Volney Apartments, 1916. This 12-story building was the final home of writer and critic Dorothy Parker. She first moved into a two-bedroom apartment in 1952 after a separation from her husband and being blacklisted during the anti-Communist years, forced her out of Los Angeles. At the Volney, she lived among largely elderly female residents and their many dogs. (She based the characters of the unsuccessful 1953 play, 'The Ladies of the Corridor,' on her neighbors.) After a brief two year reconciliation with her husband in California, which ended with his death from an overdose in 1963, Parker moved back into Volney. She remained here, when not hospitalized, until her own death in 1967.

In 1903, sisters Winifred and Edith Holt established the "New York Ticket Bureau for the Blind" after being inspired by a similar foundation in Florence, Italy. The charitable organization went on to become one with an international reach. Its mission: "to overcome vision impairment for people of all ages through worldwide leadership in rehabilitation services, education, research, prevention, and advocacy." Read on to learn the history and legacy of the Lighthouse Guild.

Phillips Presbyterian Church, Madison Avenue between 73rd and 74th Street. Madison Avenue Presbyterian Church (organized in 1839) merged with Phillips Presbyterian Church (organized 1844) in 1899. Together, the two congregations constructed a new, neo-Gothic style building to replace the R.H. Robertson Building that was donated to the Madison Avenue congregation in 1972 by philanthropist James Lenox. The resulting structure includes an 800-seat sanctuary, and was designed by architect James E. Ware.

107 East 70th Street, date unknown (post 1921). This five-story building with stone trim was constructed in 1921-22 for Thomas Lamont, a principal at J.P. Morgan & Co. Inc. The architects Walker and Gillette were known for two types of structures: New York City townhouses and suburban mansions. This Tudor Revival style home features stone projected bay windows, a portico with Tuscan columns, large leaded-glass windows, and series of Tudor style chimneys. The architects also set the home back from the building ten feet, and did not build all the way to the lot line on the west side, creating a side garden hidden by a street wall. In 1954 the building was retrofitted for the offices of the Visiting Nurse Service of New York (upon donation of the home by the widow of Mr. Lamont). The organization still occupies the building, which underwent a massive interior renovation in 2009 by the preservation focused firm of Beyer Blinder Belle.

740 Park Avenue ca. 1945 740 Park Avenue combined the efforts of Architect Rosario Candela, who most likely focused on apartment planning, and Arthur Loomis Harmon, who probably styled its sleek exterior. (In a similar streamline moderne style, Harmon's firm, Shreve, Lamb & Harmon, designed the Empire State Building, which was under construction when 740 Park was completed.) Setting back above the 12th floor on the building's Park Avenue side, 740 featured a distinctive two-story base of corrugated stone, a body decorated with shallow pilasters, and stainless-steel doorways with elaborate geometric decoration. The building originally contained 30 apartments and its first tenants included builder James T. Lee, whose house had stood on the site. Lee's granddaugher, Jacqueline Bouvier--later Kennedy Onassis--spent part of her childhood in the building, and, in 1937 John D. Rockefeller Jr. created a triplex apartment for his family.

35 East 68th Street (left), ca. 1977. This 1901 Carrère & Hastings townhouse was built for Edward K. Dunham, a doctor and professor of pathology at Bellevue, and his wife Mary (née Dows).

The Carlyle Hotel ca. 1947 The Carlyle Hotel, a 40-story yellow-brick and limestone building on 76th street and Madison Ave, was designed in 1929-30 by the architects Bien and Prince and decorated by Dorothy Draper in an Empire Manner. The 40 stories of the southern half are hotel rooms and the 17 stories of the northern half, not originally in the design, are apartments, both rise from a 12 story base and overlook Central Park. This asymmetry created a recognizable and unique silhouette in the "fashionable" Upper East Side.

Doorway of the Chemical Bank, ca. 1990.

Intersection of East 74th Street and Madison Avenue, looking west toward Central Park, 1929.

Institution for the Improved Instruction of Deaf-Mutes, June 12, 1937. This ornate Queen Anne style structure was completed in 1882 to the designs of architect Henry Fernbach. The educational facility occupied the entire blockfront on Lexington Avenue from 68th to 67th Streets. Instruction here was focused on a method of communication known as Oralism, which asked that deaf students reproduce sounds by imitating the position of the lips of hearing people. This was the mode of instruction that the school promoted through the 1960s. The institution was renamed the Lexington School for the Deaf by the mid century and moved to Jackson Heights in 1960s, where it remains today (teaching both oralism methods and American Sign Language). This imposing building was once only one of a row of civic and charitable institutions that lined Lexington Avenue between 66th to 69th Street that included Mount Sinai Hospital, the New York Foundling Asylum, and, the still standing, Seventh Regiment Armory. The deaf school was eventually demolished and replaced with another building for Hunter College.

The Henry T. Sloane House, designed by John Mermen Carrere and Thomas Hastings— both had been educated at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts in Paris and both worked for McKim, Mead & White— demonstrated the viability of a modern French vocabulary for a New York townhouse. Begun before the Panic of 1893, the house was completed in 1894 on the north side of 72nd Street. Elaborate sculptural ornament enlivened the classically organized tripartite faced. Above a rather simple striated base, five engaged columns divided the second and third floors into four bays, each containing French doors surmounted by elaborately framed windows. Above a strong cornice, a mansard roof with four dormers articulated with scrolls and arched pediments completed the facade. The house stood apart from more restrained expressions of wealth. Architectural historian Wayne Craven has described the house as a "classicist's nightmare, a raging terror to the classical purist." At right is no. 15, once the home to the prominent businessman Benjamin Guggenheim, the brother of Solomon R. Guggenheim and father to Peggy Guggenheim. He and his family lived here until his tragic death on the RMS Titanic in 1912. As one of the most famous victims of the accident, his final moments aboard the ship have been portrayed in multiple films and TV series about the sinking. He famously met his death stoically- after helping women and children on to the lifeboats, he and his valet dressed in their finest clothes, poured themselves a glass of the finest brandy, and sat in the foyer of the grand staircase, smoking cigars as the ship went down. He remarked, "we've dressed in our best and are prepared to go down like gentlemen."

"East 74th Street, east from but not including Third Avenue. This view showing prominently the north side, 1937." Though the storefronts seen adjacent to the corner of 3rd Avenue (on the far right of the photos) have been replaced by a large apartment building, the building at nos. 214 and 216 (just slightly down the block) with the large arched doorways remains.

168 East 73rd Street CLIENT: William Baylis ARCHITECT: Charles W. Romeyn DATE: 1899 STYLE: Neo-Flemish Renaissance The 168 East 73rd Street Building is a fine example of the type of private carriage house built during the late 19th and early 20th centuries in this area of Manhattan. Constructed in 1899 for William Baylis, this carriage house was designed by Charles Romeyn in a sophisticated rendition of the neo-Flemish Renaissance style.

Whitney Museum of American Art, ca. 1974. Designed in the Brutalist style by Marcel Breuer in 1966, the building was the third location for the Whitney Museum of American Art. (The first two locations were on West Eighth Street and West 54th Street, respectively.) The modernist building with gray granite and reverse ziggurat facade was (and still is) a stark contrast to the surrounding 19th century brownstones, brick row houses, and postwar apartment buildings. The facade is made of 1,500 granite slabs with each weighing between 500 and 600 pounds). Ada Louise Huxtable, the New York Times architecture critic, said of the design, “the taste for its disconcertingly top-heavy, inverted pyramidal mass grows on one slowly, like a taste for olives or warm beer.” The museum always struggled with not enough space and finally in 2015 moved into a new building in the Meat Packing District. In 2016 the Metropolitan Museum of Art moved into the uptown building to display exhibitions that focus on modern and contemporary art.

William W. Cook House, October 23, 1944. Built for lawyer and corporate law expert, William Cook, the house on 71st Street was a French Renaissance mansion deigned by York & Sawyer. Completed in 1913, the two-story entrance with massive bronze gates and the fifth floor open portico (with tile ceiling by Rafael Guastavino) truly set the building apart from the other structures on the block. Upon his death, Cook donated the home to his alma mater, the University of Michigan, who sold it in 1942. During the middle of the 20th century the house was occupied by foundations that worked in scientific, educational and anthropological research and work. The home was converted back into a single family home in 1992 and remains remarkably similar to its original form.

117 East 69th Street, date unknown (post 1929). The neo-Federal building at no. 117 is a relative newbie in this neighborhood. While a number of other neo-Federals are the early 20th century renovations of original 19th-century rowhouses, this one was a brand new construction in 1928-9. Designed by Julius Gayler for the lawyer, banker, and one-time Governor of Puerto Rico (1904-07) Beekman Winthrop, the house has a huge skylight and dramatic spiral staircase. In 1977 the home was purchased by Jim Henson and became the New York headquarters of the Jim Henson Company and The Muppet Workshop. While it served this function, the home was supposedly extravagantly decorated to reflect the playful work of its occupants. Henson passed away in 1990 and the Henson business moved out of the building in 2003.

Tiffany House, ca. 1900. This stunning house on the northwest corner of East 72nd Street and Madison Avenue was commission by Charles Lewis Tiffany, the founder and owner of jewelry store,Tiffany & Co. in 1882. Tiffany hired the firm of McKim, Mead and White, who ended up working closely with Tiffany's son, Louis Comfort Tiffany (LCT) on the design and logistics of the massive 57-room home. Designed in a number of styles, the largely Romanesque and Queen Anne architecture suggested it was one single structure, when it was, in fact, four buildings stacked on top of each other around a courtyard. Different family members, such as LCT, his sisters and their families resided in the different "apartments" within the complex. Unsurprisingly the home was extravagantly decorated with stained glass, antique lacquerware, collections of porcelain, decorative metalwork, and exotic ornamentation. The home featured decoration created and designed by not only Tiffany, but his associates: Lockwood de Forest, who directed the production of architectural woodwork; glass worker John La Farge; and the sculptor, Augustus Saint-Gaudens. The same group had recently finished work on the interiors of the Seventh Regiment Armory on Park Avenue. By the 1890s financial issues resulted in a number of the "apartments" being rented out by non-Tiffany family (though still upper class family friends). Louis Comfort Tiffany died in this home in 1933 and the house was demolished in 1936.

720 Park Avenue, ca. 1928. Park Avenue at its N. W. corner of 70th Street, long before the Upper East Side became a desirable neighborhood. Pictured in the foreground is the old 1872 Presbyterian Church before it was torn down and replaced by apartments.

2 East 70th Street ca. Designed by Rosario Candela and the firm Walker & Gillette, 2 East 70th Street stands on the site of the Blair Mansion, a marble home built by Carrere & Hastings that survived for less than a decade before being torn down. Candela styled 2 East 70th street to take after the mansion in order to complement the Frick collection across the street. The simple stone clad design and quoined corners intended to leave a classic yet elegant impression.

820 Park Avenue, ca. 1922. This Park Avenue building is a glorious reminder of New York's past. It was built in 1927 for the flamboyant publisher of the Hearst organization, Albert J. Kobler, who got his start in the business selling newspaper ads around 1910. Kobler hired Harry Allan, the architect behind the Friars Club and many lavish residential projects, to erect what was then a "modern concept" in apartment living: multiple mansions stacked one upon another. With time, the duplex and penthouse triplex house that Allan constructed for Kobler has come to represent the last gasp of the old, extravagant ways of Manhattan living. The duplexes, however, have since been divided into single floor-throughs with only a few today that have returned to their initial grandeur.

55-57 East 75th Street, ca. 1911. Nos. 55 and 57 were both constructed in 1881-82 by architect John Prague. Both building have been renovated in the 20th century. In the late 1930s, the building on the left (no. 55) was renovated into brick front neo-Federalist style building that can be seen today. No. 57 had a much more dramatic facelift later in the century. In 1979 architect William Glickman completed a new Brutalist facade for the building, with angled concrete and projecting balconies on the second and third floors. The now nine-story building towers over its neighbors. The writers of the AIA Guide to NYC say this, " a curious former row house transformed into an early "sliver building. As an object it is abstractly handsome. As a citizen of the block it's inciting a riot."

J. William and Margaretta C. Clark House ARCHITECT: Trowbridge & Livingston DATE: 1913-14 Only two bays wide, No. 49 East 68th Street is given interest and importance by a twin-arched loggia at street level. This is made possible by having the wall of the first floor set back about six feet from the building Iine. The arch on the right leads to the arched entrance doorway, while that on the left leads directly to the basement stairs protected by a low iron railing and gate. An arched window is set above the basement entrance door.

130-134 East 67th Street Apartment House ARCHITECT: Rossier & Wright DATE: 1907 STYLE: Italian Renaissance This building consists of duplex units of the type used on West 67th Street, although in the plan of this building many large double-story living rooms were built instead of studio spaces. So successful was the cooperative arrangement in this building, that the developer took title to the adjoining lot on the southeast corner of 67th Street and Lexington Avenue, as well as another property on the northeast corner of Lexington and 67th Street in 1907. Both of these soon were developed with cooperative apartment houses.

Fire Engine Company 39 and Ladder Company 16 Station House ARCHITECT: Napoleon LeBrun & Son DATE: 1884-86 STYLE: Romanesque Revival This six-story Romanesque Revival structure was designed by N. LeBrun & Son for the headquarters of the New York Fire Department and to provide fire protection in a neighborhood that was experiencing considerable growth and change. Unlike many modest mid-block firehouses, the East 67th Street building served multiple functions, providing space for two fire companies, the offices of the Commissioners, and various departmental bureaux.

St. Jean Baptiste Church, 1913. The parish of St. Jean Baptiste dates to 1882 when it was founded to serve the long -established French Canadian immigrant population of the Yorkville section of the Upper East Side. The community first worshiped in the hall above a stable on East 77th Street, referred to as the “Crib of Bethlehem.” A purpose-built church was erected between 1883 and 1884 in a simple Gothic style. The church became both popular among the larger Catholic New York community and the home of eucharistic worship in the decades surrounding the turn of the century. The community recognized the need (and desire) for a larger and more "worthy" (in pomp and decoration) structure and their prayers were answered with the entrance of a benefactor in 1910. Financed by American tobacco, insurance and transportation tycoon, Thomas Fortune Ryan, the present church building was designed by Nicholas Serracino, an Italian architect, and completed in 1913. The domed church (one of only a few Catholic churches in the city that feature a dome) was rendered in a combination of Italian Renaissance Revival and Classical Revival architectural styles. The main dome reaches a height of 172 feet. The interior is richly decorated with stained glass windows brought in from the glass studios of Chartres, Frances.

Architect Robert AM Stern designed this townhouse from an existing 1897 carriage house in 1975, when he was just starting his career as an architect. What began as one of three private stables was converted into a 10,000-square-foot townhouse. Unfortunately, a fire destroyed the 70’s interior in 1992. Of the design, Stern told Metropolis magazine: “The design has what I thought were pretty daring \[features] in those days— classically derived pilasters and proportions with ornaments…all of which I think fall into the Postmodern sensibility that was emerging at the time.”

“The city seen from the Queensboro Bridge is always the city seen for the first time, in its first wild promise of all the mystery and the beauty in the world.” 🏙️

55 East 72nd Street, 1943.

On June 30th, 1836, invitations were sent to various gentlemen of good social standing – Astors, Van Cortlandts, Stuyvesants, van Rensselaers, basically a roll call of every influential Dutch New York family – to join the newly founded Union Club, the first club devoted to wealth and social standing in New York. For decades it set the tone for every other club. As you can probably guess, the Union Club became very popular, very quickly and there was soon a waitlist to join. Their current clubhouse on Park and 69th, designed by William Adams Delano and Chester Holmes Aldrich and pictured below, was described by Christopher Gray as, “chunky with rusticated limestone and a huge angled mansard roof so big it looks like a Fifth Avenue mansion gone wild.” With five dining rooms and humidors stocked with cigars, it’s clear that the Union Club is still catering to the wealthy and connected of New York.

My Archive Spring 2019

151 East 74th Street, 1943. The brownstone rowhouse at no. 151 was constructed between 1877 and 1878 by architect John B. Snook for speculative developer W.H.Browning. Between 1919 and 1922, the home was owned by Captain Kermit (!) Roosevelt, son of TR. While a fourth story (not visible on the front facade) was added in 1906, the building underwent a drastic facelift in 1923. Then owned by New Yorker Magazine co-founder and publisher Raoul H. Fleischmann, the facade was updated to a sleek Colonial Revival style by architect Henry Lion. This move was in line with the popular practice in the 1910s and 1920s of updating New York's aging rowhouses. While some respected the styles and ornamentation of the decades old homes, many other drastically altered the look of the facades (and the interiors as well). The most common changes included removing the now passè stoops in exchange for ground floor entrances, discarding the window and door surrounds, and striping the facades of any Victorian adornments in favor of Colonial Revival or Mediterranean styles. (For more on this trend check out Andrew Dolkart's “The Row-House Reborn: Architecture and Neighborhoods in New York City, 1908-1929.”) The home had one more well-known resident. In 1955, actor Henry Fonda purchased no. 151 from Fleischmann. Two years later he wed a 23-year-old Italian countess Afdera Franchetti in a ceremony in the home. Although that marriage only lasted four years, Fonda resided in the nearly 6,000-square-foot house until his death in 1982.

The Percy R. Pyne House, ca. 1978. One of four adjacent neo-Georgian Park Avenue Mansions, the stately residence at No. 680 was designed by McKim, Mead & White for the financier and philanthropist Percy Rivington Pyne II.

Josiah M. Fiske Residence, ca. 1901-1902. The Gothic-inspired home on the southeast corner of Fifth Avenue and 70th Street was that of stockbroker Josiah Fiske and his wife, Martha. John Sloane, partner in the very successful firm of carpet and furniture retailers, W. & J. Sloane, occupied the residence directly adjacent, at 883 Fifth Avenue.

New York Foundling Hospital ca. 1899 New York Foundling Hospital was founded in 1869, by Irish-born Sister Mary Irene Fitzgibbon with her co-worker Sister Teresa Vincent McCrystal, who formed a female lay auxiliary to obtain private and public funding for the project. The New York Foundling Hospital sought to alleviate the common nineteenth-century problem of abandoned babies. In December 1870, the Common Council of the City of New York approved a 99-year lease at a dollar per year for the block of land bounded by Lexington and Third avenues and 68th and 69th streets. The City also supplied $100,000 for the building fund. The auxiliary's Great Fair of 1871 netted an additional $100,000 toward the project. By November 1873, the first phase of the Foundling's campus was ready for occupancy. The campus expanded to include St. Ann's Maternity Hospital in 1880. St. John's Pediatric Hospital opened in February 1882, completing facilities dedicated to the care of children in need. From 1873 until 1958, when it moved to 1175 Third Avenue, the hospital was located at 175 East 68th Street. Now occupying a modern facility at Sixth Avenue and 17th Street, the New York Foundling Hospital is still operated by the Sisters of Charity, who no longer take in abandoned babies, but instead care for very sick infants from hospitals throughout the City.

Park East Synagogue ARCHITECT: Schneider & Herter DATE: 1889-90 STYLE: Moorish Revival, Byzantine With its richly-decorated and imaginatively composed Moorish Revival facade, this building is an unexpected delight in the picturesque streetscape of East 67th Street between Lexington and Third Avenues. Its combination of Moorish and Byzantine architectural detail marks it as a late manifestation of the attempt to find appropriate expression for synagogue architecture which accompanied the proliferation of new Jewish congregations after the Civil War.

Thomas Hunter Hall, Hunter College, ca. 1978. The Female Normal and High School was founded in 1870 by Thomas Hunter, who served as its first president and, eventually, its namesake. “Normal” schools were predecessors of teacher’s colleges, where instruction prepared students — almost exclusively women — for careers as teachers. In 1873, the school moved to its present Lenox Hill location. This building, Thomas Hunter Hall, was designed by C.B.J. Snyder to replace the school’s previous Gothic main hall. Snyder’s neo-Gothic structure was completed in 1914, the same year the school adopted the name Hunter College, in honor of its founder. Today’s Hunter College High School was separated from the collegiate-level school in 1903, though both continued to share the same campus. The high school occupied several campus buildings, including Thomas Hunter Hall, before moving to a new campus on the former site of the Squadron A Armory in 1977. The school started admitting male students in 1974. Hunter College High School alumni/ae include a broad array of distinguished figures, from Supreme Court Justice Elana Kagan (‘77) to Lin-Manuel Miranda (‘98).

829 and 823 Park Avenue, date unknown. The three tall gleaming white residential towers (no. 829 has two towers, while no.813 has only one) were constructed in 1911 and designed by Pickering and Walker. Currently no. 823 (the mid block building) had only 11 apartments: ten full floor residences and a duplex penthouse.

19 East 72nd Street, 1937. The subtle Art Moderne apartment house that now stands on the lot of the former Tiffany mansion was designed by Mott B. Schmidt and Rosario Candela. Built immediately upon the razing of the old mansion (1936-1937) in the middle of the Great Depression, the limestone upper facade of the apartment house creates simple, clean lines, described by the AIA Guide to New York City as "succulent." The only highly decorative feature is the sculptural stonework around the main entrance, designed and carved by C. P. Jennewien and featuring classical figures and animals.

Clarence Whitman Mansion, 7 East 76th Street. This Renaissance Revival-style mansion was built in 1898 and designed by architects Parish and Schroeder. Originally, the address consisted of two neighboring facades until wealthy importer Clarence Whitman purchased the two houses and combined them in 1899, according to Daytonian in Manhattan. The mansion has since been home to a succession of notable owners, including art dealer Sam Salz, who displayed works by Cézanne, Monet, Renoir, and others inside.

Entrance to the Frick Residence, ca. 1915. The female figure depicted lounging in the relief over the door was modeled on famed early 20th century artist model, Audrey Munson.

Richard Morris Hunt Memorial, ca. 1900. Richard Morris Hunt, the dean of American architecture and the first American to study at the prestigious Ecole des Beaux-Arts in Paris, died in 1895. Immediately upon his death, friends and colleagues quickly undertook an effort to erect a monument to the man. Initially begun by the Municipal Arts Society (of which Hunt was the first president), the cause was soon taken up by other arts and architectural institutions as well the wealthy families for whom Hunt designed homes. The planned memorial was to be created by Bruce Price with the bust of Hunt and the flanking statues sculpted by Daniel Chester French. On October 23, 1898, the incomplete monument was unveiled. It was erected on Fifth Avenue between 70th and 71st Streets, across the street from Hunt's 1877 Lenox Library. The memorial would finally be completed in 1900 with the addition of the flanking female statues. Fun Fact! This was not the first likeness of Hunt in New York City. A bust of the well-loved architect already existed by the time of his death. In the early 1880s, as stone cutters were completing work on the William K. Vanderbilt mansion, the architect discovered that the artisans had created his likeness as a tribute. The statue of Hunt, depicted as a stone-cutter, was installed on the roof over the entrance to the house. With the home demolished in 1926, the fate of the statue is unknown (though likely it was destroyed with the house).

The French flag flying from 9 East 72nd Street looks right at home on this exuberant Beaux-Arts French Renaissance facade. But, this building was not built for French patrons. Though it housed the Lycee Francais from 1964-2002, this structure on 72nd was actually designed by Carrere and Hastings (who designed the New York Public Library), and completed in 1896, for Henry T. Sloane, a carpet magnate, and his wife Jessie.

As the only institution in New York City receiving infants with no questions asked, the Foundling placed a reception crib outside the building, with a bell nearby to be rung to alert the sisters to retrieve an infant. When Foundling resources were strained during the depression of 1873, the Sisters moved the crib inside. But infants kept coming. In 1889, a new infant discovered in the crib received the number 20,715.

What did you do if you had a child you couldn't support in the 1800s? You could send it to the New York Foundling Hospital. The Foundling Hospital was founded in 1869, by Irish-born Sister Mary Irene Fitzgibbon with her co-worker Sister Teresa Vincent McCrystal, who formed a female lay auxiliary to obtain private and public funding for the project. The New York Foundling Hospital sought to alleviate the common nineteenth-century problem of abandoned babies.

Crimmins House, ca. 1898. Originally constructed as a fashionable brownstone in 1879 for the construction contractor John D. Crimmins, the home was one of William Schickel's first residential commissions in the city. Crimmin was involved in much of the construction of city infrastructure in the decades around the turn of the century, from the elevated trains, to gas works, and the Croton Aqueduct. In 1898, after deciding he needed a larger home, Crimmins purchased the adjacent brownstone (no. 42), hired Schickel once again, and commissioned a new double wide mansion. The resulting ornate Beaux-Arts facade, rendered in gleaming white, was eye-catching among the older brownstone homes on the block. Today the Beaux-Arts beauty remains, having been broken into a multi-family building some time in the mid century and sans its central staircase.

Construction on East 78th Street, February 2, 1928. At left is the entrance to No. 163-165 East 78th, the easternmost of five landmarked 1861 row houses. At right is the excavation site for No. 169 East 78th, a ten story apartment building completed in 1928.

Council on Foreign Relations, 58 East 68th Street, ca. 1975. Designed by architect William Adams Delano, this limestone building was erected in 1921 as the residence for Mr. and Mrs. Harold Irving Pratt. Mr. Pratt was the youngest son of Charles Pratt, an executive of Standard Oil and founder of the Pratt Institute in Brooklyn. The residence, formerly known as the Pratt House, was constructed of custom-made limestone and is reputed to have cost over one million dollars in 1920. In 1944, with the home unoccupied, the Pratt family donated the residence to the Council on Foreign Relations, where Harold Irving Pratt previously served as a member. The Council on Foreign Relations moved in April, 1945.

Park Avenue Armory This indefensible fort, bristling with battlements, provides an amusing commentary on the architectural expressionism of the eighteen seventies. although a functional drill hall makes up for its defensive shortcomings. A high belfry above the central tower has been removed and the tower has been lowered since the turn of the century.

Henry Clay Frick House ARCHITECT: Carrère & Hastings DATE: 1913-14 Set in spacious grounds and surrounded by retaining walls, this great mansion presents a striking picture of imposing grandeur and architectural distinction on Fifth Avenue, where it occupies the entire blockfront between 70th and 71st Streets. Built as the residence of Henry Clay Frick, it has been a museum since 1935. The entrance to The Frick Collection is at No. 1 East 70th Street. Adjoining the mansion to the east and connected to it at basement level, is the newer Frick Art Reference Library Building at No. 10 East 71st Street.

Edward S. Harkness Residence ca. 1910 The latter-day town house on Fifth Avenue was indeed a splendid affair, complete with elevators, imported rooms, basements, subbasements, and quarters for legions of servants. This stone palazzo was built for the ages; one of the few Fifth Avenue mansions remaining.

Empty lot at the northwest corner of Madison Avenue and East 72nd Street, 1936. The Tiffany mansion had recently been demolished.

Park Avenue Armory, as viewed from Lexington Avenue and 66th Street, 1937. The Park Avenue Armory (also known as the Seventh Regiment Armory) is a massive 1880 Gothic Revival structure. The main entrance fronts Park Avenue between 66th and 67th Streets. (This photograph depicts the back end of the building on Lexington Avenue.) Designed by Charles Clinton, the huge structure was the headquarters and administrative building for the 7th New York Militia Regiment. The most well-known feature (certainly in its current use as an arts space ) is the 55,000 square foot drill hall. This regiment, from its beginnings, had a majority of members from the city's wealthy and elite families– it was known as the Silk Stocking Regiment. While all armories included additional rooms such as a reception hall, library, veterans room and staff offices, the interior of these rooms here were particularly spectacular and the work of some of the periods most well known designers and artists. Louis Comfort Tiffany designed (with a 24-year old Stanford White assisting) the Silver Room or "Trophy Room" and the Veterans Room, which is decked out in hand carved wood panelling, a coffered ceiling, and stained glass windows. Today the building is still used by a detachment of the New York National Guard, Veterans of the 7th Regiment and the Park Avenue Armory Conservancy, a non-profit that programs unconventional performing and visual arts.

The Seventh Regiment Armory 643 Park Avenue Designed by Charles W. Clinton 1877-79 NYC HD, NYC IL, NYC INL, NR-P, NHL The Seventh Regiment was formed in 1806 from four volunteer militia companies, and served in the War of 1812, the Civil War and both World Wars, as well as aided in subduing numerous civilian disorders. In 1880, after years of using various buildings, its own grand armory, designed in the style of a fortified castle, opened to much fanfare. Often referred to as the “silk stocking regiment,” its members were socially prominent. As such, the building features lavish interiors designed by noted artists and architects, including Louis Comfort Tiffany, Stanford White, the Herter Brothers and Pottier & Stymus, among others. Much of the first and second floor interiors are protected by landmark designation. Because the drill hall was used for maneuvers, the 55,000-square-foot space required very high ceilings. Normally used for train sheds, enormous iron trusses span the enclosure to support the roof. It remains one of the largest unobstructed spaces in the city, and has been used for a variety of functions. From 1900 to 1963, the National Indoor Tennis Championships were held here, and since 1902, the Knickerbocker Greys, a junior cadet corps for school boys, has used the space for drills.

Parke-Bernet Galleries, ca. 1975. Designed by Walker & Poor in 1949, this simple limestone facade modern building was originally the home of the Parke-Bernet Galleries. For many years Parke-Bernet was the largest auctioneer of fine art in the United States. They were purchased by Sotheby's in 1964. The aluminum sculpture of two figures above the entrance is called "Venus Bringing the Arts to Manhattan," an appropriate depiction for a fine arts auction house. Designed by Wheeler Williams, the chest of the female figure extends into what is considered public space by 18 inches. Because of this intrusion, the building owner was originally forced to pay a $25 a year "rental" fee. (According to a 2006 New York Time article the cost of the rental that year had grown to $3,251.) Considered largely unremarkable architecturally by commenters on the city's built environment, the building had an additional (set back) story added in 1957, and Sotheby's moved out by the mid-1980s. In 2006, the owner considered a full renovation of the building and the addition of two oval-shaped glass towers for apartments. Being within the Upper East Side Historic District, this plan was weighed by the LPC and found wanting. The towers were never built.

720 Park Avenue ca. 1938 Completed one month before the stock market crash of 1929, 720 Park Avenue represented the opulent excesses of the Jazz Age's giddy conclusion. Disparagingly dubbed "a disturbing pile" by the New Yorker magazine, the building featured asymmetrical massing of bay windows, terraces, and chimneys, among other architectural motifs. Jesse Isidor Straus, of the family that led R.H. Macy's department store, owned a duplex with a 40-foot entrance gallery and a large library. He had bought the land on which the structure sat and built the building because other high-end properties restricted Jews from living there.

My Archive Spring 2019 "A photo of my father in front of the building we lived in—242 East 72nd Street in Manhattan, taken by my brother for a class assignment." —Jill Melamed

1 East 75th Street ARCHITECT: Hale & Rogers DATE: 1907-08 STYLE: Italian Renaissance This imposing residence in the style of an Italian Renaissance palazzo is outstanding not only for the excellence of design and beauty of execution but also for a subtle richness of detail. Five stories high with basement and sub-basement, its dignity and quiet elegance are due in part to the large plain wall areas of Tennessee marble and the sparing but effective use of ornament.

17 East 70th Street ARCHITECT: Arthur C. Jackson DATE: 1909-11 STYLE: French Classical This house at 17 East 70th Street was built in 1909-11 and designed in the French Classical manner, one of the prominent styles during this period. The architect, Arthur C. Jackson was with the prominent New York City architectural firm of Heins and LaFarge when he designed this building. He was later noted for his public and commercial buildings in New York City

Fifth Avenue alongside Central Park is one of New York's most recognizable locales. This walk focuses on the institutions that lend this turf its name: the Museum Mile!

177-179 East 73rd Street CLIENT: Automobile Realty Co. ARCHITECT: Charles F. Hoppe DATE: 1906 The 177-179 East 73rd Street Building is a fine example of the type of commercial garage built in New York City during the early years of the 20th century, at a time when automobiles were beginning to supplant horses and carriages as the primary mode of private urban transportation. The garage was designed in 1906 in the fashionable Beaux-Arts style by Charles F. Hoppe for the Automobile Realty Co. With its bold massing and detailing, the building reflects a sophistication of design unusual for a utilitarian structure.

NYPD 19th Precinct Station House ARCHITECT: Nathaniel D. Bush DATE: 1886-87 STYLE: Rundbogenstil, Renaissance Revival, Neo-Grec The midblock station house, five stories high above a basement, was constructed with a cross-shaped plan with one-bay wings and is faced in red brick and gray granite with contrasting buff-colored stone detail. The design combines elements of the Rundbogenstil and the Renaissance Revival and neo-Grec styles. The three-bay main facade, articulated as a grid formed by continuous rusticated stone piers and intermediate cornices, successfully affirmed the authority of the Police Department in the rapidly expanding Upper East Side neighborhood.

Gertrude Rhinelander Waldo House ca. 1912 The Gertrude Rhinelander Waldo House was constructed for its eponymous creator in 1898. The heiress had bought the property in 1882, with the idea that she would create a mansion for herself there. However, she moved into a row house with her sister across the street from the Rhinelander house and lived there for many years. Indeed, construction wouldn't start until 1894 when Gertrude had moved to the Savoy. She sold some other properties she had inherited and used the proceeds to begin construction. The architecture firm Kimball & Thompson designed the homes based on a French chateau in the Loire Valley, and upon its completion, Gertrude filled it with antiquities and expensive furniture. However, she never moved in herself, and most of the furniture and material was never unpacked. She would never move into the homes, nor did she want to sell. Rhinelander would even go as far as backing out of a possible sale in 1910, and, when debts forced the property to go to auction in 1911, repurchasing it. Eventually, she was forced to sell one of the homes in 1912 and gave the other to her sister. She would die in debt in 1914 (partially due to the costs of building the home) and the Rhinelander properties would remain empty until 1920.

19 East 70th Street ARCHITECT: Thornton Chard DATE: 1909-10 STYLE: Italian Renaissance This extremely elegant and architecturally distinguished residence was designed by Thornton Chard (1873-1951), a New York architect, in a simplified but sophisticated version of early Italian Renaissance style. Chard had attended the Ecole des Beaux-Arts in Paris in 1901 and, upon his return from Europe, opened an architectural office in the city. His small but selective practice in this city and state spanned some three decades. His client, for whom the house was built in 1909-10, was Dave Hennen Morris and his wife Alice. Mr. Morris later served as United States Ambassador to Belgium during President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s first term.

Oliver Gould Jennings Residence (at left), ca. 1975. The Oliver Gould Jennings residence was built in 1898 by Paris-trained architects Ernest Flagg and Walter B. Chambers. Like his father, a founder of the Standard Oil Company, Oliver ranked among New York's wealthiest citizens. He served as the director of several companies, including the National Fuel Gas Company and Bethlehem Steel, and was a former member of the Connecticut House of Representatives. Oliver and his wife Mary lived in the Beaux-Arts townhouse until 1914, when they sold the house and relocated to their new home on Fifth Avenue between 69th and 70th Street. In August of 1960, the Lycée Français, a French high school, leased the mansion as additional space to its main campus on East 95th Street. The school occupied the building for several years before also purchasing the former Sloane mansion next door, combining the two units. In 2010, the school sold the former Oliver Gould Jennings residence and the Sloane mansion for $26 million. The buyer, an Emir of Qatar, has since commissioned architect Thornton Tomasetti to return it to a private residence.

C. C. Auchincloss residence, ca. 1912. Charles C. Auchincloss was a stock broker and book collector, who with his wife, Rosamond, were fixtures of New York society. They lived in this home in the first three decades of the 20th century. In the early 1930s the building, and its neighbor at no. 10 were purchased by the Frick collection and demolished to make way for a new library building. The new Frick Art Reference Library building opened to the public on January 14, 1935. By the time of this demolition and new building, Charles and Rosamond had moved on to 120 East 70th Street, a three-story brownstone house, which they demolished and replaced with a (still standing) five-story neo-Georgian mansion.

How did the stunning Frick Collection come into existence? A passion for art collecting and hard-nosed business practices of course!

10 East 76th Street, ca. 1910. No. 10, at center, is the James Brady house, the last in a row of ten four-story brownstone-fronted houses just off Central Park. Constructed in 1881 by speculative developer William Noble, and designed by architect John G. Prague, the facade seen here was a Beaux-Arts redesign by Schwartz & Gross completed in 1908. (Its original look can be seen in its neighbors at left.) The building at right (nos. 6 and 8) is the Ludlow-Parish Houses, a pair of separate mansions designed to look like one wide home. Completed in 1896, the the large shared drawing rooms of the homes served as the venue for the small 1905 wedding of F.D.R. and Eleanor Roosevelt, in which President Teddy Roosevelt (the bride's uncle) walked her down the aisle.

Percy and Maud H. Pyne House ARCHITECT: McKim, Mead & White; Charles F. McKim DATE: 1906-12 STYLE: Neo-Federal This house is a part of that outstanding group of neo-Federal townhouses which extends along the west side of Park Avenue, between East 68th and 69th Streets, sometimes referred to as the “Pyne-Davison Blockfront” due to the uniform architectural quality of these houses. No. 680 Park Avenue, formerly the handsome townhouse of Percy Rivington Pyne, occupies a conspicuous site at the northwest corner of East 68th Street and Park Avenue. It was designed in the neo-Federal style by the architectural firm of McKim, Mead & White, and built in 1909-11. Percy Pyne was a New York financier and philanthropist; he resided here until his death in 1929. The house was sold in 1947 to the Chinese Delegation to the United Nations which in turn sold It to the Soviet Mission to the United Nations.

Row houses on East 78th Street, August 2, 1930. The row of five houses starting at center-left with No. 157 East 78th Street share party walls with their immediate neighbors, and were as a group designated a New York City Landmark in April, 1968. The row was built in 1861 for John Turner, a painter, who sold the residences to four separate buyers, with Mary Jane Maguaran purchasing the two easternmost structures, nos. 161 and 163-165 (both with window awnings). According to photographer P.L. Sperr, a "Mrs. Anna Drewnick in 1929 combined these buildings into a single spacious dwelling with a garden at the rear, at a cost of $175,000." However, this renovation is absent from the LPC designation report.

24 East 72nd Street, 1895. This five-story brownstone was designed by McKim, Mead & White for Mrs. Ruth Brown. The home was complete in 1895 but Brown sold the house to Alva Vanderbilt before ever even moved in. The freshly (and scandalously) divorced Alva was forced to leave her Fifth Avenue 'Petit Chateau' following the end of her marriage. Despite an initial shunning by the moneyed society after the divorce, Alva was welcomed back into the fold soon when she married her daughter to the Duke of Marlborough. The reception was held at Alva's new brownstone, a brunch for 115 guests. Alva herself also married at this house, a quiet wedding in January 1896 to a friend of her ex-husband, Oliver Belmont. Alva sold the house a few years later. It remained a private residence until 1949. Razed two years later for a simple, boxy two-story building, but the corner lot has recently had a facelift. Between 2008 and 2010 Ralph Lauren erected a new building to house his second flagship store. The Beaux Arts-inspired building was an homage to grand Gilded Age mansions such as Mrs. Brown's House and the James Duke House.

770 Park Avenue ca. 1930 Primarily made up of duplexes, this apartment building matched the exuberant asymmetrical massing of its Candela-designed neighbor across 73rd Street. Together, they demonstrate architect Rosario Candela's capacity to use similar materials, window treatments, and ornamentation to create buildings that synchronize with each other to create a harmonious urbanism, without being monotonous.

The Frick Collection, ca. 1979. Like many of New York's richest men who supported the arts, Henry Clay Frick amassed his fortune through sharp—and often ruthless—business tactics. Born in 1849 in a rural Pennsylvania town, Frick sacrificed schooling to work as head bookkeeper in the family business. By 1883, when he was 34, he merged his own company with Andrew Carnegie's to form Carnegie Steel, at a capitalization of $25 million and with a labor force of 30,000. Frick opposed organized labor his entire life. In 1892, his efforts to slash costs and keep profits up resulted in the Homestead Strike, one of the 19th century's bloodiest labor conflicts. There was even an attempt on Frick's life. In 1899, Frick and Carnegie parted ways on bitter terms that lasted the rest of their lives. Following Frick's resignation from Carnegie Steel, he sued Carnegie and walked away with a $15 million settlement. Frick's interest in art began in his early 20s, when he filled his clapboard shack with prints and sketches. Though there's little record of Frick's thoughts about the art he went on to collect, it's clear the collections of other New York industrialists inspired him. After attending the Metropolitan Museum of Art's memorial exhibition for J.P. Morgan in 1914, Frick spent more than $3 million (more than $66 million today) to buy up Limoges enamels, Chinese porcelains, Renaissance bronzes, 18th century French furniture and sculpture, and a variety of other objects. The biggest single purchase was a series of paintings by Jean Honore Fragonard that had been commissioned by one of Louis XV's mistresses. While many of the city's elite built their homes around entertaining, Frick built his to house his art, making the picture gallery the grandest room. And when he executed his will he made explicit that the home should be open to the city "for the purpose of encouraging and the developing the study of the fine arts, and of advancing the general knowledge of kindred subjects." Frick died in 1919, just a few months after Andrew Carnegie, and the collection opened to the public in 1935, upon the death of his wife, Adelaide. Many of the rooms look just as Frick left them: the library bookshelves filled, and living room tables topped with Renaissance bronzes and Chinese porcelains.

Gertrude Rhinelander Waldo House ARCHITECT: Kimball & Thompson DATE: 1895-98 Gertrude Rhinelander Waldo was a member of one of New York’s old and established families. She was a descendant of Bernard Rhinelander who in the 1840s was described as “among the richest of the rich” in the city. At the age of thirty-four, Gertrude married Francis William Waldo. The couple had one son, Rhinelander Waldo, who served in the Philippine campaign of the Spanish American War, and was later a controversial figure in New York City government, first as Fire Commissioner and then as Police commissioner under Tammany administrations.

820 Park Avenue, ca. 1942.

Sidewalk Excavation for Tree Planting at the Henry Clay Frick House, 1913. Henry Clay Frick commissioned the Beaux Arts masters Carrère & Hastings to design a residence for both his family and his art collection at the site of the former Lenox Library. Looking to create shade along 70th and 71st Streets, Frick had the sidewalk excavated to six feet in depth to install European horse-chestnut trees, which have dense canopies and shallow roots. Each of the trees was carefully selected and brought over on a special train from Germantown, PA, and fertile soil was trucked in from Long Island. Despite the care and attention of Frick’s gardeners, all the trees died less than a year later. The culprit? Illuminating gas was found seeping into the soil from faulty pipe connections from the mansion.

Architect Rosario Candela designed 780 Park Avenue before the stock market crash of 1929, but construction came to a halt in the summer of 1930 due to the worsening depression. When construction resumed in 1931, its new developers changed the address to 778 Park Avenue to eliminate the odor of its former failure.

Lay nurses and aides as well as Sisters of Charity of New York worked at the Foundling. The Foundling housed an average of 600 women and 1800 infants at a time, and also provided day care for working mothers. The largest institution of its kind in the nation, the Foundling was the only one in New York City that provided care for all children and women who requested assistance, regardless of race, creed, marital status, ethnicity, or ability to pay.

Saint Jean Baptiste Church ARCHITECT: Nicholas Siracino DATE: 1910-13 STYLE: Church The principal facade on Lexington Avenue is a masterpiece of lively symmetry with a tasteful and intelligent statement and restatement of architectural motifs. A temple-front portico screens the central door of the three that gives access to the Church. Four free-standing Corinthian columns, on a high plinth, support a full entablature and pediment.

Blumenthal House, ca. 1915. George Blumenthal was a German-born financier, philanthropist, and art collector who made the bulk of his fortune in foreign exchange on Wall Street. Blumenthal built two homes in New York City. The first was a 1903 midblock mansion on West 53rd Street. The second was this four-story limestone mansion designed by Trowbridge & Livingston on the former site of the Union Theological Seminary. The large home was laid out to house Blumenthal's large collection of art, including an interior patio complex originally produced for the castle of Vélex Blanco in Spain (and a working fountain from Florence). Blumenthal died in 1941 bequeathing the home and much of his collection to the Metropolitan Museum, of which he was President of the Board at his death. Today the museum has the interior patio on display, while the home itself was demolished in 1943 for a 20-story apartment building.

775 Park Avenue ca. Built in 1927, 775 Park Avenue served to cement architect Rosario Candela's reputation for creating ultra luxury apartment buildings. Containing no less than 4 maisonettes (each with their own street level entrance), this limestone and brick structure's Italian Renaissance design falls in line with Rosario Candela's style of a restrained exterior hiding the vast apartments and homes within.

FDNY Engine 39, ca. 1915. Set among a row of historic institutional buildings on 67th Street between Lexington and Third Avenues, the Fire Department headquarters was the first and largest. Constructed in 1886 to the designs of the fire department's regular architect, Napoleon LeBrun, the Romanesque-style building included a 150-foot tower. The block itself was on a slight hill and the addition of the tower allowed for a panoramic view all the way down to the Battery. The building also housed the department's complex telegraph system. It was described in 1887 as ''an excellent piece of design . . . giving the taxpayer something worth looking at for their money.'' Over the next five years the fire headquarters acquired some grand neighbors, including a police station house (just left of the firehouse), the Mount Sinai Hospital dispensary and nursing school (left of the police station), and the Orthodox Congregation Zichron Ephraim (the Moorish style church at right). Despite plans to demolish the police and fire buildings in the 1970s for a Hunter College complex and an overturned landmark designation for both in 1980, the buildings remain among their historic neighbors. While the historic exteriors have largely been preserved and maintained, the fire house (no longer the headquarters, but home to Engine Co. 39 and Ladder 16) lost its tower and some of its facade carvings, giving it a somewhat unfinished look.

Replacing the ornate home of Charles Lewis Tiffany at the corner of Madison Avenue and 72nd Street, 19 East 72nd Street was one of the few apartment buildings Candela completed during the Great Depression. Stripped down to simple, stone surfaces with minimal ornamentation, the structure showed the rising influence of Modernism on American architecture and design. The curved profile of the building's lower three floors copied the Austrian Pavilion that Viennese architect and designer Josef Hoffmann had designed for the 1925 Exposition Internationale des Arts Décoratifs et Industriels Modernes in Paris.

Mount Sinai Dispensary ARCHITECT: Buchman & Deisler; Brunner & Tryon DATE: 1889-90 STYLE: Neo-Italian Renaissance This very handsome neo-Italian Renaissance-style building at 149-151 East 67th Street was built in 1889-90 to serve as a dispensary for Mount Sinai Hospital. The hospital originally faced the dispensary from its site on the south side of East 67th Street between Lexington and Third Avenues. The dignified and elegant architectural expression of the clinic, itself very much a product of late 19th-century social ideals is an important element in the group of stylistically diverse monumental civic and institutional buildings on this East Side block.