamin, and has retained (or been returned to) its original appearance.

312 East 53rd Street CLIENT: R. V. J. Cunningham ARCHITECT: Robert & James Cunningham DATE: 1866 STYLE: French Second Empire This attractive little wood house, one of a pair, was built for R. V. J. Cunningham in 1866. Simple as it is, it nonetheless reflects faithfully the post-Civil War architecture so much influenced by French Second Empire models. Here are the Mansard roof and the carefully framed windows and front door, all displaying cornices carried on brackets. The arrangement of the windows is somewhat unusual as the two long ones at the left of the door follow an asymmetrical pattern, while the two above are symmetrically placed with reference to the center of the building, as are the two dormers above them. They are all the double-hung type with the broad central muntin intended to simulate casement windows. This was characteristic of our desire to look French while retaining the practicality of double hung windows.

General Electric Building, January 27, 1937. Built in 1931 as the RCA Victor Building, this 50-story skyscraper was designed by the firm of Cross & Cross. The building combines the general form of Gothic architecture (emphasized verticality,piers and butresses, and pinnacles) and Art Deco motifs and ornamentation. Both of the base and the tower boast fantastic design and ornamentation. The top of the tower has the look of Gothic tracery (or the stonework elements that support the glass in a Gothic window), but includes Deco depictions of electricity and radio waves. The facade of the building uses three brick colors (orange, buff, and tawny) which are also the brick colors of the adjacent domed St. Bartholomew's Church, which can be seen in this image at the bottom center.

With the United States entering the First World War in April of 1917, many U.S. social groups began raising funds to help support the troops abroad.

Columbia University Midtown Campus, ca. 1897. Between 1857 and 1897, Columbia University was located between Madison and Park Avenues from 49th to 50th Streets. This location was the school's second home after moving north from Park Place. At the time, the school was known as 'Columbia College' —it would be christened 'Columbia University' upon its move to the Morningside Heights.

277 Park Avenue, 1926. This apartment building designed by McKim Mead & White was completed in 1925. The structure took up the entire block with its 12 sections and 432 apartments and included a "drive-in...giant interior court" according to the New York Times. The building was funded by the New York & Harlem Rail Road through the construction of the new Grand Central Depot, who's railyards below prompted a redevelopment of Park Avenue. One notable previous tenant was John F. Kennedy's presidential campaign. In 1931, the Real Estate Record and Guide noted that of this part of Park Avenue, "no further long-term leases are being granted," to make way for the area's growth as a business district. The building was leased in 1923 for a maximum of 63 years, though in 1948 it was repossessed by the New York and Harlem Rail Road Company. After a much-disputed demolition in the 50s, construction began on a new 50-story office tower to take its place in 1962. Surprisingly, the foundation which the (much shorter by comparison) original apartment sat on had been cast strong enough to support a 70-story building. The rail company had anticipated a tower all along.

The St. Patrick's Day Parade, looking south on Fifth Avenue from St. Patrick's Cathedral, March 1942.

Lexington Avenue between East 53rd and 54th Streets, ahead of subway construction. The northward extension of the IRT East Side Line, later dubbed the Lexington Avenue Line would be completed more than six years later, in 1918. This view includes two important landmarks of Lexington Avenue religious life: at left, the 1870s-era Central Synagogue; at far right (No. 619), St. Peter's Lutheran Church. The latter building has since been replaced with an angular granite structure described by the New York Times's David Dunlap as "New York’s most architecturally successful postwar sanctuary."

St. Patrick's Cathedral ca. 1883 In order to build a new Cathedral representing New York's status, John Hughes set about raising funds, seeking out one hundred wealthy Catholics to contribute $1,000 each to a start-up fund. He expected another $100,000 in contributions in the second year. A substantial mortgage and contributions from the parishes of the city would finance the remainder of the approximately $1,000,000 that was projected. Construction on the cathedral began as the New York economy slowly recovered from the setbacks of the Panic of 1857, but work was suspended in 1860, due to a lack of funds and to tensions leading up to the Civil War. Hughes died in 1864 before work resumed. Starting in 1867, the Archdiocese began assessing parishes sums ranging from $150 to $5,000 annually toward construction costs for the cathedral. These assessments continued until 1876. By 1871, more than $1,071,000 had been collected. By the fall of 1878, the cathedral was essentially complete, although the architect had scaled back his plans somewhat. The spires over the western twin towers shown here, perhaps inspired by those of the Cologne cathedral, and other optional details like the flying buttresses were left for succeeding generations to finish. Persistent shortfalls in funding plagued the cathedral construction project. In 1873, the trustees mortgaged the Archbishop's residence to help close the building deficit. A final fundraiser was a diocese-wide Grand Fair held in the completed but unfurnished edifice. The fair featured booths from each of the city's 45 parishes. The fair's program included advertisements from sponsors, such as Tiffany & Co. and Hecker's Self-Rising Flour. Opening night celebrations, lit by 1400 gas jets, drew more than 20,000 people, including Mayor Smith Ely and various other municipal dignitaries. Visitors paid the 25¢ admission fee and then purchased raffle tickets for donated goods in the various parish booths. Over the course of the 42-day fair, they could also visit the shrine of the Lourdes grotto or the floral pavilion created from cut flowers. The fair had attractions for all ages, including "Fish Pond" for children, a tobacco table appealing to male fairgoers, raffles with prizes such as a barrel of flour or a ton of coal at 25¢ a chance, musical entertainment, and food ranging from oysters and lobster salad to desserts. When the doors finally closed, the fair had raised more than $172,000. Not until 1910 was the debt on St. Patrick's Cathedral paid off. The long-delayed consecration, a five-hour ceremony conducted by Archbishop John Francis Farley and attended by a host of lay and ecclesiastical dignitaries including Papal Nuncio Cardinal Vannutelli, was held on October 5, 1910. Fifty thousand spectators crowded the streets around the cathedral to witness the blessing of the building.

Designed by the same firm as the Empire State Building, 245 Park Avenue replaced the 1911-built Grand Central Palace. Completed in 1967, the 48-story skyscraper has variously been called the American Tobacco Company Building, the American Brands Building, and the Bear Stearns Building (before they moved to 383 Madison Avenue). In the late 1970s, the publishing firm Doubleday was headquartered here. Today tenants include Heineken, Major League Baseball, and the asset and wealth management groups ofJ.P Morgan Chase.

24 East 54th Street was the original location of the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum or the Museum of Non-Objective Painting as it was known at its founding. These townhouses were replaced by an automobile showroom, likely in the 1920s, and in 1939 Peggy Guggenheim hired William Muschenheim to design the gallery space. The museum showcased abstract paintings by American and European artists, such as Vasily Kandinsky and Rudolf Bauer. The museum remained here until it moved to a townhouse at 1017 Fifth Avenue in 1948.

St. Patrick's Cathedral ca. 1924 James Renwick Jr., son of Professor Renwick of Columbia College and himself as an architect, was probably one of the best-equipped architects in New York to undertake the stupendous task of designing a stone cathedral in Manhattan. The construction alone extended over a period of some twenty years, and the result was a fairly competent copy of a French Gothic cathedral, adapted to American needs.

When you think of classic New York brands, you might come up with Nathan's or the Yankees before thinking of Steinway & Sons. However, the historic piano maker has deep roots in the five boroughs.

Villard Houses, ca. 1980. The Villard houses, a six-building Italian Renaissance-style brownstone development completed in 1884, was designed by architect Joseph M. Wells, for Northern Pacific Railway president Henry Villard. However, Villard's stay in his residence at No. 451 Madison would be short lived: he soon declared bankruptcy and retreated to Westchester County. In 1943, Mayor Fiorello La Guardia presided over the re-opening of the building as the Women's Military Service Club, offering inexpensive lodging to visiting service members. Most of the complex was later acquired by the Archdiocese of New York. A timely Landmark designation in 1968 saved some buildings from substantial demolition as part of the construction of the Palace Hotel, completed in 1980.

Eleanor Roosevelt was a noted human rights activist, longest-serving first lady of the United States and friend to knish lovers everywhere!

Postum Building, 1936. One of the 1920s office building additions to the Terminal City neighborhood, the Postum Building was completed in 1925. A Neoclassical building designed by the firm of Cross and Cross, it calls to mind the style of Warren & Wetmore's Terminal City creations, while lacking the more decorative elements of the earlier buildings.

Lever House, ca. 1952. Designed by the huge international firm, Skidmore, Owings & Merrill, Lever House ushered in the age of the "glass box" skyscraper (pioneered by the architects at SOM). Completed in 1952, the green-tinted glass curtain wall and elevated horizontal plaza at the base (set off the ground by columns) epitomize the International Style. At only 24 stories, Lever House is smaller than both most nearby skyscrapers as well as the large glass box commercial buildings designed by SOM since 1952. In an unusual occurrence (especially in comparison to the current real estate market), the building, instead of occupying its full zoning allowance, uses only 25 percent of the available zoning and provides open public space on part of the lot.

48th Street west across Third Avenue. The Shelton Hotel is the tall building at center, February 1, 1938.

209-211 East 48th Street, February 1, 1938. This 1934 townhouse (seen at the right) is considered the first modernist residence in New York City. Called the William Lescaze House for the architect who designed and lived in the home, the house employed the newest available technology, materials, and methods of construction.With his partner George Howe, Lescaze pioneered modernism in America, building the first International style skyscraper in the U.S. in Philadelphia in 1930. The concrete and glass home was designed to be beautiful, economical, and efficient, as per Lescaze's opinion on the merits of modernism. The structure was not an entirely new building, but the massive gut renovation, exterior redo and addition to a pre-Civil War brownstone. This house was the first recorded structure in the city to use glass blocks, an architectural feature now common in vernacular architecture.

St. Bartholomew’s Church ca. 1995 St. Bartholomew’s Church on Park Avenue and 51st street was designed by Bertram Goodhue and completed with the addition of the dome designed by Mayers, Murray, and Phillips in 1927. One of the largest congregations of the Episcopal Church, St. Bartholomew’s with its “Cross of Triumph” at 148-foot above street level, still keeps its grand scale among towering apartment buildings. The 570-ft RCA Victor Building immediately behind it has identical brick and its Gothic style crown make it appear as an extension of the church’s style and presence.

In the 1920s, not only had American women won the right to vote, but the number of women in college began to approach that of men. The majority of women college graduates planned on careers in business, the social sciences or the professions. In New York, the hotels for women constructed during the 1920s were taller and larger than their pre-War counterparts, in part because of technological advances in construction, but also due to the continued demand for housing from single women.

Allerton House ca. 1923 In the 1920s, not only had American women won the right to vote, but the number of women in college began to approach that of men. The majority of women college graduates planned on careers in business, the social sciences or the professions. In New York, the hotels for women constructed during the 1920s were taller and larger than their pre-War counterparts, in part because of technological advances in construction, but also due to the continued demand for housing from single women. The Allerton Hotel for Women, designed by Arthur Loomis Harmon and completed in 1923, is a good example of the type. Seventeen stories high, it was constructed on the corner of Lexington and 57th Street and designed to house 600 women. Described as a “Business Women’s Hotel” and “a hotel for women who think independently,” it offered a variety of public spaces—parlours, a library, a roof garden, a restaurant, and even a ballroom—as well as “up to date” amenities needed by busy self-supporting women such as a sewing room and in-house laundry. The hotel was a project of the Allerton Company, who had previously constructed several “club” hotels for men, providing “the service of a hotel, and the intimacy of a private club.

Look Building ARCHITECT: Emery Roth & Sons DATE: 1948-50 STYLE: European Modernism The 21-story Look Building dates to 1948-50, when the minimalist aesthetics of European Modernism first began to transform the character of “setback” office buildings. That this handsome mid-20th-century modern structure combines tiers of ribbon-like windows with tightly-rounded corners and setbacks clad with a white brick to create a unique and memorable silhouette.

Saks Fifth Avenue is one of the grand flagship department stores that turned Fifth Avenue in Midtown Manhattan into the city’s and the country’s premier shopping street.

Hampton Shops Building ARCHITECT: Rouse & Goldstone DATE: 1915 STYLE: Neo-Gothic Designed in the neo-Gothic or Perpendicular Gothic style, it has an 11-story tripartite facade clad with grey terracotta resembling granite. This distinctive style was chosen because not only did it complement the St. Patrick’s Cathedral complex, which the building faces, but it also evoked the kinds of traditional-style furniture that Hampton Shops sold.

New York Central Building, 1929. Considered by many the crowning achievement of Terminal City, the New York Central Building wears the honor well, with its pyramidal roof topped by a copper-clad lantern. Completed in 1929 to the designs of Warren & Wetmore (one of their final New York commissions) the headquarters for the New York Central Railroad Company stood 172.5 meters tall. The grand building was rendered in the Beaux Arts style, though by the time of its completion, architecture in the city had moved on, and many critics felt the building was retrograde (though it nicely complemented the Terminal itself). Because the building straddles Park Avenue and creates a physical (and visual) termination point of the street, the 35-story structure was designed with both pedestrian and vehicular arcades to facilitate movement through the building. The railroad sold the building in the 1950s during a period of financial woes. It was purchased in 1977 by real estate mogul Harry Helmsley and was unapologetically renamed the Helmsley Building. During the ensuing "renovation" all of the decorative details on the building, including the sculptures, were coated with a layer of gold paint. The building was sold again in 1998 (with the requirement that the name remains) and a 2002 renovation project removed the paint from the decorative brass and stone surfaces.

Racquet and Tennis Club Building ARCHITECT: McKim, Mead & White; William S. Richardson DATE: 1916-19 STYLE: Neo-Italian Renaissance The Racquet and Tennis Club Building, a superb example of the work of the architectural firm of Mckim, Mead & White, was built in 1916-18 as the third home of the Racquet and Tennis Club. Dominating the blockfront of Park Avenue between 52nd and 53rd Streets, the building is a notable essay in neo-Italian Renaissance architecture, embodying the principles of Beaux-Arts design to create a structure which is appropriate to the site and to the needs of the Racquet and Tennis Club.

430 Park Avenue, ca. 1943. Warren & Wetmore, the architects of Grand Central Terminal, designed this building for Spencer Fullerton Weaver in 1916. Originally erected as a residential development, the structure in its early years featured separate entrances at 55th and 56th Street; each entryway served as a corridor to one luxury apartment per floor. Due to development pressure and the changing neighborhood south of 57th Street, in the mid 1950s the building was stripped and converted into offices. With renovations done by the architecture firm Emery Roth & Sons, the building's original brick and limestone facade was replaced with a glass wall along its Park Avenue facing side. Between 1955 and 2012, the building hosted a Frank Lloyd Wright-designed automobile showroom. Over nearly a 60 year period, the showroom displayed the latest and greatest imported cars, including a Mercedes-Benz from 1957 to 2012.

New York Central Building (now Helmsley Building) Interior ARCHITECT: Warren & Wetmore DATE: 1927-29 STYLE: Beaux-Arts The interior survives as an integral part of the planned enclave known as Terminal City. It functions as a through-corridor between 45th and 46th Streets, and it presents an excellent example of axial Beaux-Arts planning. Construction of the lobby in between two vehicular tunnels and over double-layer railroad tracks required extraordinary engineering solutions. It reflects the railroad’s imperial prowess in its lavish appointments. The well-maintained surfaces, fixtures, elevator alcoves and cabs comprise one of the finest Beaux-Arts lobbies in New York.

St. Bartholomew's Church, ca. 1921. The parish of St. Bartholomew's Protestant Episcopal Church was founded in 1835. The congregation's first church was located on the corner of Lafayette at Great Jones Street in the neighborhood now known as NoHo. In the early 1870s, the congregation moved uptown to a new church designed by James Renwick, Jr. While in this location the church became very involved in social services, establishing six Sunday schools in five languages, a rescue mission, and a medical clinic. A new pastor in the early years of the 20th century advocated for a new church as, "a great gift of beauty to the city." In 1914 the church purchased a new plot of land at Park Avenue and 51st Street and Bertram Goodhue was hired as architect. The resulting structure was a grand edifice in a Byzantine-Romanesque style. The original design was scaled back quite a bit due to financial debts. The first mass was held in a very unfinished building in 1918 and the largely completed church was officially consecrated in 1923.

Park Avenue Malls, 1934. These patches of green were originally fenced in shrubs that were planted to obscure the view of railroad vents. From 1894 until 1920, the Park Avenue Association formed a coalition that would totally cover the unsightly vents and eventually receive funding from private donors to plant over 7,000 trees in the malls. Flowers were added to the narrow plots by 1946. In 1969, the Parks Department hired landscape architect Clara Coffey to redesign the malls. She removed the fencing and tall hedges which disrupted the view of the well-maintained little gardens, which no longer hid subway vents. Today, the Carnegie Hill Neighbors and Fund for Park Avenue maintain the Mall and host an annual tree lighting ceremony at its intersection with 91st Street.

Intersection of East 46th Street and Lexington Avenue, March 2, 1917. The building seen at left is the Grand Central Palace. Designed by the team of associated architects that created Grand Central Terminal (Warren and Wetmore and Reed and Stem) the Palace was an 13-story exhibition hall completed in 1911. It replaced the the 1893 Grand Central Palace which at Lexington Avenue between 43rd and 44th Streets had to be demolished for the new train station. The 1911 Beaux-Arts building hosted large-scale events and exhibitions, including auto, boat, flower, and trade shows on its lower three floors. In 1911 the First Industrial Aeroplane Show, the first time most New Yorkers had ever seen a plane, was presented at the Palace. It was also the home of the Westminster Dog Show for many years. The upper floors were leased as offices. The final exhibitions were installed in 1953 and a decade later the building was demolished, two years before the Landmarks Law was passed. The replacing building was the 44-story 245 Park Avenue.

View north along the east side of Lexington Avenue toward 49th Street, October 20, 1915.

"135, 137 and 139-141 East 55th Street (left to right), at, adjoining and east of the N.E. corner of Lexington Ave., showing the International Medical Centre (formerly the Babies Hospital); a four story residence and the American Music Hall (formerly the Swedish Baptist Church). September 18, 1937."

Alma Gluck-Zimbalist Residence, 1927. With the carved stone violin and singing angel that sits above the entrance, this double lot home is marked as the residence of musicians. Constructed in 1926 the Tudor style house was home to Efrem Zimbalist, a famous violinist, and his equally famous opera singer wife, Alma. The house served as the NYPD 17th Precinct station house for a time in the 1950s before being divided into rental apartments.

Roger Horne, a Mohawk ironworker, grasping a rope in each hand and looking upward on a construction site at Park Avenue and 53rd Street in New York City. 1970 - 1971. David Grant Noble photographs. Courtesy of the National American Indian Memorial.

Hotel Barclay, 1928. Opened in 1926 as a residential hotel, the Barclay was designed by the architectural firm of Cross & Cross. Right in the center of the hustle of Terminal City (the lobby had a ticket booth for rail travel) the hotel was luxurious and popular among the glamorous social circles of the city. Between 1939 and 1962 the Cornell Club was headquartered in this building. The hotel was purchased by the InterContinental Hotel Group in 1978 and has seen a number of renovations in the last 40 years. The most recent renovation of the now named InterContinental New York Barclay Hotel was completed in 2016. Between 1926 and 2010 when the hotel closed briefly for renovation, it hosted the flagship location of Caswell Massey, the oldest apothecary and perfumery in the country (established 1752).

Waldorf Astoria Hotel, 1931. Originally two separate 19th century hotels that become one, on the land later occupied by the Empire State Building in the 1930s, the Waldorf Astoria Hotel opened its doors at 50th Street and Park Avenue in 1931. At the time it was the tallest and largest hotel in the world. President Hoover mentioned the hotel in a White House address, saying, "The opening of the new Waldorf Astoria ... marks the measure of nation's growth in power, in comfort, and in artistry." Built on the plot of land previously occupied by the New York Central Railroad powerhouse, the 47-story Art Deco building was designed by architects Schultze and Weaver. The main hotel occupied the lower 20-floors, while the central twin Waldorf Towers (topped with bronze-clad cupolas) were designed for 100 suites, with a portion of them leased as long term residences. Famous tenants of the building have included Herbert Hoover, General Douglas MacArthur, Bugsy Siegel, Lucky Luciano, and Cole Porter.

The F.M. Schaeffer Brewing Company was the longest operating brewery in New York City and the oldest lager beer company in the United States. It was officially founded in 1842 by two brothers who had immigrated from Wetzler, Prussia, Germany to NYC and brought with them the recipe to a popular lager beer from their hometown. Lager beer was unheard of in America at this time but thanks to the Schaeffer brothers, quickly became the beer of choice for New Yorkers and East Coast Americans. Their headquarters and brewing facilities remained in the city for over a century, and they were the last brewing company to operate in New York until the late 1970s. Their locations include Seventh Avenue and 17th Street (present-day Barneys!) where they stayed briefly and later moved to Park Ave from 50th to 52nd Street. They remained in their Park Avenue location until the early 20th century. They then moved to Kent Avenue in Brooklyn, where they remained until officially closing their New York plants in 1976. Today, Schaeffer Beer is owned by the Pabst Company, who still brew Schaeffer beer under the Miller Company to this day.

Saks Fifth Avenue ARCHITECT: Starrett & Van Vleck DATE: 1922-24 STYLE: Neo-Renaissance Saks Fifth Avenue is one of the grand flagship department stores that turned Fifth Avenue in Midtown Manhattan into the city’s and the country’s premier shopping street. Designed by department store specialists Starrett & Van Vleck and built in 1922-24, Saks had to conform both to the conservative impulse to harmonize with the architectural character of Fifth Avenue, as promulgated by the Fifth Avenue Association, and to the modern requirements of an up-to-the-minute luxury department store, as well as to the new zoning law of New York which mandated upper floors to be progressively set back from the lot-line. The resulting design was a handsome, but restrained and dignified neo-Renaissance style retail palazzo, with its administrative offices occupying the less visible setback stories above the seventh floor.

Summit Hotel, undated postcard. The Summit Hotel (completed 1961) was the first major New York project for architect Morris Lapidus. Known for his oversized and somewhat garish Miami hotels (the Fontainebleau Hotel, particularly), Lapidus introduced a new type of building geometry to the staid rectangular forms of midtown. The 51st Street frontage is rendered as a subtle curve, with a uniform facade pattern of windows tucked between protruding white-brick masonry. Architectural critic Ada Louise Huxtable said of the hotel: ''The Summit is a glittering display of gaudy confusion...\[m]osaics, marbles, woods, enamels, fabrics, synthetics, colors and crafts have been poured forth and combined with profligate abandon and aggressive insensitivity.'' Others have described it as jolly and welcome surprise among the city's grid. The architect himself noted many years after its completion that it was the "most hated" hotel in the city. But despite its scorn, it can be credited with—if not directly inspiring other eclectic building— at least laying the foundation for later experiments in architectural geometry. The hotel has changed hands a number of times in the last few decades and has had extensive alterations. Today it is the DoubleTree by Hilton Hotel Metropolitan. While many of the more ostentatious features have been removed or toned down, the groovy eight-story sign on the Lexington Avenue facade, which now spells out Doubleday on its oval protrusions, remains.

General Electric Building ARCHITECT: Cross & Cross DATE: 1929-31 STYLE: Art Deco Designed by the firm of Cross & Cross in the Gothic mode of the Art Deco style which is both symbolic and expressive of the function of the building, this tower is a major example of Art Deco architecture. The massing and articulation of the building, shown through the use of ornament and color, is remarkable and laudable. Not only does this treatment illustrate the breadth of the Art Deco, but it also gives the General Electric Building exemplary status. Moreover, the building is the successful culmination of the Cross & Cross firm’s efforts to develop a coherent and cohesive articulation for tall office buildings.

LOOK Building, October 26, 1951. Completed in 1950, the Look Building set a new standard for minimalist Modern office buildings. Needing to comply with zoning codes regarding setbacks, the 21-story structure renders those setback through uniform rows of windows and white brick, with tightly-curved corners. Its massing and setbacks give it a wedding-cake-like silhouette similar to a number of other Modern buildings in the city, namely the Starrett Lehigh Building. Designed by the firm of Emery Roth & Sons (by then led by the sons, as Roth died in 1948), the project was developed by Uris Brothers (also a second generation firm). According to the LPC Designation Report, "built on speculation, the Look Building needed to be fashionable, practical, and profitable." And the project was just that. Early tenants included the firm that designed it, famed industrial designer Raymond Loewry, and a number of publishers and magazines, including the eponymous publication, Look (much to the chagrin of fellow tenant Esquire). Today the building's tenants include the Municipal Arts Society.

Lexington Avenue between East 51st and 52nd Streets, February 18, 1915. At center left is the Lexington Avenue Methodist Episcopal Church, built in 1861. In 1937, the historically Swedish congregation moved to a new sanctuary on East 62nd Street, known as the Lexington United Methodist Church.

St. Bartholomew's Church ca. 1926 When the new Saint Bartholomew's was built in early twentieth century, the handsome entrances, designed in 1902 for the earlier church, were moved from Madison Avenue and incorporated in the new structure. They were inspired by the Romanesque Church of Saint Giles at Arles, France, and blended singularly well with the Byzantine splendor of the new edifice. The tower of the General Electric Building, which rises directly behind Saint Bartholomew's, used the same warm-colored brick as the church to harmonize with it- a farsighted bit of planning rarely encountered today

Lever House STATUS Designated Individual Landmark 390 Park Avenue ARCHITECT: Skidmore, Owings & Merrill; Gordon Bunshaft DATE: 1950-52 STYLE: International Lever House is a 24-story glass and stainless steel clad office building composed of a vertical slab rising above a horizontal base. Its construction in 1950-52 heralded the beginning of a new wave of American skyscraper construction and a new synthesis of modernist architectural ideals. Since the time of its completion, its crystalline forms and glazed curtain walls have attracted world attention. It has assumed a major role in the literature of modern architecture and has been widely recognized as a key monument in the evolution of the International style.

Beverly Hotel (now The Benjamin) ARCHITECT: Emery Roth DATE: 1926-27 STYLE: Romanesque Above a handsome two-story arcaded limestone base (largely reconstructed) the upper stories of grayish-brown brick terminate in a series of skillfully modeled setbacks that rise toward a lofty octagonal tower with wheel windows that is topped by a pavilion with tile roof and copper finial. The Beverly Hotel is richly ornamented with stylized Romanesque motifs and incorporates details such as pelican and owl sculptures and warrior-head corbels.

Towers of the Waldorf Astoria in the Midtown Manhattan skyline, ca. 1935.

Waldorf-Astoria Hotel ARCHITECT: Schultze & Weaver; Lloyd Morgan DATE: 1929-31 STYLE: Art Deco, Skyscraper, Hotel This building combined a transient hotel and a related but separate residential tower into a 625-foot-high skyscraper, one of the city’s tallest at the time, located in the major new skyscraper office building district developing around Park Avenue near Grand Central Terminal. The architect of the hotel and towers, Lloyd Morgan of the firm of Schultze & Weaver, designed the complex in a sedate but handsome version of the modernistic style now generally referred to as Art Deco, adapting the skyscraper form and an up-to-date look to a conservative traditional establishment.

Racquet and Tennis Club and the Seagram Building, ca. 1975. The Seagram Building, seen here at center, is a 1958 skyscraper that was built for the Seagram liquor company. The building was designed by German-born architect Ludwig Mies van der Rohe (who was once director of the Bauhaus, the art school which greatly influenced modern art, architecture, and design). Considered an icon of modernism, the simple, straightforward design of glass and metal, highlighted minimalist geometries and the underlying shape of the structure, without added ornamentation. From 1959 until 2016, the Seagram Building was also the home of the Four Seasons Restaurant, the bastion of mid century modern design, Americanized fine dining, and the power lunch.

Central Synagogue ARCHITECT: Henry Fernbach DATE: 1871-72 STYLE: Moorish Revival Central Synagogue is the oldest Jewish House of Worship in continuous service in the State of New York. Although the plan is Gothic in its arrangement, this stone Temple is our finest extant example of the Moorish Revival style in New York City. Dominating the East elevation are two striking octagonal towers, surmounted by globe-shaped domes enhanced by the patina of age. A prominent design element of this imposing facade is the largo handsomely enframed and geometrically constructed circular window, centered in the well decorated front wall which connects the two towers.

Racquet and Tennis Club ca. 1975 This very fine adaptation of a Florentine palazzo was the work of McKim, Mead & White. Although it contains all the indoor facilities of a modern American athletic club it is a handsome addition to the broad thoroughfare of Park Avenue. Despite the fact that it is low, it is completely in scale with its contemporaries and with the giants that today surround it.

231 East 47th Street, later the site of Andy Warhol's first "Factory," September 23, 1947. In 1963, as his Pop Art works began to gain traction, Andy Warhol rented a large studio space on 47th Street for an annual rent of $100. Sometimes described as the "Silver Factory" for its tin foil and paint decor, Warhol's fourth floor loft became a fashionable performance space, production studio, and party venue for the artist and his acolytes, known as the Warhol superstars. The Factory moved to a new downtown space in 1968, with the "Silver Factory" building slated for demolition.

Saks Fifth Avenue, ca. 1953. Designed by architects Ernest Alan Van Vleck and Goldwin Starrett, the Saks Fifth Avenue building was the first major department store in NYC to be designated a landmark. When Saks opened in the building 1924, an article in The New York Times said the store was ''the most modern and up-to- date building of its kind in the world,'' and that it marked ''the opening of a new shopping centre on upper Fifth Avenue.'' Saks Fifth Avenue was also one of the first flagship stores to conduct unveiling events for window displays. Using hydraulic lifts, the festive decorations were constructed in a sub-basement out of public view. Once ready, the displays were raised to street-level overnight for a dramatic unveiling.

Morris Sanders Studio and Apartment, April 26, 1940. Though not the first Modernist house in New York City (that honor belongs to the Lescaze House), the Morris Sanders Studio and Apartment is considered the second residence in the city to adapt the aesthetic principles pioneered by Le Corbusier and the European modernists. Designed by architect Sanders between 1934 and 1935, for his own use, the home certainly was eye-catching on a block of 19th century rowhouses. Unlike the Lescaze House, which altered an existing structure, this five and half story home was a completely new building. Lacking in ornamentation, with the upper floors looming over the set back ground level, and clad in glossy blue tile and glass blocks, the home was (perhaps surprisingly) well received. The Architectural League of New York City awarded it their highest prize in 1935 for domestic architecture and national and international architecture publications lauded it. The Architectural Forum wrote of how it rose “abruptly from a stodgy row of brown-faced houses, interrupting with brutal finality the orderly sequence of uniform facades." (They meant it as a compliment!)

Destroyed trolley after an explosion near the Grand Central Terminal Powerhouse at 50th Street between Park and Lexington Avenues, December 1910. On December 19, 1910 an explosion at the New York Central Railroad's Sub Station killed 13 people and injured dozens of others. At 8:22 A.M. the massive explosion (likely two blasts, one from a gas issue and one from the dynamite kept in the still-being completed powerhouse) rocked the area. The blast threw up brick, stones, beams, and other building materials, tossing them hundreds of feet. Windows in the area were blown out and a passing trolley felt the brunt of the force, killing at least four passengers.

William and Helen Ziegler, Jr. House ARCHITECT: William L. Bottomley DATE: 1921-27 STYLE: Neo-Georgian The Ziegler House, quite substantial at four-and-a-half stories (plus basement) in height and thirty-seven-and-a-half feet in width, has a beautifully detailed, symmetrical three-bay front facade. Bottomley successfully and creatively adapted an elegant neo-Georgian style design to an urban townhouse. Among its notable features are the Flemish bond brickwork with burnt headers, splayed lintels, and end quoins. The entrance with a bowed-arched pediment; multi-pane wood sash windows and paneled shutters. The modillioned cornice; the steeply-pitched, grey slate-covered roof with dormers and end chimneys; and the wrought-iron fence with brick piers at the sidewalk line.

Villard Houses ca. 1980 This great complex of town houses surrounding a central court yard was designed by Joseph M. Wells for McKim, Mead, & White in the manner of an early sixteenth-century Italian palazzo. By far the most beautiful feature of this block of residences is the interior decoration of Henry Villard's own house on the south side of the courtyard.

Subway construction at East 46th Street and Lexington Avenue, September 14, 1917.