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.

"Upwardly mobile, both literally and figuratively, in 1877 Belle Huntington moved with seven-year-old Archer from 109 Lexington Avenue, near 28th Street, to a large house uptown at 4 West 54th Street. By now a studious autodidact, passionately interested in art and interior design, she gutted the house, added a wing, and installed a stunning array of opulent features, including rosewood paneling, a stained glass skylight, brocade wall coverings, a Moorish smoking room, Turkish bath, Japanese bedroom and — the piece de resistance — one of the first Otis elevators in a private home. In June 1884, in her parlor, Arabella Yarrington Worsham married the recently widowed Collis P. Huntington — for the second time… Shortly after her wedding, Belle sold her furnished house on 54th Street to John D. Rockefeller, Sr. who, except for new carpets, barely changed a thing. And so Belle’s exuberant and imaginative Gilded Age decor remained intact until shortly after Rockefeller’s death in 1937, when his son demolished the building to make way for the construction of the Museum of Modern Art." Continue reading Margaret A. Brucia's profile of Archer Milton Huntington (co-founder of The Hispanic Society of America and other cultural institutions) in Gotham: A Blog for Scholars of New York City History.

Radio City Music Hall ca. 1976 Radio City, and indeed all of Rockefeller Center, came out of a plan to move the Metropolitan Opera. In the late 1920s, a plan had sprung to use the Rockefeller site to build a new opera house, but due to a lack of an endowment and various internal issues, it was canceled. However, John D. Rockefeller Jr. had been brought in to the prospective plan and had no desire to leave the plan alone. Striking a deal with RCA, Rockefeller imagined Rockefeller Center (and Radio City) to be developed as a media center with large theatres. Theater mogul Samuel Roxy Rothafel, having joined the advisory board in 1930, suggested they build two theaters: The International Music Hall on the north side of the center and the RKO Roxy Theater on the south side of the center. While the design of both theaters was in the hands of Edwin Durell Stone and Donald Deskey, Roxy strived to create a more modern theater through his suggestions. Roxy envisioned a more sleek, oval theater that somewhat eschewed the tiered seatings of others. In its design, Stone matched Radio City Music Hall's exterior to the rest of Rockefeller Center in its use of limestone but designed its now-iconic signs to distinguish it. For its interior, Stone conceived of a grand foyer with high ceilings, a curved staircase, and a 220 square meter mural "Quest for the Fountain of Eternal Youth" painted by Ezra Winter. Deskey supposedly was appalled by Stone's design and created the rococo interior of the theater to help make it palatable in his eyes. Construction began in December of 1931, and a year later, the Radio City Music Hall (the name change from the International Music Hall Stemming from the partnership with RKO) was ready for a lavish public opening. The Rockettes had already made it their home and Roxy had planned a series of elaborate acts. The opening, as it turned out, was a colossal failure, boring even the center's patron John D. Rockefeller, but the design was immediately beloved. Initially running a huge deficit, Radio City Music Hall was forced to begin showing feature films and its mixed film and stage format made it successful. It became a go-to New York venue for premieres and until the 1970s would complete 4 performances of their "spectacle" a day. While in the 60s the hall flourished with millions of visitors, the 70s marked a decline for the theater. On April 12th, 1978, the Music Hall closed its doors, having projected a multi-million dollar loss for the year. With the theater's future in jeopardy, a huge campaign arose to save it. Its interior was landmarked, it was added to the national register of historic places, and many of its devotees protested and voiced their support. Rockefeller Center eventually ended up renovating the Music Hall and changing up its performance roster. Through diversification, use as a venue, and a multitude of strategies, in 1985, the Music Hall posted its first profit in three decades. Since renovated again, the Radio City Music Hall continues to operate and serve up shows such as its famous Radio City Christmas Spectacular.

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.

Metropolitan Club, 1929. Organized in 1891 by a group of distinguished (male) New Yorkers, led by J.P. Morgan following the rejection of a number of his nominations to Union Club, the Metropolitan Club has remained a elite private social club for the last 125 years. Soon after its establishment the club members purchased a plot of land for a club house (each of the founding 25 members gave $5000). The Stanford White-designed building is an Italian Renaissance structure, which was described by 19th-century architectural historian Montgomery Schuyler as "the largest, most imposing, and most luxurious of the club-houses of New York.'' One distinguished feature of the building is the large wrought iron gated entrance to the east of the 60th street facade. In 1912 Ogden Codman Jr. drastically renovated a neighboring five story residence into a six-story annex for the club, which included bachelor apartments.

On Sunday, October 12, 1823, a new Protestant Episcopal congregation was organized in a meeting room at 44 Broome Street. In July 1824, in accordance with the resolutions of that congregation, the cornerstone for the new St. Thomas Church was laid at the intersection of Broadway and Houston Street. By 1866 this part of town had turned seedy, impelling the worshippers to build a new church, which endures, at 53rd Street and Fifth Avenue. Saint Thomas's current structure, finished in 1914 and the fourth church built for the congregation, was designed in the French High Gothic Revival style by Bertram Grosvenor Goodhue and Ralph Adams Cram.

One of three sculptures commemorating Latin American leaders, the Simon Bolivar monument celebrates the military general who helped liberate Venezuela, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia, and Panama from Spanish rule. This statue is the third iteration commissioned by the Venezuelan government in a worldwide competition. It was dedicated on April 19, 1921.

James J. and Josephine Goodwin Residence ARCHITECT: McKim, Mead & White; Charles F. McKim; William Mead DATE: 1896-98 STYLE: Neo-Georgian This distinguished residence was built in 1896-98 for James Junius Goodwin, a prominent New York businessman. Designed in the neo-Georgian style by the firm of McKim, Mead & White, it is a handsome reminder of the fashionable townhouses that once characterized the West Fifties between Fifth and Sixth Avenues and is one of an ensemble of five townhouses on West 54th Street.

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.

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.

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.

The Museum of Primitive Art (far left, No. 15), Nelson Rockefeller townhouse (second from left, No. 13), ca. 1971 Rockefeller, the four-term Governor of New York and Vice President under Gerald Ford, founded the Museum of Primitive Art in 1954, in one of two twin townhouses he owned on West 54th Street. In 1979, he died of a heart attack at 13 West 54th Street. Rockefeller's death became something of a tabloid scandal after it emerged that he died not at his Rockefeller Center office, as initial reports had claimed, but at an office in the West 54th Street townhouse, where he had been in the company of a younger female aide. The buildings at center and right are the Rhodes School (Nos. 9-11) and No. 7 West 54th Street.

L. P. Hollander & Company Building STATUS Designated Individual Landmark 3 East 57th Street ARCHITECT: Shreve, Lamb & Harmon DATE: 1929-30 STYLE: Art Deco The building’s up-to-date Art Deco designs were paired with the company’s modern retailing techniques to encourage sales of its elegant women’s clothing. The facade of the nine-story building is framed by shiny black granite, with rows of ribbon windows set close to the front plane of the building. Between the floors, the window spandrels are formed of embossed aluminum without a masonry backing, in a technique that the same architects later used extensively on the Empire State Building.

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.

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.

Savoy-Plaza Hotel (at left) and the Squibb Building , ca. 1930. Designed by McKim, Mead \&White and completed in 1927, the 33-story Beaux-Arts Savoy-Plaza Hotel was constructed as a companion to the nearby Plaza Hotel by the Plaza's owner, Harry S. Black. The hotel's penthouse was famously the residence of Adolph Zukor, the founder of Paramount Pictures. In 1958 after a buyout by the Hilton Hotel chain, the building became the Savoy Hilton. Following the announcement in 1964 that the hotel would be demolished for a new General Motors building, local advocates and preservationists staged protests and a failed boycott of G.M. products. The hotel remained open through the New York World's Fair but closed in October 1965 and was demolished late that year. The 48-story Edward Durell Stone General Motors Building was completed in 1968.

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.

Radio City Music Hall (Rockefeller Center) ARCHITECT: Associated Architects DATE: 1931-32 STYLE: Art Deco The Radio City Music Hall is the only surviving Art Deco theater in the country to incorporate so great a variety of architectural, artistic, and decorative features. When the Music Hall was completed in 1932 it was rapidly recognized both nationally and internationally for its artistic and technical excellence and it was considered one of the finest designs in the history of modern theater. The artwork in the Music Hall was executed in novel materials by the leading designers, sculptors, and artists of the period. The auditorium of the Music Hall incorporates many unusual features, such as shallow balconies and side ramps. The great arched ceiling of the auditorium incorporates the complex lighting system as well as the air-conditioning and sound equipment. It is the only theater of its kind in the country, making it a principal attraction to New Yorkers and tourists.

Jack and Charlie's "21," date unknown The story of the bar that ended up here at 21 West 52nd Street began downtown. Cousins Jack Kriendler and Charlie Berns opened a speakeasy called the Red Head on East 4th Street in 1922. Jack and Charlie's venture moved to 88 Washington Place (it was called the Fronton here) and then 42 West 49th Street (called the Puncheon Club here). The Puncheon Club became one of the most popular speakeasies in town, with famous actors, artists, and politicians as regulars. They were forced out of their 49th Street digs by the development of Rockefeller Center in the late 1920s. Reopened as "Jack and Charlie's 21" here circa 1930, the club continued its illicit activities. They had clever ways to avoid detection. If the case of a raid, employees would push a button to enact a system of levers used to tip the shelves of the bar, sweeping the bottles down a chute and into the city's sewer system. After Prohibition ended the venue continued as a bar (legally) and restaurant. Supposedly a number of celebrities and politicians (JFK, Elizabeth Taylor, Sammy Davis, Jr. to name a few) have stored their personal wine collections here. Known today at the 21 Club, the 37 jockeys that line the facade remain (and even got a restoration in 2015).

Ziegfeld Theatre, ca. 1927. Constructed in 1927 by architect Joseph Urban, the Ziegfeld Theatre was the William Randolph Hearst-funded brainchild of Florenz Ziegfeld. Urban had also been a set designer for the Ziegfeld Follies in the 1910s and as a movie designer for Hearst's production company in the 1920s. The theatre was owned and managed by Ziegfeld until his death in 1932, at which point it became a movie theatre. In 1943 theatre impresario, showman and lyricist Billy Rose purchased the building for his productions. He remained successful in this location for about a decade but business declined in the mid 1950s, likely due to its location further uptown than the popular theatre district. Rose leased the space for filming television shows starting in 1955, and reopened it a Broadway theatre for a brief stint in 1965. He also purchased some adjacent lots in the hopes of selling to a developer. He died in 1966 and his estate did just that. A skyscraper was built on the site, which from 1969 until 2016 included a single screen movie theatre called "The Ziegfeld." The 1927 theatre was a gorgeous Art Deco limestone building with a bowed facade decorated with classically based ornamentation rendered in Deco and modernist forms. The large oval shaped auditorium, which sat 1660 patrons, was topped by a colorful mural of overlapping medieval, biblical, and literary scenes on the ceiling.

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.

In New York in 1899 there seemed to be a club for everything. The Century and Lotus Clubs were for authors and artists. The Harmonie and Progress Clubs were for German Jews. The Union League was for men interested in politics and civic projects. And St. Nicholas admitted those with Dutch ancestry

Art Deco architecture flourished in Europe and the United States during the 1920s and 1930s. Spurred by the 1925 Paris exhibition Exposition Internationale des Arts Décoratifs et Industriels Modernes which boasted over 16 million visitors, structures such as the Chrysler Building and the Empire State Building began dotting the New York City skyline. The following are photos from MCNY's collection that struck me as particularly beautiful in their exemplification of Art Deco architecture.

My Archive Spring 2019 "I love old photographs of buildings and architecture, especially if my family is in them! This is my beautiful Mom, Maria Bambace Lofaro, who had immigrated from Italy a few years before this photo was taken, so this must be around 1953-54? A family friend or relative must have taken it. This could have been a big outing for my Mom because she lived in Greenwich Village, and they ventured to Midtown." —Mary Lofaro

Rockefeller Apartments ARCHITECT: Harrison & Fouilhoux DATE: 1935-37 STYLE: Apartment Rockefeller Apartments were commissioned by John D. Rockefeller,Jr., and Nelson Rockefeller. Rockefeller Apartments changed the current standards in apartment house planning, giving 15 percent more space to light and air than required by the building codes. Other apartment house plans sought only to provide the maximum number of livable and rentable rooms using every available inch.

Park Avenue, today a coveted address, was once neglected. In 1831, the New York and Harlem Railroad was granted use of what was then known as Fourth Avenue for its train tracks. Steam locomotives were introduced in 1837, and the avenue was widened from 100 to 140 feet. Just after the construction of the Grand Central Depot on 42nd Street (the first of three stations to be called Grand Central), legislation in 1872 mandated that train tracks be below ground, which led to construction of a railroad tunnel between 56th and 96th Streets. Known as the “Fourth Avenue Improvement,” this partially covered tunnel funneled pollutants and noise up to the street through vents in the center of Fourth Avenue. As a result, residential development stalled in the 1870s and 80s, even as the wealthy were building extravagant mansions on Fifth and Madison Avenues and associated carriage houses and stables east of Fourth Avenue. A transitional place, Fourth Avenue’s first buildings included an assortment of rowhouses, tenements and institutions. The latter category included the German Hospital (later Lenox Hill Hospital) and the Seventh Regiment Armory. In 1887, the Board of Alderman voted to rename the blocks north of 42nd Street Park Avenue, but “Fourth Avenue” was widely used until the early 20th century. After a major rail accident in 1902, the New York State Legislature banned steam locomotives in Manhattan, requiring train lines to be electrified. This precipitated the construction of a new Grand Central Terminal and drastically increased Park Avenue’s real estate value. The central vents were converted into landscaped malls. In 1928-29, to facilitate the widening of the avenue for vehicular traffic, the malls and sidewalks were narrowed and buildings’ areaways were removed. Regardless of their diminution in size, the malls are still a highlight of Park Avenue. Perhaps the most important contributor to Park Avenue’s special character is its apartment buildings, whose largely uniform heights form continuous street walls. After World War I, apartment living became fashionable for the wealthy, and Park Avenue experienced a building boom in the 1910s and 20s. Apartment buildings were designed to emulate the elegance of the townhouses they were replacing. In addition to spacious lobbies, uniformed doormen, elevators and large apartments (with as many as 18 rooms), the buildings were designed by respected architects in popular styles, including: Gothic Revival, Renaissance Revival and Art Deco. Among the notable architects were: George and Edward Blum, Rosario Candela, J. E. R. Carpenter, George F. Pelham and Emery Roth. These buildings continued to be built on Park Avenue after World War II and up until the present, signaling its constant desirability over time. Park Avenue also boasts a number of graceful townhouses and religious institutions, as well as several new buildings completed in the early 2000s. Residential Park Avenue is largely protected by landmark designation. The Upper East Side Historic District, designated in 1981, includes the blocks between East 61st and 79th Streets. The Park Avenue Historic District, designated in 2014, includes the blocks between East 79th and 91st Streets. The Expanded Carnegie Hill Historic District, designated in 1993, includes the blocks between East 91st and halfway between 93rd and 94th Streets. The avenue also includes a number of individually designated landmarks.

My Archive Summer 2019 “My family is on the way to Radio City for my birthday celebration. But what is a visit to the city without going to Rockefeller Center? I love the hats my sister and I are wearing. That was when you dressed up to go to the City. We were from Bayside, Queens, so Manhattan was always the City. We are wearing hats and white gloves.” —Marueen Engeleit

Museum of Modern Art, 1976. The Museum of Modern Art began as the brainchild of three women in 1929: Abby Aldrich Rockefeller, Lillie P. Bliss, and Mary Quinn Sullivan. The women rented rooms in the Heckscher building on Fifth Avenue with the idea of creating a museum that championed modern art, especially the new European modernist artists. Bringing in A. Conger Goodyear as the museum's president as well as other influential trustees, Rockefeller and co were able to open to the public in November of 1929. Abby's husband (John D. Rockefeller Jr.) wouldn't pay for the endeavor as it began and the Museum had several temporary sites after the Heckscher building, including Rockefeller Center. However, he eventually donated land for MOMA's permanent (and current) home. It was in 1939 that the MOMA's new site, notable for architects Philip L. Goodwin and Edward Durrell Stone's international design, opened to the public

W.H. Vanderbilt Residences ca. 1898 William H. Vanderbilt purchased the entire block front on the west side of Fifth Avenue between 51st and 52nd streets in 1879, having recently inherited a fortune from his father, Cornelius Vanderbilt. Architects John B. Snook and Charles Atwood designed twin houses connected by a glass atrium and entrance vestibule, and the famed Herter Brothers decorated the houses with such extravagance that Artistic Houses devoted 17 pages to its interiors upon their completion in 1883. W.H. Vanderbilt and his wife lived in the southern house, while their two daughters and sons-in-law occupied the other.

"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.

Pulitzer Fountain at Fifth Avenue and 59th Street, 1916. Carrère & Hastings won the competition to design a memorial fountain after Joseph Pulitzer's 1911 death. "Pomona," a bronze sculpture by Karl Bitter (completed by Isidore Konti after Bitter's death), sits atop the fountain at Grand Army Plaza. The statue was installed in the spring of 1916.

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.

Sperry-Rand Building, September 11, 1963. Designed by the firm of Emery Roth & Sons, the massive Sperry-Rand Building, completed in 1963, stand 43-stories high and includes two million square feet of space. In the 1970s the Sperry Corporation, which had been founded in Brooklyn in 1910 to manufacture navigation equipment, sold typewriters, office equipment, electronic digital computers for business and the military, farm and aviation equipment, and consumer products like razors. These items were each produced under their own separate businesses but they formed the Sperry conglomerate.

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.

The Fifth Avenue flagship store of Tiffany & Co., ca. 1940. The ten-story building was designed by Cross & Cross, and completed in 1940, replacing the jewelry brand's previous flagship, also on Fifth Avenue, at 37th Street.

Rockefeller Center at Christmas, ca. 1945 While the official Christmas tree tradition at Rockefeller Center began in 1933– when 30 Rockefeller Plaza opened, its tradition began during the Depression-era construction when workers decorated a smaller 20 foot tree on Christmas Eve. According to Rockefeller Center, workers pooled money for that tree with the garlands made by workers' families.

Hotel St. Moritz, 1932. The Hotel St. Moritz (seen at center) was designed by Emery Roth and constructed in 1930. The 36-story hotel is highly ornamented at the base and the upper floors, while the middle of the building is largely plain. W. Parker Chase described the hotel in his book, "New York, The Wonder City, 1932", "a picturesque cliff, amidst towering trees to the north, and other soaring skyscrapers to the south." Named for a Swiss resort town, the hotel offered long-term and short-term residence. It quickly became a popular hotel among professional athletes and theatrical figures. In the 1930s the hotel add the Café de la Paix, a sidewalk cafe that claimed to the be city's first. In 1950 the hotel underwent a complete redesign and renovation, updating the interiors to a mid-century style. The hotel's Rumpelmayer’s Café offered guests and visitors pricey coffee and ice cream. The hotel was sold a number of times in the last decades of the 20th century with its owners including Harry Helmsey and Donald Trump. Trump had plans to encase the facade in glass, gut the interiors, and convert it to condos. That plan was thwarted by a new buyer in 1999. Changing hands a few times once again, the building was finally purchased and converted into a Ritz-Carlton hotel-condominium. During this conversion the deteriorated ornamentation at the topmost floors were stripped and replaced with copies of the originals. Though the windows replacement was non-historic, the conversion was generally historically sympathetic (for a non-landmark building).

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.

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.

13 West 54th Street House (far left) ARCHITECT: Henry J. Hardenbergh DATE: 1896-97 This handsome townhouse was built in 1896-97 as one of a pair with No. 15 West 54th Street for William Murray, a prominent businessman from Larchmont, New York. Designed in a Renaissance-inspired style by Henry Janeway Hardenbergh, the residence is a distinguished example of the fashionable townhouses that once characterized the West Fifties between Fifth and Sixth Avenues and is one of an ensemble of five townhouses on West 54th Street.

Elbridge T. Gerry Residence, 1901. Designed by renowned architect Richard Morris Hunt, the Elbridge Thomas Gerry residence (1891-1894) on the southeast corner of Fifth Avenue and 61st Street was built for Gerry and his family. Gerry, a prominent lawyer and philanthropist, eventually gave up his law practice to devote his time to the New York Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children, a charity he helped establish in 1874. The house was demolished in 1927, the year of Gerry's death, and replaced by the Pierre Hotel, completed in 1930.

Chickering Hall, the American Piano Company (Ampico) building, West 57th Street; January 1, 1925.

Museum of Modern Art, 1939. In 1929, Lillie P. Bliss, Abby Aldrich Rockefeller and Mary Quinn Sullivan founded the Museum of Modern Art to encourage and promote the schools of modern art developing abroad. The museum's 1939 glass-and-steel building, designed by Philip L. Goodwin and Edward Durrell Stone, remains a striking architectural presence in the museum.

One of the longest-lived night clubs in the City, the Copacabana at 10 East 60th Street, which opened in 1940, was among the most famous as well. June Allyson and Carroll Baker got their start in this tropical oasis, and such greats as Frank Sinatra, Ella Fitzgerald, Nat King Cole, Jimmy Durante and Joe E. Lewis performed there when they were in town. The colorful, fruity headpieces worn by another Copa favorite, "the Brazilian Bombshell" Carmen Miranda, became the symbol for the nightclub. In 1960 Bobby Darin recorded "Darin at the Copa" there. The club closed in 1973.

Sohmer Piano Showroom, 1922. This lot on 57th Street was once occupied by the Rothschild mansion, a 19th century brownstone-fronted Italianate rowhouse. In the 1910s as this neighborhood was moving from residential buildings to commercial structures, Sohmer Piano Company leased the plot at no. 31. The rowhouse was demolished and a new six-story commercial building was erected for the piano firm. Randolph H. Almiroty designed a Italian-inspired facade that fit in well with the look of its neighbors. This location was well known from 1985 until 2014 as the home of the Rizzoli Bokstore. The bookstore was forced to relocate in 2014 ahead of plans to demolish the building and its neighbors for a new large building.

View of Rockefeller Center from 30 Rockefeller Plaza, ca. 1934.

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.

University Club ARCHITECT: McKim, Mead & White; Charles F. McKim DATE: 1896-1900 STYLE: Italian Renaissance The University Club on its conspicuous corner site is one of the most handsome buildings on Fifth Avenue. Although this granite building of stately and noble proportions closely resembles a sixteenth-century Italian Renaissance palazzo, its exterior displays a combination of original architectural features. The handsome facade is divided into three main horizontal divisions separated by two strongly defined band courses. Each of the three divisions contains a row of large arched windows.

International Building Interior ARCHITECT: Associated Architects DATE: 1933-34 STYLE: Modernist The ground floor interior with accompanying mezzanine floor interior of the International Building is one of the grandest and most dramatic interior spaces in the Rockefeller Center complex and a major component of the Center’s second largest building. This interior follows the east-west axis of the International Building at the northern end of the Center. The lobby gains its effect from the form of the space and its decorative finishes. The elements of the design and rich materials are not only characteristic of Modernist design, but are also some of the finest examples of their type.

Collis P. Huntington House, 1898. In 1889 railroad magnate Collis Huntington, who had only a few years before married his longtime mistress, Arabella, following the death of his first wife, purchased five plots on 57th Street and Fifth Avenue. Just across the street from the massive George B. Post-designed Vanderbilt mansion, Huntington commissioned the same architect to build a grand home. (The rough and uneducated Collis and his sophisticated but poor-born second wife wanted social acceptance; this house was an effort towards that goal.) Completed in five years, the large mansion included full plumbing; ten bathrooms; a refrigerator room; an attached complex with massage rooms, a heated pool, and a Turkish bath; and ornate wall and ceiling frescoes. (A writer in the 20th century described the jumbled interior of the mansion as resembling "a wayward railroad station.") Following the completion of the mansion, Huntington made a poorly played attempt to buy their way into New York's elite. It backfired and while their home might have been on Fifth Avenue among the upper echelon of well-heeled New York, they remained on the outside. Huntington died in 1900 and his wife in 1924 (after amassing an extensive art collection and marrying her husband's nephew). In 1925 and 1926 the house had its contents sold at auction, from Arabella's jewelry to Chippendale chairs owned by George Washington. Soon after the house was demolished. In 1940 Tiffany & Co. opened their flagship store here in a Cross & Cross-designed modern building.

Hotel Pierre Dissatisfied with the "democratization of public manners," French Restauranteur Charles Pierre Casalasco organized a group of financiers to build a hotel. Built on the site of the old Gerry Mansion, the Pierre as it would soon be called, rose 41 stories and cost an estimated 15 million dollars to build (an extravagant sum at the time.) Designed by Schultze and Weaver, its most eye-catching feature is a top is modeled after Mansart's Royal Chapel at Versaille. Society turned out in force for its opening in1930 and the Pierre quickly earned a reputation as one of the city's finest hotels for a time. However, the great depression took a toll on the Pierre and it went into bankruptcy in 1932, just two years after its opening. J. Paul Getty ended up buying it in 1938 and converted some of the hotel rooms into apartments. Since its conception, despite its fiscal travails, the Pierre has attracted many notable inhabitants, including (to name a few) Sumner Redstone, Edward St. Aubyn, and Aristotle Onassis.

Knickerbocker Club ca. 1915 Architects William Delano and Chester Holmes Aldrich excelled at interpreting and adapting the architecture of Colonial America and the early Republic. The architects specialized in designing socially exclusive New York City clubs, for whom the Anglo-American past had rich associations. As a young architect, William Delano designed this facility for the Knickerbocker Club, an offshoot of the Union Club, in the Federal style. Delano wrote, “I felt the elaborate façades of the prevalent French School did not fit in New York,” and drew inspiration instead from the more understated expression of his father’s townhouse on Washington Square.

In the mid-1930s, the Steuben Glass Company (a division of Corning) commissioned architects William and Geoffrey Platt and John M. Gates to design a new headquarters for the firm which highlighted its product. The facade was four times more glass then limestone. The limestone acted as a frame for the 3,800 glass blocks made of Corning's Pyrex. The critics were mixed regarding the design. One called it ''a definite disappointment,'' while Lewis Mumford thought it ''simple and excellent." A local newspaper suggested that the facade of fixed windows could be ''washed off with a hose, dust and grime coming off as if it were a mirror.'' In 1959 Steuben decamped to an even more modern and glassy building across the street. No. 718's new owner, the jeweler Harry Winston, gave the building a neo-Classical travertine facade with entirely different fenestration (arrangement of windows and doors). Today the building looks much like it did following the 1960 renovation

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

BERGDORF GOODMAN, MANHATTAN Address: 754 Fifth Avenue New York, NY 10019 Architect: Buchman & Kahn Constructed: 1928 Constructed as seven individual but architecturally unified stores, this structure replaced the Cornelius Vanderbilt II mansion, one of the grandest Gilded Age residences in the city. Its distinct seven- and nine-story massing pays homage to the demolished Vanderbilt structure. Bergdorf Goodman, established in 1899 by Herman Bergdorf and Edwin Goodman, was one of the building’s first tenants. They eventually acquired the entire building, and further expanded into two adjacent buildings in 1959. In 1984, the building received a new base, designed to unify the previously separate storefronts in a way that would relate to the rest of the building. In addition to being home to an iconic New York retailer, the structure is significant for its refined design and strong classical organization, featuring a series of bays with a tight rhythm of windows. Its white South Dover marble façade, capped by a slate roof, features shallow changes of planes to create lines, shadows and decorative figures.

The Marble Twin's Story begins with the construction of the St. Regis Hotel. Furious about the 18 story hotel, the wealthy denizens of the neighborhood began rapidly buying up the surrounding real estate in order to control development. On Fifth Avenue between the Union Club and the Plant mansion, George Vanderbilt commissioned the firm Hunt & Hunt to build two matching townhouses. The houses that would become known as the marble twins were built such that they could be combined to form a larger mansion. Completed in 1905, they were in the style of Louis XV and presented Fifth Avenue with a unified facade. The Vanderbilts then sold them to wealthy friends (along with conditions that hotels or apartment buildings would never be built on the grounds.) The Goelet family moved into 547 and Willaim B. Sloane purchased the other for his daughter. Eventually, as society moved northward, the two twins were converted for commercial purposes. Gimpel & Wildenstein, fine art dealers, leased 547 Fifth Avenue and used it as a gallery to sell their collection of old masters. It would largely remain unchanged until American Express renovated it in 1938 in a commercial alteration that destroyed its graceful stone balcony and refined the first story. Seven years later, its twin 645 Fifth Avenue would be demolished. 647 Fifth Avenue would survive though and when Versace leased it in 1995 it would pay for a restoration of its original balcony and first floor. The corner twin is now the last of the many Vanderbilt built mansions that once lined this part of Fifth Avenue.

Cornelius Vanderbilt Mansion, 1920. The original Vanderbilt mansion on this location was undertaken in 1878 by Cornelius Vanderbilt II upon inheriting over $70 million from his father. The "modest" townhouse was quickly overtaken in the neighborhood by the larger, more opulent homes of other wealthy society families: Rockefeller, Carnegie, Frick, and Astor. In the spirit of competition with the other, in 1883 Vanderbilt hired George B. Post and Richard Morris Hunt to drastically expand the home. He purchased the five brownstones to the north on Fifth Avenue and had them demolished for this purpose. The resulting mansion was the largest private residence ever built in the city (long gone, it still retains that title). It was modeled on the Château de Blois in the Loire Valley and featured skylights by John La Farge and sculptures by Saint-Gaudens in its 130 rooms. The mansion was completed in 1893. Vanderbilt only lived in the home six years before he died of a cerebral hemorrhage in 1899. His widow and a cadre of servants continued to live in the home until she was forced to sell in 1926. Prior to its demolition, Alice Vanderbilt briefly opened the home to public and attempted to save a few of its decorative features. Today details of the house can be seen in a pair of monumental gates in Central Park, sculptural reliefs at the Sherry-Netherland Hotel, and a giant fireplace in the American Wing of the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

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.

Plaza Hotel, 768 Fifth Avenue, ca. 1978. The Plaza is one of America’s most famous and historic luxury hotels. Developed by financier Bernhard Beinecke, hotelier Fred Sterny, and Fuller Construction Company president Harry S. Black, the Plaza was heralded as the “greatest hotel in the world” upon its opening in October, 1907. The cost of construction for the 19-story, French Chateau-style skyscraper soared to $12 million, with expenses including interior designs by Henry Janeway Hardenbergh. According to the National Trust for Historic Preservation, Hardenbergh “placed the single largest gold-encrusted china order in history with L. Straus & Sons, along with an order for 1,650 crystal chandeliers.” The Plaza was designated a New York City Landmark in 1969, added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1978, and designated a National Historic Landmark in 1986; making it the only hotel in New York City with this distinguished status. In 2005, The Plaza closed for a $450 million renovation; the hotel reopened in 2007, just in time for its 100th birthday.

New York Athletic Club, 1911. While this address is best know as the St. Moritz Hotel, prior to that classic Emery Roth building, this plot was occupied by the club house of the New York Athletic Club. Constructed in the late 1890s, the Athletic club moved into the building in October 1898. The eight-story building was lavishing decorated. The private club, founded in 1868, is considered the foundation for amateur athletics in the United States. In 1928 the club sold their 1898 building for $2.5 millions (in 1930 the Hotel St. Moritz would be completed on the lot) and moved into their new (and still occupied) City House, one block over on Seventh Avenue and Central Park South.

745 Fifth Avenue, November 21, 1935. The New York Trust Co.(seen through the balusters), the Squibb Building (745 Fifth Avenue) and the Sherry Netherland Hotel along the east side (right) of Fifth Avenue taken from the roof of 718 Fifth Avenue facing north. On the west side (left) of the avenue is the roof of the Duveen Building.

The Plaza Hotel was an instant New York City icon, though today it's dwarfed by a neighboring office building. When completed in 1907, it towered above the surrounding mansions and represented the height of hotel luxury. Mixing European glamour with the most modern amenities, it replaced the Waldorf-Astoria 25 blocks to the south as the place the elite stayed and entertained. For the hotel's opening, the Plaza's manager Frank Sterry, arranged the grand entrance of ladies' man, Alfred Gwynn Vanderbilt as the first guest, and a celebration featuring other local royalty, including financier George Jay Gould; department store innovator, John Wanamaker, and Benjamin Duke, Vice President of the American Tobacco Company. In addition to a crowd of spectators, the city's first motorized taxi fleet lined up outside the Plaza. Drivers dressed like West Point cadets sat inside cars painted red with green stripes. Taximeters tracked fares, which cost 30 cents for the first half mile and 10 cents for each additional quarter mile. This building was the second Plaza Hotel. Seventeen years earlier, on October 1, 1890, a different hotel by the same name on the same site had opened at the cost of $3 million. But new owners had plans for something grander, which required building a new from the ground up. Starting with its design, the hotel blended old world and new. Henry Janeway Hardenbergh, the same architect responsible for the Waldorf-Astoria, created a structure "that effortlessly merged a French chateau with a skyscraper" with 800 guest rooms, 17 apartments, and 500 bathrooms. Inside, guests were surrounded by custom European and local luxury items such as Irish linens, French crystal, and Swiss lace curtains. Every room also had the latest technologies- a telephone, a buzzer for calling maids and waiters and a magnet brand clock, known for its precise timekeeping. Today's residents and guests have their own taste of the Gilded Age. Following a three-year, $400 million renovation, the Plaza reopened in 2009 with 282 hotel rooms and 181 apartments filled with decadent details including 24-karat gold-plated faucets; mosaic-floored bathrooms and white-gloved butlers assigned to each floor and available around the clock.

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.

Metropolitan Club Building ARCHITECT: McKim, Mead & White; Stanford White DATE: 1891-94 STYLE: Italian Renaissance Described by the 19th-century architectural historian Montgomery Schuyler as “the largest, most imposing, and most luxurious of the club-houses of New York” the Metropolitan Club Building was designed by Stanford White, a partner in the firm of McKim, Mead & White, and was built between 1892 and 1894. Executed on a grand scale in a restrained Italian Renaissance manner, the building incorporated the prestige and dignity of the Club’s founding members.

Whitney Mansion, 1895. Constructed in 1875 for millionaire Frederick W. Stevens and designed by George Harney, the mansion was filled to rafters with antiques and furnishings that Stevens purchased in Europe. After Steven's passing, his widow sold the home to Oliver Payne who gave it to his sister Flora and her husband William C. Whitney. The Whitney's had the home remodeled by Stanford White, but only lived their briefly as Flora died in 1893 and William remarried and moved to a different Fifth Avenue mansion. William's son Harry Payne and his wife Gertrude Vanderbilt lived in the home until 1907 when it was sold and demolished. In the 1920s the Heckscher Building (also called the Crown Building) was erected on the site.

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

The Gotham Hotel ARCHITECT: Hiss & Weekes DATE: 1902-05 STYLE: Neo-Italian Renaissance The imposing neo-Italian Renaissance Gotham Hotel (now the Peninsula Hotel) is one of the few structures on Fifth Avenue which recalls the golden age of luxury hotels and the prominent place they occupied in the formation of the city. Rising twenty stories, including a multi-storied rooftop addition, at the southwest corner of West 55th Street and Fifth Avenue, the boldly rendered Gotham is a stylistic counterpoint to its contemporary, the flamboyant Beaux-Arts St. Regis Hotel directly across Fifth Avenue.

Heckscher Building, ca. 1921. Today known as the Crown Building (so named in 1983 for the crown-like look of the illuminated building at night), the 26-story building was completed in 1921 as the Heckscher Building. Designed by architects Warren & Wetmore, the French Renaissance style building was one of the first office towers designed and erected after the passage of the 1916 zoning laws. it was topped by a 12-foot gold-plated weathervane in the form of a rooster. In November of 1929 the Museum of Modern Art opened in galleries on the 12th floor of the Heckscher Building. The first exhibition was a show featuring the works of Cezanne, Gauguin, Seurat and van Gogh. The museum remained until 1932 and its final show in the space was "Modern Architecture: International Exhibition," curatated by Phillip Johnson. The gold weathervane was removed in 1942 and melted down for the war effort. The building was stealthily purchased by Philippines President Ferdinand Marcos in 1981 and soon after had its facade gilded and illuminated by a lighting designer (hence the name change based on its new look). Following the fall of the Marcos regime, the building was sold in 1991. Its most recent sale in 2015 for $1.8 billion made NYC real estate history, a world record price per square foot, $4,564.

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.

Bergdorf Goodman ARCHITECT: Buchman & Kahn DATE: 1927-28 STYLE: Modern Classical The site, which was the former location of Cornelius Vanderbilt II’s mansion, was purchased by the real estate developer Frederick Brown in 1926. Brown developed the site from 1927-1928 to read as separate, but aesthetically unified, buildings. Ely Jacques Kahn, one of the most important New York architects of the 20th century, designed the buildings in the Modern Classical style. His design incorporated classicizing elements of French architecture and harmonized with the other buildings on the Grand Army Plaza.

The massive scale of Rockefeller Center is adorned with countless art deco reliefs and sculptures which soften the harden corners and squared-off entryways of the building. This selection gives a brief overview of a few works of art perched on the exterior of this monumental complex.

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 early 1880s, as stone cutters were completing work on the William K. Vanderbilt mansion, the home's well-loved architect Richard Morris Hunt discovered that the artisans had created his likeness as a tribute. The statue of Hunt as a stone-cutter was installed on the roof over the entrance to the house. That home was demolished in 1926 and it is unknown if the statue was saved.

Plaza Hotel ca. 1907 Although it was constructed in 1907, the Plaza is still one of the most elegant of the great New York hotels, having sheltered many of the notables who have visited the city in the past half-century. It was designed by Henry Janeway Hardenbergh, architect of the Dakota Apartments on Central Park West. Its high roofs remind us of a French Renaissance chateau.

University Club of New York ca. 1915 Of all the buildings in New York which have been influenced by the Italian Renaissance, this club probably comes closest to resembling a sixteenth-century palazzo; yet despite this fact, the combination of details is quite original.

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.

Josephine Schmidt Mansion ca. 1900 Though now replaced by the blue blooded Knickerbocker Club, this lot was once home to the Josephine Schmidt Mansion. Josephine's husband had been a successful brewer and she built this limestone chateau in 1899 following his death. However, it was not to last long for in 1909 she married the son of an Italian prince and moved to Europe. The Knickerbocker Club purchased the mansion in 1914 and tore it (and its neighbor) down to build their club house.

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.

Rockefeller Apartments, October 20, 1947. The Rockefeller Apartments, constructed between 1935 and 1937 in the International style, were commissioned by John D. Rockefeller, Fr. and Nelson Rockefeller. Designed by Wallace Harrison, who would go to collaborate further with the Rockefellers, the two buildings (the other is 24 West 55th Street) were created as a unit and were constructed with 15 percent more space given to light and air than was required by the building codes.

Steinway Hall, June 30, 1925. In 1864 William Steinway opened a showroom for his pianos on 14th Street near Fifth Avenue. Owing to overwhelming popularity, he built a new concert hall as a venue to display and promote his pianos. This was the original Steinway Hall. Opened in 1866 the hall sat 2,500 guests and was one of the biggest halls in the city of New York. Over the next 25 years, it was the home of the New York Philharmonic. The success of Steinway Hall in promoting Steinway's instruments was considerable, so much so that his competitors, the Aeolian Company and Chickering & Sons, felt the need to open their own concert halls. Owing to a desire to have their showroom and concert venue near Carnegie Hall, Steinway & Sons commissioned a new building on 57th Street in the early 1920s. The new Steinway Hall, seen here, included not only showrooms and a hall, but also recording and broadcasting spaces. Designed by Warren and Wetmore, the neo-Classical building officially opened on October 27, 1925. Steinway & Sons sold the building and land in 1958 but continued to use the building as a rental. In 1999 they bought the building back but were required to continue to lease the land it occupied. In 2014, in a deal that cost a combined $177 million ($46M for the building and $131M for the land), a development company purchased Steinway Hall and its plot. Steinway Hall moved to 1133 Sixth Avenue, while a controversial plan for the landmark 57th Street building has it being restored and incorporated into a supertall residential tower.

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.

A walk of the best tourist spots New York City's Upper East Side has to offer.

As the city expanded and the relentless churning of commerce caused New York's population to explode, the city pushed northward. As the city itself moved northward, so did its elite. They settled along the undeveloped edge of the brand new Central Park, building enormous homes and mansions to celebrate their fabulous wealth. This walk takes you through a selection of the Fifth Avenue mansions that would have once dominated the Avenue.

Metropolitan Club ca. 1914 Reputedly founded by J.P. Morgan for the benefit of a friend who had been denied membership in another club, this palazzo has long been known as the "Millionaires' Club." The exterior with its gates and carriage turn-around is extremely handsome and expressive. The interior, despite its sumptuousness, has certain failings in proportion though not in its details. The marble-lined great hall, which is relatively narrow, extends up several stories, producing a sensation of excessive height.

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.

"Atlas" in front of the International Building at Rockefeller Center, ca. 1976. Lee Lawrie's seven-ton bronze statue depicting Atlas, the Titan of Greek mythology, was installed in 1937.

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.

The Original Plaza Hotel

Though today it's dwarfed by a neighboring office building, the Plaza Hotel was an instant New York classic.

Victory Arch of Jewels, March 25, 1919. To celebrate the victory of the First World War and to honor those who fought, had been injured, and died for their country, New York planned a massive parade. The celebrations largely honored the efforts of the 27th Division, an Army National Guard unit, largely made up of men from New York State. 27,000 veterans marched up Fifth Avenue and more than 500,000 New Yorkers took to the streets. The New York Times noted that 'the city \[was] never so elaborately decorated or its people so enthusiastic." The Victory Arch of Jewels erected at the corner of Central Park near Grand Army Plaza at Fifth Avenue and 60th Street was one of two ornate temporary decorative arches (the other was at Madison Square Park). The Arch of Jewels marked the entrance to the section of the parade route lined on both sides with grandstands. The arch was constructed of wood and plaster and stood 80 feet tall. The two shafts were covered with thousands of prisms that when illuminated by bright beams of light sparkled with colors of the rainbow.

The famous art collector Peggy Guggenheim opened her first gallery called Art from this Century on the seventh floor of this building. The gallery, which opened its door in the midst of World War II (1942), became the meeting place and exhibition space for exiled European artists. The opening show was a groundbreaking success, displaying works by established European Cubists and Surrealist artists. Most notably, the gallery is credited for launching the career of many American Abstract Expressionist artists such as Jackson Pollock and Mark Rothko.

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.

The Lotos Club—so named for Alfred, Lord Tennyson’s poem “The Lotos-Eaters”—was founded in 1870 by a group of young writers, journalists, and critics. According to the club’s constitution, it sought to promote and develop “literature, art, sculpture, music, architecture, journalism, drama, science, education and the learned professions,” to encourage the professionals who work in these fields, and “provide a place of assembly for them and other persons interested in and sympathetic to them, their objectives, effort, and work.” The Club featured a roster of recognizable names, including author Samuel Clemens (Mark Twain); art collector and philanthropist Solomon R. Guggenheim; 34th United States President Dwight D. Eisenhower; writer, director, and actor Orson Welles; newspaper publisher William Randolph Hearst; and steel magnate Charles M. Schwab. Though membership was originally limited to men, the club began admitting women in 1977, welcoming opera singer Marilyn Horne, writer Mary Higgins Clark, and actress Angela Lansbury, among others. The club remains in existence today, at 5 E. 66th Street, and forms part of New York City’s long history of private clubs.

The Coronet, 1912. The Coronet is a 10-story brick and stone Beaux-Arts building completed in 1902. It aimed to be a high-class, modern apartment building. And high class it was with balconies, carved lions’ heads, heavy scrolled brackets, an impressive two-story arched opening, and stone parapet at the roof. By the 1970s the building was suffering from the loss of wealthy tenants. Some of its grand architectural features were lost including the parapet and some of the balconies. In 1976 the building was converted to an 85-apartment condominium. Today the building still stands, though it does not exude the grandeur it once presented.

Barney's New York, 660 Madison Avenue, ca. 1944. Barney’s has some of the city’s most elaborate and inventive window displays at holiday time. The department store is known to collaborate with big name artists and entertainers, including Lady Gaga, Nick Cave, Rob Pruitt, and Matt Stone. In recent years, they have even implemented “live” performances and aspects to their festive window displays.

William K. Vanderbilt Mansion ca. 1928 No single building better symbolized the Gilded Age than the home of William K. Vanderbilt, completed in 1883. While the rich had been flaunting their wealth in costumes and jewels, Vanderbilt displayed his dollars in limestone. And then other society men and women followed suit. When Vanderbilt's house went up, most of the city's elite lived in unassuming homes such as J.P. Morgan's. The Houses produced a streetscape so monotonous that it provoked "Edith Wharton's ire. She wrote of "little, low studded rectangular New York with its universal chocolate-colored coating of the most hideous stone ever quarried," and bemoaned the lack of "towers, porticoes, fountains or perspectives." Vanderbilt commissioned architect Richard Morris Hunt to create something that no doubt met Wharton's desire for something different. With Vanderbilt's wife, Alva, directing the project, Hunt produced a French Renaissance-style house that came to be known as the "petit chateau." It quickly commanded not only local but also national attention. In 1885, the country's 75 top architects named it the third best building in the United States, after the United States Capitol and Trinity Church. Within a few months of moving in, Alva hosted an extravagant costume ball that doubled as housewarming and social vindication. Mrs. Caroline Schermerhorn Astor, the doyenne of New York Society, had denied the Vanderbilt family invitations to her own affairs. This time, it was Alva who left Mrs. Astor off the list- but only after encouraging Astor's daughter to practice a dance for the party. In response, Astor paid her first house call to Mrs. Vanderbilt, which led to an invitation and social acceptance. Just seven months later, the Vanderbilt family would further solidify their place at the center of elite society with the opening of the Metropolitan Opera house, which William's father, William H. Vanderbilt, had helped to establish. The mansion went up for sale a few months after Vanderbilt's death in July 1920. It was demolished in 1926. The site has been occupied over the years by two successive office towers.

"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."

Completed in 1927, the Sherry-Netherland took the title from the Ritz Tower Hotel as the "the tallest apartment building in the world... \[with] 125 apartments."(The New York Times) The 560 foot high, 40-story luxury tower featured full-floor apartments above the 24th floor. As recounted in The New York Times on the opening day, the tower offered sweeping views, terraces, luxurious detail, two restaurants, and maid service without extra charge. An advertisement in the Times announcing the opening of the building read “it is more than a place to live; it is a way of living”. (The New York Times, 1923)

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.

This classic black trimmed 1930s simplified Art Deco building once housed the studios of the famous fashion photographer George Platt-Lynes, as well as Richard Avedon, the well-known fashion and portrait photographer. This building ran the length of the full city block but was only two stories tall. These types of buildings (wide but short) were commonly built in the 1930s and were called "taxpayers." The name referenced that during the lean years of the Depression structures such as these collected only modest rents which barely financed the maintenance costs and property taxes. Most taxpayers have been demolished and replaced by larger buildings during the more financially stable years since the mid century, but a few remain (though not this one).

My Archive Summer 2019 "My parents were divorced, and my dad used to take me to a fancy lunch on Sundays and then we would walk along Fifth Avenue, or sometimes go ice skating or to the zoo. So it's a photo of me (Jennifer Place) taken by my father (Willard Fiske Place)." —Jennifer Place

New York is celebrated in countless works of literature. Many buildings, whether famous landmarks or run-of-the-mill residences, have made guest appearances in the pages of American novels. Here's a list of literary locations:

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."

653 Fifth Avenue ca. The story of 653 Fifth Avenue begins like the story of many of the mansions on Fifth Avenue: with a family dynasty. Morton Plant was the son of a fabulously wealthy railroad magnate Henry Plant. By all accounts, Henry and Morton's relationship was strained and upon his death, Henry attempted to leave his massive fortune to his grandchild. However, Morton was not one to stand idly by and he challenged the will successfully. The money having been secured, Morton began to live the life of a robber baron. Nor was Morton profligate, a successful businessman himself, he built on the advantages given to him by his father. Befitting his newfound status, Plant purchased the land at 653 Fifth Avenue from William Vanderbilt and commissioned the architect Robert W. Gibson to build him a home. Gibson, who had previously designed cathedrals and churches, built the sumptuous six-story mansion with a pillared entrance on 52nd Street. However, while it completed in 1905, the neighborhood around the home was changing. Real estate developers and tradesmen were moving in, and the heirs and robber barons that occupied the area were losing the struggle to preserve the neighborhood. With the Waldorf, St. Regis, Plaza and other hotels opening, the area was getting busier and busier. However, Morton withstood the changing area and his marriage would bring Maisie Plant into the home in 1914. It was Maisie that would give Morton a reason to leave. One day, Maisie was shopping at Cartier's flagship on Fifth Avenue when she spotted a beautiful set of pearls. The double-string set was valued at a million dollars and presented an interesting and unique opportunity. Pierre Cartier had been looking for a showroom that would properly enhance the brand's prestige and Morton was looking to get out of the neighborhood where he built his mansion. A deal was struck: the mansion was traded for 100$ and a string of pearls. Cartier assumed ownership of the mansion and Plant was free to move uptown. Cartier agreed to leave the exterior almost entirely untouched (and until it's 2000 renovation made very few alterations to the interior as well.) Morton Plant's body might not have agreed to the deal however, he died the next year, leaving Maisie single and wealthy. Cartier has preserved and used the mansion ever since as their primary US showroom.

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.

Saint Thomas Church and Parish House ARCHITECT: Cram, Goodhue & Ferguson DATE: 1906-13 STYLE: Church The elevations are replete with ornament. The buttresses of the square tower, as well as those on the 53rd Street side, are simple and serve as beautiful foils for the elaboration of the main entrance and rose window above it. In beauty, detail and construction, this church is a masterpiece. The Parish House (formerly the Rectory) nestles alongside the Church on 53rd Street to the west of the chapel, and the integration of these elements is a superb accomplishment.

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.

Lotos Club, ca. 1909. Established as gentleman's club for those interested in literature, science and the fine arts in 1870, the Lotos Club—named after a feature in a Tennyson poem—has called a number of buildings home in its nearly 150 year history. The club's first home was at 2 Irving Place. Mark Twain was an early member of the organization. After a series of moves that had the club inching further uptown, the first true clubhouse was purchased in 1893 at 558 Fifth Avenue. In 1909, with the financial support of Andrew Carnegie (who was a member), the club moved into a headquarters specifically designed for their purpose at 110 West 57th Street. Designed by architect Donn Barber, the Italian Renaissance was lauded as beautiful with features painted in orange, blues, and greens and multi-toned grey brick. The building became a venue at the forefront of arts and culture in the city, presenting fine art exhibits and lectures by renown orators. The club knuckled though the Depression with downsized events but they completed paying off their mortgage in 1941 (which they celebrated by burning the paperwork in their oversized fireplace). By 1945 the Lotos Club was looking to downsize and moved into a Beaux-Arts building 5 East 66th Street. They made $166,000 on a building that had cost them $750,000 in 1909. The building was largely striped down to its steel framing in 1949 and had a new modern facade installed as it was being converted into offices. Since the mid 1960s it has been the home of the Directors Guild of America.

The William Tecumseh Sherman monument is one of the masterpieces of the famed New York sculptor Augustus St. Gaudens. In 1892, St. Gaudens had created a bust of General Sherman, who had moved to New York after the Civil war, and it was this bust that inspired St.Gaudens to sculpt the larger equestrian statue to commemorate Sherman's wartime contributions. Completed in 1903, the William Tecumseh Sherman Monument was placed at the main entrance of Central Park. However, when the Pulitzer Fountain was created, the Monument was moved in order for Grand Army Plaza to be symmetrical.

In the early 1910s, the building was taken over by art and antique dealer Charles Duveen (brother to the more famous dealer Joseph Duveen). Charles added the sixth floor (with his name boldly advertised at the top) and toned down the facade decoration.

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.

Plaza Hotel ARCHITECT: Henry J. Hardenbergh DATE: 1905-07 STYLE: European To the east, the Hotel faces toward Fifth Avenue but is separated from it by the Pulitzer Memorial Fountain which forms part of the Grand Army Plaza, extending from 58th Street to 60th Street, ending with Augustus Saint-Gaudens 7 great equestrian statue of General Sherman. The whole design of this area is like that of a European square and is one of the few squares of this quality existing in New York City. Although the surrounding buildings are not stylistically unified, at least some attempt was made to relate them through use of materials and the treatment of the facades. The Plaza Hotel is located in a prominent site overlooking Central Park. The interior of the Hotel Plaza consists of the Fifth Avenue lobby vestibules, the 59th Street Lobby, the Edwardian Room, Grand Ballroom Foyer, the Main Corridors, Oak Room and Bar, and Terrace Room Corridor. Since it was built in 1907, the Plaza Hotel has remained as one of the world’s great hotels since it opened in 1907, is located on a prominent site overlooking Central Park, Grand Army Plaza and Fifth Avenue. In 1971 The New York Times architecture critic, Ada Louise Huxtable, called it “New York’s most celebrated symbol of cosmopolitan and turn-of-the-century splendor, inside and out.” Hardenbergh was one of the most prominent architects of his time, as he set standards for the design of luxury American hotels on the exterior and interior of his buildings. The Beaux-Arts style 59th Street Lobby and Main Corridor feature strikingly veined and carefully matched stonework in white and Breccia marble. The German Renaissance Revival style Oak Room features wood paneling with elaborate carvings on the west wall, murals of medieval castles and a coved plaster ceiling. The Spanish Renaissance Revival style Edwardian Room features a paneled wood wainscoting and an elaborate trussed ceiling with carved bosses, stenciled decorations and mirrors. The neo-Classical style Palm Court features walls faced with Caen stone and accented with a giant order of highly polished marble pilasters, a colonnade of marble columns separating the space from the main corridor and marble caryatids representing the Four Seasons on the west wall.

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.

Bergdorf Goodman, 746 Fifth Avenue, ca. 1944. For decades, Bergdorf Goodman has created glamorous, eccentric, and fashion-inspired installations that are known to impress. For 2017, the store brought a philanthropic twist to its spectacular displays: Bergdorf Goodman partnered with seven New York City charities to raise money for a number of good causes.

Julliard Mansion, ca. 1905. In 1903 self-made millionaire, dry goods tycoon, and Park Commissioner Augustus D. Julliard purchased the mid 19th century brownstone mansion at 11 West 57th Street. Once the home of the scion of another dry goods empire, John Auchincloss, the Victorian mansion was considered out of date when Julliard purchased it. He commissioned Trowbridge & Livingston to design a new, modern mansion for the lot. The resulting five-story structure was completed in a French Renaissance style with a steep mansard and somewhat pointy dormers. The interior was similarly styled with 16th century ornamentation, complemented by the family's vast collection of tapestries and antiques. Julliard died in the home in 1925 and years later it was converted into apartments with a ground floor commercial space. In the late 1930s it served as the headquarters of the German Railroads Information Office, who were expelled in 1941 after being outed as a Nazi propaganda outlet. The building survived in the 1970s but eventually succumbed to the commercial development of 57th Street. The Julliard Mansion was demolished in 1974 along with some neighbors for the sloped facade Solow Building.

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.

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.

In New York in 1899 there seemed to be a club for everything. The Century and Lotus Clubs were for authors and artists. The Harmonie and Progress Clubs were for German Jews. The Union League was for men interested in politics and civic projects. And St. Nicholas admitted those with Dutch ancestry. Getting membership in particular clubs was essential to gaining and keeping a spot at the top of the social ladder. Club membership was also intertwined with professional standing. the vast majority of partners in banking and industrial firms held membership in several clubs and the era's biggest business deals often over a meal in one of their dining rooms. The Metropolitan Club was dubbed the "Millionaire's Club" by the press. It not only drew the city's wealthiest as members, but also had the most imposing and lavish design. Men including J.P. Morgan, William K. Vanderbilt, and William C. Whitney founded it out of frustration with the historic Union Club, which occupied outdated facilities on an unfashionable stretch of Fifth Avenue and had refused membership referrals by some of its most important members. John King- President of the Erie Railroad Company and Morgan's friend- supposed got rejected because he had poor table manners. Morgan chose McKim, Mead, and White to design the structure you see in front of you. It was the premiere firm for social clubs, and would also design the original Penn Station and J.P. Morgan's Library. The marble building was created to resemble a 15th century Florentine palace. And the sheer height of its main stories- 25 feet- gave it gravitas. Today, the Metropolitan Club remains private but open to public rental for events that range from weddings to celebrations for Hollywood actors.

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.

Since 1977, this plaza on the southeast corner of Central Park has showcased over 60 sculptural art installations courtesy New York City's Public Art Fund. The plaza is named for Doris C. Freedman, an advocate for public art who founded the Public Art Fund in 1977, the same year this plaza became a prominent site for exhibiting sculptural works. Mayor Edward I. Koch dedicated the plaza to Freedman in 1981. In addition to founding the Public Art Fund, Freedman had served as the president of City Walls, which sponsored over 50 murals across the five boroughs, and founded the Public Arts Council. Freedman was the president of the Municipal Arts Society and New York's first Director of Cultural Affairs during Mayor Lindsey's administration. Freedman is known for celebrating the ideas and controversies public sculpture could provoke. In a speech, she said of the role of public art: "contemporary public sculpture presents a new visual and emotional experience, a challenge to our senses and sensibilities... sculpture that confronts us on our way to work, our daily errands, is no longer the remote object belonging to the world of galleries and museums, but a special component of our daily lives."

Built in 1872 this brownstone structure at the southwest corner of Fifth and 56th was appropriately ornate for early Fifth Avenue. The building featured prominent quoins (masonry bricks at the corners), fancy bulls-eye windows, and a decorative stone railing at the roofline. Originally a home, in the 1890s the ground floor was converted for commercial use. During the 1910s and 1920s, the building was home to a number of art and antique showrooms and galleries

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.

Links Club, 1937. Nos. 36 and 38 East 62nd Street were originally a pair of brownstones constructed in the 1880s. Famed conductor, Anton Seidl lived in No. 38. In 1916 the lots were sold to the Links Club. The gentlemen's club was devoted to golfing interests and was the brainchild of Charles B. Macdonald. MacDonald was the vice-president of the United States Golf Association, tournament- winning golfer, and the architect of American golf courses. The new Cross & Cross-designed clubhouse, completed in 1917, was a 40-foot fronted Georgian Revival structure with a subtle, nearly hidden entrance, a few steps below the sidewalk. Though plans were discussed for a driving range on the roof, instead, a tradition roof garden was constructed. Famous members of the club have included President Eisenhower, ambassadors, governors, senators, the CEOs of all the major financial firms, and any number of other extremely influential men. It has been called the perhaps the most powerful club in the world. The Links, with no exterior signage that calls out the building as a clubhouse, still occupies this stately structure one hundred years after its construction.

Residence of Charles R. Lohman Ann Lohman, also known as Madame Restell, provided contraceptives and abortions to women looking to prevent or terminate unwanted pregnancies—a practice that remained exceptionally lucrative even as antebellum abortion laws hardened. By the 1870s, Restell’s services made her one of the richest women in New York City; her profits funded the construction of her lavish mansion, pictured here, on the corner of the Fifth Avenue and 52nd Street. Image Info: Hatch & Co. Publishers, 1875 CREDIT: Museum of the City of New York, Gift of J. Clarence Davies, 29.100.2111

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.

Knickerbocker Club Building ARCHITECT: Delano & Aldrich DATE: 1913-15 STYLE: Neo-Federal Recognized as one of the finest examples of the neo-Federal style in New York City, the Knickerbocker Club Building was built between 1913 and 1915 by the fashionable architectural firm of Delano & Aldrich. Occupying a prominent lot at the southeast corner of Fifth Avenue and 62nd Street, the building was designed to fit comfortably into the surrounding residential neighborhood as well as to maintain the club’s historic presence on the avenue.

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.

My Archive Spring 2019 "Rockefeller Center. The subject in the excellent sweatshirt outfit is yours truly, supported by my mom." —Isabel Sen

Steinway Hall ARCHITECT: Warren & Wetmore DATE: 1924-25 STYLE: Neo-Classical Designed in a restrained neo-Classical style, Steinway Hall is L-shaped in plan, with a front portion clad in Indiana limestone that terminates in a setback, four-story colonnaded tower, and a central campanile-like tower with a steep pyramidal roof and large lantern. The main facade’s base is embellished by a music-themed sculptural group by Leo Lentelli and by a frieze with medallion portraits of distinguished classical composer-pianists. The style, materials, setbacks and massing, picturesque towers, and decorative elements add distinction to the building and make it a monumental architectural presence along the West 57th Street cultural corridor.

25 East 61st street is the rear extension of 673 Madison Avenue, an Italianate brownstone built in 1871 by architect John G. Prague as part of a project for the developer John McCool which included a row of 5 brownstones on Madison Avenue, and 17 houses on 61st street. B. Harris & Sons was a family-owned, fine-jewelry business established in New York City in 1898 by B. Harris, a Russian immigrant who had been an artisan to Czar Alexander III. Having pilfered a precious stone from the royal workbench to pay for passage out of Russia, Harris and his wife fled the empire, walking across an ice bridge to Finland. The Harrises arrived in New York via London, and by 1926, B. Harris & Sons became the first retail jewelry store on West 47th Street. Harris’s sons Charles and Nathan shepherd the store to East 61st st., where it became one of the city’s leading jewelers (The July 12, 1976 issue of New York Magazine lists clients including Gloria Steinem, Helen Hays, Richard Rodgers and Marion Javits.) B. Harris and sons closed in 1991, when Nathan Harris retired. Interestingly, 25 East 61st Street is currently home to the estate jewelers Stephen P. Kahan & Son.

Saint Thomas' Church ca. 1975 Despite its asymmetrical composition, with only one tower, this church is such a beautiful example of French Gothic architecture that we are hardly aware of the lack of a second tower. The plan is ingeniously arranged and has functioned successfully for the congregation and for some of the most fashionable weddings in New York.

The Warwick, date unknown. Designed by Emery Roth in association with George B. Post & Sons, this 36-story Renaissance Revival building was financed by publisher William Randolph Hearst. One of the original tenants of the residential tower was Hearst's mistress Marion Davies. (It is said he commissioned the building specifically for her.) Today the Warwick remains a luxury hotel.

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.

718 Fifth Avenue ca. 1937 718 Fifth Avenue was designed by Platt and Platt in 1937. The grand five-story structure on Fifth Avenue and 56th Street announcing glass as the epitome of modernity. The façade of Indiana limestone and 2 large windows made of 3,800 square panes of translucent glass at night revealed divisions between floors and diagonal bracing, all the while showcasing the glass, another architectural advertisement.

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.