St. Regis Hotel ARCHITECT: Trowbridge & Livingston DATE: 1901-04 STYLE: Beaux-Arts, Hotel The St. Regis Hotel is one of the most elegant and sophisticated Beaux-Arts style buildings in New York. Among the oldest of the early “skyscraper” hotels, it rises nineteen stories above the intersection of Fifth Avenue and East 55th Street. Begun in 1901, it was designed as the city’s most luxurious hotel by the firm of Trowbridge & Livingston. The st. Regis was commissioned by John Jacob Astor whose family had built the city’s first luxury hotel, the Astor House of 1836. The St. Regis is still one of the most important buildings on Fifth Avenue, contributing to the avenue’s fashionable character, reminding us all of its extraordinarily rich past.

17 East 57th Street, 1907. Squished between two larger homes, the Stephen O. Lockwood house was a mere 16 feet wide. The buildings at nos. 13. 15, and 17 were constructed as a trio of homes (one double wide and two narrow at the ends) in the early 1870s by Sidney W. Hopkins, a highly successful iron dealer. Designed by Arthur Gilman, the three separate homes were all created in a French style to look like a single, exceedingly wide mansion. By 1907 when this image was captured, no. 15 the wide, middle structure, had been altered with a limestone, English style facade, causing the narrow, still-mansard-roofed nos. 13 and 17 to look extra squeezed. The home was demolished, along with its neighbors, in 1923 for a new (and now long longer standing) building developed by William Randolph Hearst.

We're asking New Yorkers where they tied the knot and mapping their answers! Add yours to the list by emailing us at team@urbanarchive.nyc. ❤️

The corner of 56th Street and 5th Avenue (seen here at right) has been occupied by a series of grand, iconic, and now somewhat infamous buildings. The 19th-century buildings seen in this photograph at 725 Fifth Avenue were a series of private townhouses constructed by William Waldorf Astor between 1889 and 1898. In 1911 they were converted to commercial properties. The Harlow Gallery, which in 1920 hosted an exhibition of English sporting prints, occupied one of the spaces.

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.

58th Street Branch, July 8, 1928. Designed by Carrère and Hastings and opened May 10, 1907, the 58th Street Branch looks very different today. The original wide library building was demolished in the 1960s and was replaced in 1969 by a new branch in the lower floors of an office tower at the same location.

Gnome Products Building roof, 1933. Following a facade and storefront redesign in the early 1930s, the building at 316 East 59th Street because the fairytale-esque 'Home of the Gnomes." The bakery, which sold bread (often in unique shapes) used nearly every inch of their building as advertising. The gnome sitting on the roof, chomping on a bread roll, was best viewed from the entrance roadway to the Queensboro Bridge. Alas the rooftop gnome was removed by 1935 after the business was taken over by new owners and converted from a retail to an industrial bakery.

The department store remained one of Manhattan's most popular stores for the next few decades. Beginning in the late 1950s the store's popularity began to decline and after a number of corporate takeover the store closed in 1979. The building was purchased by the Trump Organization and demolition began in 1980. Donald Trump promised the limestone relief panels of the naked women to the sculpture department of the Metropolitan Museum of Art (seen in this 1925 at near the top of the facade) on the condition that they were removable. Without even attempting to remove them in one piece, the construction workers broke them up with jackhammers. Trump was admonished by the New York Times, who said “Evidently, New York needs to make salvation of this kind of landmark mandatory and stop expecting that its developers will be good citizens and good sports.” The Trump Organization responded by saying that the panels had "no artistic merit." Today Trump Tower occupies this corner.

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. Regis Hotel ca. 1905 If one had sought out the most handsomely decorated hotel in Manhattan in the early nineteen-hundreds, one might well have turned to the new St. Regis, where rich marbles, bronze, and wood were displayed in a series of splendid salons, corridors, and suites designed by the firm of Trowbridge & Livingston. Today these glowing bronze doors still greet the visitor on arrival.

New York is a city built on the labor of its people. This story captures a glimpse inside training spaces and workplaces of days past, many of which you'd be hard-pressed to find today.

47 East 60th Street, 1922. The Grolier Club is the oldest existing bibliophilic (a fancy way of saying literary) club in North America. Founded in 1884, they have occupied three locations in their history. In 1917 the club moved into this neo-Georgian townhouse designed for them by famed architect Bertram Grosvenor Goodhue. Unsurprisingly, the building's interiors were designed to prominently display their book collections.

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.

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.

"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.

521 Park Avenue, 1930. The apartment building at no. 521 was constructed in 1911, and designed by architect William Boring, who is best known for the Immigration Station on Ellis Island. In 1913 the 12-story building was awarded an honorable mention by the New York Chapter of the American Institute of Architects. Its decorative metal balconies (some which run the width of the building, and others considerably shorter) have been preserved.

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.

Ritz Tower ARCHITECT: Emery Roth; Thomas Hastings DATE: 1925-27 STYLE: Classical-inspired Designed by the inventive and prolific architect Emery Roth, who was responsible for many luxury apartment buildings throughout Manhattan, the Ritz Tower was intended to be the ne plus ultra of apartment living. Thomas Hastings, the surviving partner of the prominent architectural firm of Carrere & Hastings helped to create the Classical-inspired design. At the time of its construction, the Ritz Tower was the tallest residential building in New York, with panoramic views in all directions. The lower floors, which are more easily visible from the street, are enriched by highly sculptural ornament, including putti, urns and rusticated stone. Each setback of the tower is marked by pilasters, pediments and balustrades and is highlighted by large stone fleches which carry the viewer’s eye upward along the building’s height. The tower, crowned by a pyramidal roof with a tall obelisk, further increases the sense of height which was such an important factor when the building was constructed.

“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.

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.

625 Madison Avenue was first constructed as a 10-story building in 1930 by the firm of Sloan and Robertson. In 1956 the building was rebuilt with an additional six stories and an International style facade. In 1987, architect Der Scutt (who also designed Trump Tower) reclad the building with dark, tri-color glass. In the 1970s one of the tenents of the building was Viking Press, and it was here that Jackie O. began her publishing career following the death of the second husband.

Fuller Building, 41 East 57th Street, ca. 1995. The Fuller Building, constructed in 1929 for the Fuller Construction Company, which had previously been based in the Flatiron Building. The New York Times dubbed the 40-story Art Deco skyscraper a “jazz-age testament to the emerging commercial chic of 57th street.” Designed by the architectural firm Walker & Gillette, the building features rich bronze, marble, and mosaic details, as well as abstract sculptures by Elie Nadelman on both its interior and exterior.

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.

In 1929 the Stewart & Company woman's department store building opened. Designed by Warren and Wetmore, the firm who designed Grand Central Terminal, this building was somewhat of a departure for the firm, whose work was usually firmly entrenched in a very traditional Beaux-Arts style. A massive retail addition to a growing commercial neighborhood, the hulking exterior was somewhat unadorned except for a detailed entranceway of limestone, bronze, platinum, and hammered aluminum and near the top of the facade, limestone relief panels of two nearly naked women. The interior was laid out as a series of shops, fashioned in a myriad of rich and exotic woods and plush modern furniture.

There's no place like NYC for the holidays! From iconic window displays to synchronized light and sound shows, this walk will guide you through the history of a festive city tradition that dates back to the 1870s.

Church of St. John the Evangelist ca. 1928 Philip DiFalco constructed this model of an East Side parish church over a period of years while he lived at 304 East 59th Street with his father and sisters. The Church of St. John the Evangelist stood at First Avenue and 55th Street from 1881 into the 1970s. The parish had been founded in 1840, on East 50th Street. News coverage of the church's dedication noted that the edifice was 14th-century Gothic in style designed by architect Arthur Crooks, with a campanile tower on the north end and 18 large stained glass windows imported from Munich.

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.

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."

731 Lexington Avenue, at the southeast corner of East 59th Street; November 8, 1935. Sometimes referred to as Bloomberg Tower, this building is the headquarters of Bloomberg L.P. The complex, a 55-story tower on a 27-story base of offices, was built on the former site of the Alexander’s Department Store.

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.

Gnome Products Building, ca. 1935. The bakery at no. 316, right next to the Queensboro Bridge entrance, entered the city directories in 1932. By the next year, the building was in the midst of a major renovation. In the 1920s and 1930s, with the rise of large chain and department stores, many smaller businesses aimed to standout in the streetscape by shaking up storefront design. Here the architects created a new storefront, new steeply pitched roofs, and a third story. The new look included dramatic signage that announced the building as 'Home of the Gnomes," a multipaned storefront and, of course, some painted gnomes dancing around a stalk of wheat on numerous exterior walls. The figure of a giant gnome leaning against the chimney eating a loaf of bread (mentioned in some of the articles about the building) seems to have already been removed by the time of this circa 1935 photograph. Described as a ''a Hansel and Gretel cottage," the look didn't last long. The retail bakery went bankrupt within its first few years and the next business owner (Gnome Bakers, an industrial bakery) supposedly replaced the ground level shop with a truck bay. Later used by a framer, an exterminator, and a kitchen furnishings store, the building has been converted into a quirky private residence (sans any exterior gnome imagery, unfortunately).

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!

Bloomingdale's, ca. 1995. The classic holiday windows at Bloomingdale's have drawn in crowds of locals and tourists from around the world for decades. Their decorative windows are typically unveiled just before Black Friday so that they can be viewed by holiday shoppers throughout the season.

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.

Elizabeth Arden Building, 689-691 Fifth Avenue, ca. 1977. Formerly the Aeolian Building, now the Elizabeth Arden Building, 689 Fifth Avenue was constructed in 1925-27 by Warren & Wetmore for the Gould Realty Co. Designed by the same firm that built Grand Central Terminal, this 14-story French Renaissance structure was leased to the Aeolian Company, a top manufacturer of pianos and roll-operated instruments, until 1938. During that time, the company maintained a 150-seat recital hall on its second floor. Since Aelion's departure, 689 Fifth Avenue has served as the flagship location of Elizabeth Arden’s Red Door Salon. In 1970, the building set a retail leasing record when Gucci agreed to pay $100 per square foot for retail space in the corner store.

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.

Hotel Delmonico, 1937. Built in 1927, this 32-story neo-Renaissance building struggled through its early years, cycling through owners and names. First called the Cromwell Arms, the building became the Delmonico in September 1928 and was sold by its owners in foreclosure less than six months later, The name stuck, though. The hotel changed a hands a few more times, becoming a hangout for the social elite in the 1960s and a luxury apartment building in the mid 1970s. The building, once again a hotel, was purchased in 2001 by Donald Trump for $115 million. Today the building is a condo called the Trump Park Avenue.

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 East 54th Street Baths opened in 1911 with 79 showers for men and 59 for women. In 1895 a New York State passed a law requiring that cities over 50,000 provided free public bathhouses. In the era of cramped tenement living (with no indoor plumbing), this socially progressive initiative allowed the city's working class a free sanitary facility. The neo-classical building also housed recreation activities such as a pool, gymnasium, jogging track, and basketball court. Despite its very functional purpose, the building featured unique and decorative interior and exterior details, including Guastavino tile vaulted ceilings and colorful brickwork patterns on the facade. Originally under the control of a newly formed city agency called the Public Recreation Commission, the baths and recreation center are now under the auspices of the Parks Department. And though the need for free public showers has changed, the building still houses recreational and athletic activities.

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.

Durand-Ruel Gallery ca. 1913 When one thinks of the Impressionist paintings in New York, whether it be Degas, Monet, or Pissaro, one is more likely to think of the Met before a little gallery on 57th Street. However, the building in this photo was extremely important in introducing this painting style to Americans. As 57th Street became less and less residential at the turn of the century, art galleries began to spring up in place of homes. Few of these were more prominent than the Durand-Ruel Gallery, which first opened in Paris in the early 19th century and made its way to New York in 1887. Taking the place of the Morris Mansion, the Durand-Ruel family contracted Carrere & Hastings to build a French Renaissance building eight stories tall on 57th Street in 1913. The building served as both a gallery to present their art as well a residence for the family, on the floors above the gallery space. The gallery would go on to be a success, and it held a series of shows that helped familiarize New York collectors with Impressionist paintings. The Durand-Ruel Gallery left the space in 1950, and, in the 1980s, it was demolished for the construction of the IBM building.

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.

Cadillc Salon, 1927. This ornately designed showroom was constructed in 1918 for the Fleetwood Metal Body Company. Fleetwood, established in the first decade of the 20th century in Pennsylvania, manufactured high end (and colorful) automobile bodies. These products were favored by a number of the rich and famous. The two-story Mediterranean-inspired building fit in well with its elaborate and fanciful mansion neighbors. In 1925 General Motors bought our Fleetwood and the 57th Street showroom had its facade altered to read Cadillac Salon, for one of GM's premier models. Eventually the Fleetwood bodies and the Cadillac chassis they were attached to, once displayed here, were replaced by other GM models. The car showroom likely moved out prior to the mid 1960s when GM built their new headquarters on Fifth Avenue. Today the lot that once housed the fancy car showroom is part of the massive IBM Building at 590 Madison Avenue.

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.

Aeolian Building ARCHITECT: Warren & Wetmore DATE: 1925-27 STYLE: Neo-Classical The Aeolian Building was constructed to the design of architects Warren & Wetmore, a firm best known for its designs for hotels and railroad-related buildings. Designed in a restrained and graceful neo-Classical style with French Renaissance style detailing, the Aeolian Building is clad in Indiana limestone with Italian marble spandrel panels, and buff-colored terracotta on the upper portion.

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.

Fuller Building ARCHITECT: Walker & Gillette DATE: 1928-29 STYLE: Art Deco The first floor of the Fuller Building is an elegant Art Deco public space. The Fuller Building was built to be the headquarters of one of the largest and most important construction firms in America, the George A. Fuller Company. The interior’s stylized classical motifs joined to modernistic geometric patterns continue the Art Deco design of the building’s exterior. The design is elegantly executed in bronze and marble, and it includes depictions of the Fuller Company’s major works and images of the construction trades, promoting the Fuller Company’s premier role in the industry.

Ritz Tower ca. 1925 The luxury hotel and apartment building known as Ritz Tower was the world's tallest residential building at its opening in 1926 at 540 feet. The arrival of such a large apartment building signaled the style and glamour that had begun to be associated with living in apartments on Park Avenue. Developed by Arthur Brisbane, the building served as apartment hotel with richly appointed public rooms and restaurants on the lower floors. The famous name associated with the tower stemmed from these rooms, the Ritz-Carlton Company,having been hired by Brisbane, to provide services to the building and manage the lower floors. Its architects Emery Roth and Thomas Hasting were responsible for its classical design merging a steel frame with limestone, terra-cotta and a decorative style. The terraced levels of the tower both drawing the viewers eye upward as well as providing beautiful spaces for its inhabitants. Brisbane eventually sold the building to William Randolph Hearst who in turn sold it to the Sonnabend Hotel chain in the 1950s, whereupon it was converted to a co-op.

"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."

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.

The Queensboro Bridge, viewed from East 60th Street underneath the tracks of the Second Avenue El, 1937.

My Archive Summer 2019 “I was a Fiorucci addict from 1977-87, in whatever city I was in if there was a Fiorucci, I shopped it. I love the NYC store, and once when I was there I noticed the live model in the window and snapped some exterior shots and some from the inside behind the model. I prefer the indoor photos as I like the people's reactions to her and the wardrobe, reflective of the era. I love the twins in their matching outfits and the man with his hands in his pockets who just might be looking at me.” —Meredith Marciano

Todhunter Fireplaces and Lighting, date unknown. In 1927 Arthur Todhunter purchased the former upscale home at 119 East 57th Street and renovated the building for use a a showroom for this business. Todhunter, Inc. imported European antique architectural items, such as fireplaces, mantles, hardware and lighting features. Later he would also move into the business of manufacturing and selling architectural reproductions. Swept up in the popular fad for old English architecture, the facade was transformed into something the New York Times described as, "late sixteenth century England transported to the heart of New York’s shopping district.” Much of the ornamentation and materials, unsurprisingly, given the business of the owner, were recovered from older European structures and reused here. Todhunter only remained in the building he had worked to create for a little over a decade. Between 1939 and 1973 tenants included a number of galleries, a furniture store, offices of theatrical producers, and a literary auction firm. In 1973 the eye-catching building was razed for a large, modern apartment building.

No. 26 East 55th Street (left), ca. 1915. Between 1945-1955, the venerably Hugo Gallery was located in this townhouse. In the late 1940s, gallerist Alexander Iolas exhibited works from surrealist painters, including Rene Magritte. In 1952, the gallery mounted a young Andy Warhol's first solo exhibition, entitled "Fifteen Drawings Based on the Writings of Truman Capote."

Arion Hall, ca. 1908. Founded in 1854 to promote "the perpetuation of love for some of the characteristic elements of German civilization," the Arion Society was a musical group that built this headquarters in 1886-1887. The grand pile was an Italian Renaissance style building with stone balconies, two sculptural groupings at the roofline, Guastavino-tiled arches inside that created huge vaulted spaces, a German beer hall, and a ballroom with seating for 500. While the society was successful through the end of the 19th century, performing at the White House and hosting international statesmen, they ran into trouble by the entry of the U.S into the Great War. When asked to sign a “pledge of loyalty to President Wilson," along with other German societies, the Arions refused. Their response was, “we regard the invitation to sign as a doubt of our loyalty and therefore an insult.” Soon after, a member refused to play the Star-Spangled Banner during a classical concert. (The conductor stated it was not a un-American sentiment, but that the song is "decidedly unclassical and did not fit in with the programme.") These actions proved the death knell for the society. They sold the clubhouse within weeks to the brewer George Ehret, and the interior furnishings were sold at public auction. The later history of the building is strange and varied. It served as the Anderson Galleries, home to art dealers, agents, and appraisers. Then it was empty between 1931 and 1946 before opening the Park Avenue Theater, a “unique and artistic movie house designed to meet the needs of a subscription clientele.” By 1957 the building had a bank, an auto salesroom, and a dance studio. Then it became the Chapel of Saints Faith, Hope, and Charity, an annex of St. Patricks's. Finally, in the late 1970s, the diocese sold the building, and the new owner razed the four-story building for a sleek new office building completed in 1981.

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.

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.

In the spring of 1930 Stewart and Company filled for bankruptcy and went out of business, a victim of the Depression and over extending the resources of what was a small company. In the fall of that year the building was reopened as the Bonwit Teller department store, another woman's retailer. The company hired Ely Jacques Kahn to redesign the interiors and entranceway. Out went the rich detailed interior of exotic woods and the jewel box of a entrance. Kahn replaced the doorway with a corporate Art Deco look of repeating pattern pressed metal grate and plain glass. The store would go on to hire Salvador Dali to design a series of Surrealist window displays for the 1936-1937 holiday season.

"Mr. Himmel from the New York Association for the Blind, 111 East 59th Street, standing outside with his seeing-eye dog, 1929." The New York Association for the Blind was established in 1906 and offered home counseling and instructional programs for the visually impaired. Today the organization is called Lighthouse Guild International and is headquartered at 15 West 65th Street.

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.

St. Regis Hotel ca. 1907 John Jacob Astor conceived of the St. Regis Hotel as a companion to the original Waldorf-Astoria Hotel. While the Waldorf-Astoria was successful, its neighborhood was waning in social value. Astor decided that he was going to build a hotel that would match the best of Europe in elegance and luxury. Buying land on East 55th Street and Fifth Avenue, Astor intended the St. Regis to be sited in the most elegant part of town. Astor hired the architecture firm Trowbridge and Livingston. The architects designed a Beaux-Arts 18 story hotel that would be one of the first of New York's skyscraper tower hotels. However, it was met with controversy from the moment construction began in 1901. The land Astor had bought was in the midst of rows of mansions owned by the Vanderbilts and other wealthy New Yorkers. The St. Regis would tower over their homes and make their chic neighborhood into a new hub. The St. Regis' neighbors used their influence to delay as much as possible. First, the Board of Buildings discovered that the hotel wasn't fireproofed properly, which put a halt to construction. Next, the neighbors sued due to the blasting necessary for the hotel's foundations, however, the courts ruled against them. Finally, the neighbors found that the St. Regis violated a New York liquor statute due to its proximity to St. Thomas. The statute made it illegal to obtain a liquor license if you were within 200 feet of a church. The St. Regis was able to prevail in court by maintaining that their front entrance was far away enough not to violate the statue. The St. Regis was completed and opened on September 4th, 1904. Some estimates claim it cost a (staggering for the time) 5.5 million dollars. The rooms were fully modern with everything from telephones to heat to electric lighting. However, the fight was still not over. The liquor law also demanded the St. Regis needed permission from two-thirds of their neighbors in order to approve the liquor license. In 1904, William Rockefeller quickly bought a neighboring mansion in order to use it to revoke the St. Regis's license. However, J.J. Astor immediately bought another to support it. Stories in the newspaper were placed to smear the hotel's reputation, but high profile visits from the Roosevelts and the Japanese Imperial family helped bolster it. Finally, friends of J.J. Astor's in the New York Senate pushed through an amendment to the liquor law that exempted hotels with more than 200 rooms. The new law left the St. Regis and J.J Astor victorious. However, Astor was not to enjoy the St. Regis's success for long, dying in 1912 aboard the Titanic. His son Vincent would sell the St. Regis to the Duke's Durham Realty company, who expanded it by adding another wing. However, during the great depression, Vincent bought it back for a song and invested money into bringing it back to its former glory (including installing the Old King Cole Mural from the Knickerbocker Hotel.) Since then it has been restored and remodeled a number of times. In 1988, it was closed for three years as Sheraton did a full restoration. Similarly, Starwood would renovate the hotel again in 2014.

When the Vanderbilts, Astors, and Rockefellers moved uptown, the hotels quickly followed. The gravitational shift of New York's social scene meant that prestigious hotels like the Waldorf-Astoria were no longer in the thick of it. However, developers are never too far behind a trend and soon some of the world's most luxurious hotels sprouted next to the mansions of Fifth Avenue.

Bonwit Teller. Display windows, ca. 1940.

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.

In 1928 the townhouses that once occupied this corner were demolished prior to the construction of the 12-story Stewart and Company department store building.

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.

316 East 59th Street ca. 1935 The Gnome Products Company was a two story shop for “unusual bread and rolls” at 316 East 59th Street near the Queensboro bridge ramp. Renovated in 1933 by the American Architects Adams & Prentice, the building has a cottage charm complete with slanting pitched roofs, gingerbread details, timber columns, a medieval German Kitchen, and a large papier-mâché Gnome sitting on the roof welcoming passersby.

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.