222 East 79th Street James Brown Lord, 1902; renovation: Gwathmey Siegel & Associates 1986 NYC IL, NR-P The very first of the Carnegie-funded branches of the NYPL, the Yorkville Branch officially opened in December of 1902. The three-story building has a limestone facade, divided into three bays with elegant arched windows on the main floor and Ionic columns on the second. At the turn of the century, Yorkville was a densely populated German immigrant neighborhood, and as such, the third floor of the original building housed only German language publications. At the end of World War I, Thomas Masaryk used the Yorkville library to conduct the research that led to his founding of the Czechoslovakian state. The library’s interior was renovated in the late 1980s with funds donated by the Rose family. Once again the place of a pioneering event, the renovation was the first time a branch library was overhauled using private resources. The current library occupies two floors within the original ornate Palladian-inspired façade. The building was designated a landmark in 1967, only two years after the enactment of the New York City Landmarks Law. The library is an New York City Individual Landmark and listed on the New York City and State National Register of Historic Places.

Isaac Vail Brokaw Residence ca. 1901 This little castle on its corner site was one of the few remaining town houses which could boast such splendid isolation. Romanesque in many of its details, this mansion was basically of French Renaissance inspiration in its fenestration and roof lines. The marble interiors clove to the Romanesque Revival and were some of the finest and most original work of the style.

Couple on the steps of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, ca. 1974.

Ukrainian Institute of America, ca. 1975. The Fletcher-Sinclair mansion (now the Ukrainian Institute of America) was built in 1897 and designed by the well-known architect Charles Pierrepont Henry Gilbert. The French Gothic mansion was constructed as a single family home for Isaac D. Fletcher, a banker and railroad investor. The building is elaborately designed with drip moldings, gargoyles, and a high mansard slate roof, though the narrow side (5th Avenue) facade is a bit plainer to blend in better with the neighboring buildings. The home, along with Fletcher's extensive art collection, was donated to the Metropolitan Museum of Art after his death in 1917. The museum turned around and sold the home to endow the prints and drawing collections. The buyer of the home was Harry Ford Sinclair, founder of the country's largest independent oil company. He would end up in jail for jury tampering related to the Teapot Dome scandal and sold the home in 1930. After one more private owner (supposed descendants of Peter Stuyvesant), the house was purchased in 1955 by The Ukrainian Institute of America, a new non-profit (started as a small organization on Long Island in 1948). The Institute is dedicated to promoting the art, music and literature of Ukraine and the Ukrainian diaspora. Since 1955, they have thoughtfully and professionally maintained and preserved both the interior and exterior of the building

Storefronts at The Marion, a Lexington Avenue Apartment building. November 8, 1911.

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.

William Starr Miller House (Neue Galerie), ca. 1915. In 1912, the industrialist William Starr Miller commissioned Carrère & Hastings — then in great demand, having just completed the New York Public Library’s main branch — to design his Fifth Avenue residence. The firm produced a 64-room Louis XIII style mansion with a red brick and limestone facade recalling a pair of local landmarks: Andrew Carnegie’s mansion at 91st Street, and the original facade of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, directly across Fifth Avenue. In 1994, the building was purchased by the art collector and philanthropist Ronald Lauder, who, with fellow collector Serge Sabarsky, founded the Neue Galerie for 20th century German and Austrian Art.

The Brokaw Mansion, ca. 1900. Constructed between 1887 and 1890 for the millionaire clothing manufacturer Issac Vail Brokaw, the opulent mansion was modeled on the 16th century Chateau Chenonceaux in France’s Loire Valley. Built along "Millionaire's Row" on the east side of Fifth Avenue, the mansion lavishly designed inside and out, with a marble entrance, stained glass, carved wood decoration, mosaics, murals, and even a moat! Brokaw also had constructed on the property a number of homes for his children, including 7 East 79th Street and the 1905-built Gothic twin buildings at 984 and 985 Fifth Avenue. The main house remained in the family until Brokaw's son George sold it in 1946 to the Institute of Radio Engineers (they would later also purchase two of the other Brokaw residences). In 1963 the organization, now called the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, sold the buildings to Campagna Construction Corporation, who announced in the fall of 1964 that they planned to demolish the buildings. This announcement, paired with interest from the press public, and citywide organization, caught the city's attention and resulted in ardent calls for landmarks legislation. Nonetheless, despite the articles and rallies, the buildings were quickly and somewhat stealthily demolished in February in 1965. A year later, a 26-story cooperative apartment building was erected on the site. The events surrounding the end of the Brokaw Mansion were a warning shot. The threat to the mansions moved the landmarks legislation off the Mayor's desk and into the City Council committee. It was the loss of the buildings that then pushed the legislation to a vote and the eventual signing into law on April 19, 1965.

Park Avenue scene at 96th Street, March 22, 1927. Across Park Avenue is a large apartment building, completed in 1926, and the Park Avenue Methodist Episcopal Church. Note the diversity of vehicular traffic: bus, streetcar (blurred, at left), and horse-and-carriage vehicles are all pictured — and the New York and Harlem Railroad tracks run beneath the Park Avenue median.

Girard Residence ca 1910 Row houses were generally two to four stories and were usually built in groups, of identical design, often covering an entire block or more. The upscale version of the row house- the townhouse- was custom designed and sometimes as tall as six stories (servants occupied the higher floors), but still filled the entire width of the lot. Alexander McMillan Welch was known for his townhouse commissions on Fifth Avenue and along the fashionable side streets of the Upper East Side of Manhattan. This townhouse, at 1014 Fifth Avenue, across from the Metropolitan Museum of Art, was one of many elegant mansions and townhouses built by wealthy New Yorkers on the Upper East Side. One of few survivors of a rash of demolition to accommodate apartment house construction in the 1960s and 1970s, the townhouse remains protected by the Metropolitan Museum Historic District. The building served as the Goethe House, headquarters of the American Center for Cultural Relations with Germany for many years.

990 Fifth Avenue ca. 1927 Built on the site of the grand Woolworth Mansion in 1927, 990 Fifth Avenue, designed by Rosario Candela, is only slightly less luxurious. 14 stories high, Candela designed the building to have only six apartments (5 duplex, and 1 triplex.) With a limestone facade and elegant detailing in a neo-Italian Renaissance design, 990 Fifth Avenue served as the epitome of how in the 21st century lavish homes were moving skyward.

The Immanuel Lutheran Church was founded by German immigrants in Yorkville in 1863. The congregation initially settled on East 87th Street near Lexington Avenue. Its current building at 122 East 88th Street, seen in this 1937 photo, was designed in 1886 in a Gothic Revival style by Arthur Crooks. Its 200-foot granite tower houses bells given to the church as a gift from the Empress of Germany in the later nineteenth century. By the turn of the twentieth century, the church was one of the largest Lutheran churches in New York City and was devoted exclusively to German-language services.

Immanuel Lutheran Church, April, 1961. The Immanuel Lutheran Church, a Gothic edifice designed by Arthur Crooks, features a 200-foot bell tower at the corner of 88th Street and Lexington Avenue. The tower houses three bells, presented as a gift from Empress Auguste Victoria of Germany at the church’s 1886 dedication, in recognition of the German heritage of many Immanuel congregants. In June 1969, blasting for the construction of a new Gimbel’s department store one block south caused Immanuel’s vaulted plaster ceiling to collapse, damaging the church interior and stained glass windows. Luckily, the altar and hand-carved Black Forest reredos (the carved, wooden decoration behind the altar area) were unharmed.

Yorkville Branch, NYPL 222 East 79th Street James Brown Lord, 1902; renovation: Gwathmey Siegel & Associates 1986 NYC IL, NR-P The very first of the Carnegie-funded branches of the NYPL, the Yorkville Branch officially opened in December of 1902. The three-story building has a limestone facade, divided into three bays with elegant arched windows on the main floor and Ionic columns on the second. At the turn of the century, Yorkville was a densely populated German immigrant neighborhood, and as such, the third floor of the original building housed only German language publications. At the end of World War I, Thomas Masaryk used the Yorkville library to conduct the research that led to his founding of the Czechoslovakian state. The library’s interior was renovated in the late 1980s with funds donated by the Rose family. Once again the place of a pioneering event, the renovation was the first time a branch library was overhauled using private resources. The current library occupies two floors within the original ornate Palladian-inspired façade. The building was designated a landmark in 1967, only two years after the enactment of the New York City Landmarks Law. The library is an New York City Individual Landmark and listed on the New York City and State National Register of Historic Places.

Louis Stern Mansion, 1884-1929 Louis Stern was the president of the Stern Brothers Department Store. He opened the successful retail company with his brothers, Isaac and Benjamin. The brothers were an important merchandising family who were born to German Jewish immigrants in New York City. In 1884, Louis Stern purchased a 27-foot wide lot between 80th and 81st street on Fifth Avenue. This lot was opposite Central Park. His palace was designed by German architect William Schickel in a French-Gothic inspired fashion. The mansion's ornate facade rose four stories, complete with a stone oriel that supported a stone-balustraded balcony. The doors of the home were clad in bronze and glass. The house quickly became a social hub, hosting parties and social gatherings that brought prominent New York society members to the home. The house was sold to an Adolphus Busch, of St. Louis, in 1911. The mansion was a gift for his daughter Edmee who married art collector Hugo Reisinger. When the couple moved in, Hugo's collection filled the many rooms of the mansion. Paintings of Childe Hassam, Whistler, Carl Melchers, Menzel, Zuegel, and Boecklin lined the walls. The United States entry into World War I prompted suspicion of the Busch's and Reisingers, two wealthy German families. In 1917, an illegal radio receiving station was found on the roof of the mansion. According to a mortified Edmee, their servant Alexander Hugo installed this powerful radio equipment in secrecy under the instruction of her father. The station included a De Forest audion detector, which allowed for the receiving of long-distance messages - likely from Germany's capital in Nauen. Edmee sold the house to a realty company after the war ended. A sixteen-story apartment was constructed a decade later.

1100 Madison Avenue, ca. 1911. Completed in 1911 by the firm of Schwartz & Gross, the Schermerhorn (now called Gerel) is a 12-story apartment building. It sits just outside the Metropolitan Museum Historic District. The land on which it was constructed was purchased from the prominent Schermerhorn family.

The Metropolitan Museum of Art is one of the great landmarks, and the great institutions, of New York City, the nation, and the world. With more than two million objects in its collection, it is by far the largest museum in both New York and the country. Covering what would be several city blocks, stretching nearly a quarter-mile long, and housing over 2,000,000 square feet of space, it’s roughly the size of the Empire State Building. This story is adapted from a Village Preservation blog, which can be viewed here.

Park Avenue storefronts at East 88th Street, 1938. At left, businesses No. 1080 include Boghen Pharmacy and Park Avenue Jeweler. At right, at No. 1082 are an unlikely pair: The Great Atlantic & Pacific Tea Co., at street level; and the J.P. Linahan Casket Display showroom one store above.

St. Ignatius of Loyola, 1929. The Church of St. Ignatius was dedicated on December 11, 1898 (and completed two years later). The new Schickel & Ditmar-designed edifice replaced the modest brick structure of the former St. Lawrence O’Toole Church. The parish dates from 1851, and in 1898 the congregation sought permission to change the patron saint of the parish from St. Lawrence to St. Ignatius. The Italian-Renaissance edifice, rendered in limestone, is monumental in scale while austere in character. The plans for the church originally included a pair of towers that would rise 210 feet above the street. Alas, that feature was abandoned early in the process, but the resulting copper-capped tower bases on either side of the central pediment hint at the original intent.

St. Ignatius Parochial School, ca. 1905.

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.”

Mansion at 15 East 84th Street, August 19, 1949. This extra-wide 84th Street mansion was constructed in 1899 for Adam Lanfear Norrie, a business executive and the son of Scottish-born high society financier Gordon Norrie. The original mansion, designed by architect and James Renwick protege J. Lawrence Aspinwall, was substantially altered in the late 1920s, after it was acquired by New York Herald Tribune editor Ogden Reid. The Italian Renaissance facade visible today dates to this renovation. The mansion was acquired by the Leon Levy Foundation in 2004. The property was included in a 2006 gift to New York University for the establishment of the Institute of the Study of the Ancient World.

Vincent and Helen Astor House ARCHITECT: Mott B. Schmidt DATE: 1927-28 STYLE: Neo-Classical Reflecting the neo-Classical style of Robert Adam, one of the foremost English architects of the eighteenth century, this formal residence of austere elegance is five stories high with basement and sub-basement. It is one of the most successful houses designed by a very gifted architect. Constructed of ashlar masonry of Roche limestone imported from France, the facade has a flat, low relief quality resulting from the slight variation in depth between the surface of the wall and projecting planes of the decorative elements. There is an absence of deep shadows, and the architect has deliberately used understatement in expressing the true refinement to be found here.

Northeast corner of 87th Street and Lexington Avenue, October 13, 1911.

This beautifully detailed Romanesque Revival structure was designed in 1893 by the architects Fowler and Hough, whose other Romanesque Revival work includes the 23rd Regiment Armory on Bedford Avenue in Brooklyn. The First Hungarian Baptist Church was a community space even before it was a church. The building at 255 East 80th Street was originally home to an Industrial School for the American Female Guardian Society, an organization founded in 1849 to assist working women by offering necessities like food and clothing, as well as vocational and educational training. When the New York City Baptist Mission Society purchased the building in 1918, with the vision to spread Christianity throughout the city, it focused on the Hungarian immigrant population in the area. That year, First Hungarian Baptist Church opened on the building’s first floor, and accommodations for the pastor were made on the second floor. At the time, many of the Hungarian immigrants in Yorkville were young working women. In an effort to provide safe lodging for those women, and a link to the community for those who had come to the United States alone, the Baptist Mission Society transformed the Industrial School’s third-floor classrooms into bedrooms for girls and created the Hungarian Girls Club. In 1957, the ownership of the building was transferred to the First Hungarian Baptist Church, which retains ownership of the building today. The community spirit still survives at First Hungarian Baptist, where services and events are still offered in Hungarian.

Musical Protective Union Building, Yorkville Casino, ca. 1912. The Yorkville Casino was a social club and community gathering space for the German community on the Upper East Side. The building was constructed in 1904 by the Musician’s Mutual Protective Union (the precursor organization to the American Federation of Musicians). One of the two large ballrooms in the Casino had a 15,000 square foot floor and was a popular nightclub. The building also functioned as a catering hall for personal and political events. The in house caterers were known for their excellent German fare and, of course, authentic German beer. The Casino, being so connected with the German-American community, was supposedly watched closely by the government during the Second World War. In the years after the war, as the neighborhood diversified ethnically, the Casino floundered and eventually closed in 1965.

17 East 79th Street (at right), ca. 1917.

"It took New York City’s Metropolitan Museum of Art (the Met), founded in 1870, a remarkable twenty-one years to convince its board of trustees to open the museum to the public on Sunday… On May 19, 1891, the issue was finally addressed during a three-hour meeting of the Met’s board. At this boisterous gathering, described as a 'series of cloudbursts,' a sharply divided board passed the following resolution: 'Resolved, that… the museum be opened free to the public every Sunday from 1 P.M. till half an hour before sunset.' A gentleman representing the World attended the meeting with a check in hand to help offset the additional costs of opening on the extra day. Later the World’s headline proclaimed, 'THE PEOPLE TRIUMPH.' The New York Times trumpeted, 'VICTORY IS WON AT LAST.' …More than a century later, in 2007 the Met’s Visitor’s Service Department reported an average Sunday attendance of between 16,000 and 18,000, with a peak of 40,000 visitors on one Sunday during the Christmas holidays. Whatever may be said about the individual motives of the Met’s founders, it is clear that they did the right thing." For more on the history of the Met, check out this article by Jerri Sherman in Gotham: A Blog for Scholars of New York City History.

John Sherman Hoyt House, Park Avenue, 1923. The Tudor-style fieldstone mansion at the northwest corner of Park Avenue and East 79th Street was designed by architect I.N. Phelps Stokes for his brother-in-law, the philanthropist John Sherman Hoyt. Upon its completion, the January 1917 edition of Architectural Review noted that though its design (which was termed "Stuart," rather than Tudor) "should have grounds around it. It is, however, very well done." Hoyt sold the mansion to James A. Stillman in 1926. Some 43 years later, after the building had passed from Stillman to his wife, and later became the consulate of the short-lived United Arab Republic, the John Sherman Hoyt House was razed for the construction of 900 Park Avenue, a 28-story tower set back from the street. Christopher Gray, the architectural historian and longtime New York Times columnist, cited this demolition as a sort of preservationist awakening: "When I encountered scaffolding and guys with crowbars around the house, I was aghast. Here was a certifiable Neat Old Thing — how could someone tear it down? A mansion, on Park Avenue — what millionaire wouldn’t want to live there? It had seemed so permanent. I was shaken. That the co-op had received a decadelong tax exemption only rubbed salt in the wound."

1021 Park Avenue ca. 1942 The L shaped plan of 1021 Park Avenue stems from the days when the Upper East Side real estate was dominated by mansions. The Pinchot family, having built themselves a lavish abode, sold some of the lots surrounding their mansion to other families, requiring them to be used as private homes. Eventually, they sold their home to Edward Stettinus, who continued to purchase land, but (due to the Pinchot's earlier sales) had to wrap around some lots, creating the curious L shape. In 1928, the developer Anthony Campagna bought Stettinus' land and planned to erect an apartment tower, bringing in his frequent partner: Rosario Candela. Candela, created a neo-gothic design for the building's street faced that was atypical of his normal style, incorporating features like the shields and gargoyles. For the non street facing facades, he used light brick an irregular window pattern due to the interior combination of duplex and simplex apartments. The building was a massive success with the majority of the apartments selling in almost a month.

Yorkville Sidewalk Clock (at far left), 1932. The Yorkville Clock, formerly in the shadow of the Third Avenue Elevated Railroad, was a community favorite from the day in 1898 when Adolph Stern had it set up in front of his jewelry story at 1508 Third Avenue, the northwest corner of 85th Street. In 1923, Stern’s store, having added a pawn shop, moved across the street to 1501 Third Avenue, between 84th and 85th Streets. The 17-foot cast-iron clock, simulating a giant two-faced pocket watch, was designated an official New York City landmark on August 25, 1981, along with the few other remaining sidewalk clocks in the five boroughs. It was produced by the E. Howard Clock Co., a Massachusetts firm with a New York office at 532 Broadway. The company had manufactured sidewalk clocks since 1870. In the second half of the 19th century similar tall sidewalk clocks became very popular throughout the United States. Merchants used them for advertising, and they served the public by telling the correct time for the many people who could not afford pocket watches. About ninety years after it first appeared on Third Avenue, the Yorkville Clock, by this time owned by Reimann and Bresse Furniture Store, had a quixotic experience. In 1985 a city employee mistakenly sold it as surplus property to a clock devotee named Frank Dorsa, who planned to display it in his family’s collection in Muttontown, Long Island. When Dorsa went to Reimann and Bresse hoping to locate missing clock pieces, he was almost arrested as a thief. Only his bill of sale saved him. Apprised of the unfortunate sale, Herbert Rickman, who was a special assistant to Mayor Edward Koch, arranged for the clock’s return and for reimbursement to the Dorsa family. After these peregrinations, the clock needed significant repair, which was provided by antiques dealer Louis Agrusa. Reerected on the sidewalk in front of the furniture store (next to McDonalds) the clock was ceremoniously unveiled in February, 1989. By early 1998, the need for a complete restoration was evident. The connections between the clock face and its stand were alarmingly weak. It ran sporadically. Often one face told one time, and the other another. The glass on one face was cracked and taped. Its iron pedestal, defaced by graffiti, showed patches of rust where paint had peeled off. FRIENDS worked in collaboration with the Friends of Cast Iron Architecture and Neighbors Restoring the Historic Yorkville Clock to raise $20,000 for the repair. Following an extensive restoration the Yorkville Clock was rededicated on September 14, 1999.

Carnegie Hill residents revere their neighborhood for its proximity to Central Park as well as for its architectural treasures. Residents and visitors alike also appreciate and enjoy the diversity of Carnegie Hill’s fine homes, apartment houses, and cultural attractions, many of which lie along the stretch of Fifth Avenue known as Museum Mile.

Park Avenue, south from East 84th Street, ca. 1910. At center-right is No. 970 Park Avenue, with signs advertising 8 and 10 room apartments (two apartments per floor). The building went up in 1912 at the southwest corner of 83rd Street. The Georgian Revival apartment building, originally twelve stories, was designed by Schwartz & Gross for the developer Bing & Bing. Today, it is part of the Park Avenue Historic District, created in 2014. St. Ignatius Loyola Church is visible at right.

Thatcher and Frances Adams House ARCHITECT: Adams & Warren DATE: 1902-03 STYLE: Neo-English Classic The impressive neo-English Classic style townhouse at 63 East 79th Street was designed in 1902 by architects Adams & Warren for Thatcher M. Adams. The building is representative of the large houses erected on the Upper East Side of Manhattan in the early 20th century as this area became the most fashionable residential quarter of the city.

There is no place in the world quite like New York City. While this collection might not represent the best and the brightest of history or architecture, it captures some uniquely New York moments.

George and Martha Whitney House ARCHITECT: Cross & Cross DATE: 1929-30 This facade of this house is divided horizontally into a base of one story, the shaft, consisting of two floors placed between a string course at second-floor level and a cornice at the fourth floor. The crowning feature is a mansard roof with an attic story above it. The square-headed windows are double hung and have stone keystones and splayed brick lintels. Three dormers in the slate mansard are covered with segmental arched roofs.

109 and 111 East 79th Street, date unknown. An interesting mix of architectural styles, these mirror image mansions were commissioned by a set of sisters. Alice Martin McCoon and Edith Martin hired the firm of Foster, Gade & Graham to design the French Renaissance style homes. The sisters would live in the homes, while also leasing them out while they were traveling abroad. In 1920 Alice leased no. 109 to jeweler Pierre Cartier. In the 1950s, long after the sisters had passed away and the buildings had changed hands a number of time, they were converted into large apartments. During these alterations, the shared stoop was removed and the entrances were moved below the sidewalk level. Today the original doors have been converted to large, historically anachronistic windows.

995 Fifth Avenue ca. 1928 Though now a residential cooperative, 995 Fifth Avenue began its life as the Stanhope Apartment Hotel. Its architect, Rosario Candela crafted an elegant Georgian facade for the building and laid out the graceful apartments that would ensure the Stanhope's success. Though the ownership of the building was transferred multiple times, The Stanhope quickly acquired a reputation of luxury that remains to this day.

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.

William Starr Miller Residence ca. 1920 One of the most attractive phases of French Classic architecture was that of the period of Louis XIII, which we see in the Place des Vosges in Paris. This style retained a quality of domestic warmth which disappeared with the frigid elegance of the all-limestone creations of late periods.

185 East 85th Street ca. 1967 Immortalized in the opening credits of the Jefferson's, 185 East 85th Street was once emblematic of the wave of new 1960s construction on Third Avenue. Erected in 1967, this 35-story apartment tower was striking among its lower-rise neighbors. Though perhaps not so eye-catching today, at the time it was a prime example of a "deluxe apartment in the sky." Designed by architect H. I. Feldman, The Park Lane was known for its rounded balconies and unobstructed views until later construction hemmed in its sightlines.

1009 Fifth Avenue ARCHITECT: Welch, Smith & Provot DATE: 1899-1901 STYLE: Beaux-Arts This handsome Fifth Avenue mansion, prominently located at the southeast corner of Eighty-second Street, was built during the years 1899 to 1901. It is one of the few surviving houses which once formed part of an almost uninterrupted series of palatial residences facing Central Park. In recent years the majority of these grand townhouses have fallen victim to rising property values, and have been replaced by apartment buildings. No. 1009 is exceptional, as it remains in the possession of the family of the original owner, and today provides us with a fine example of turn-of-the-century architectural opulence.

Cultural Medallions are porcelainized enamel plaques affixed to the exterior of buildings, in order to commemorate an individual (or occurrence) that has made a significant contribution to New York City’s rich cultural heritage. These are the Cultural Medallions in Manhattan. See more from the Historic Landmarks Preservation Center here.

This mansion at 972 Fifth Avenue was designed by Stanford White in 1902 and was completed in 1906 shortly after White's murder. The house was built for the Payne Whitney family as a wedding gift from Payne Whitney's uncle, Oliver H. Payne. White drew inspiration from High Renaissance Italian palaces when designing the interior and exterior of this opulent home, which featured a Venetian themed reception, and a marble-clad rotunda with a Renaissance statue in the middle. In the 1990s, it was discovered that the statue was in fact a Michelangelo, unknowingly purchased by White in Italy. In 1952, the building was acquired by the French Embassy to host their cultural services.

East 82nd Street and Lexington Avenue, view of the northwest corner, October 29, 1912. Joseph Richardson was a wealthy contractor who had constructed portions of the Union Pacific Railroad. Despite work and wealth, he is best known as the builder of one of New York's only spite houses. In 1882 the small sliver of land at the northwest corner of 82nd Street and Lexington Avenue (102 feet long and 5 feet wide) was owned by Richardson's wife. Patrick McQuade and Hyman Sarner purchased the adjacent lots for the construction of apartment houses. They offered Richardson $1,000 for the small lot, which he felt was too low, and countered with an ask of $5,000. The developers refused and proceeded to break ground on their structure without the corner lot. During construction they approached Richardson again, offering the $5,000 he had originally desired. This time he declined. He stated that," he never gave a man more than one opportunity to buy anything from him, and that the strip was no longer for sale." Instead, a few weeks later, Richardson himself broke ground on a narrow structure on his lot, built with the express purpose of blocking the windows of McQuade and Sarnar's apartments. The resulting building (which gave the impression of being a single resident, but was actually a few tall houses) was completed five months before its neighbors. Richardson even moved into one. According to the New York Times: "Every room is less than five feet wide, and the dining table is only eighteen inches wide. Gas is unknown above the first floor, and water has to be carried by hand all over the building.” The bay windows, which were allowed on corner buildings, added for a slightly wider portion of the home. Richardson died in 1897. In 1905, C.A. Stein, then-owner of the corner structures, requested permission to fill in the area between the bay windows to widen the structure to nine feet for ground-floor retail. His request must have been approved, as this 1912 photograph depicts a tailoring business in a commercial space. The building caused some consternation in the planning for the IRT Lexington Avenue Line, as contractors worried about the cost and safety of shoring up the narrow buildings during the cut and cover street excavations. They needn't worry. Stein sold the lot to real estate developers Bing & Bing in 1915 and the structures were soon demolished. In 1915 an 11-story apartment building designed by Emery Roth replaced both the spite house and the apartments it was built to spite.

James B. Clews Mansion, not dated. In the late 19th century this section of Fifth Avenue was lined with lovely (but conservatively sized) brownstones. But as the wealthiest of New York City society began moving uptown, the rowhouses (built on land owned by the New York and Harlem Railroad Company) were soon to be a thing of the past. In 1908 as the railroad company was liquidating its real estate assets, the plot here at the northeast corner of 85th Steet and Fifth Avenue was bought up by James Clews, a millionaire from a banking family. The planned house—a gift to his new bride— was to be designed by Philadelphia architect Horace Trumbauer at the cost of $200,000. According to contemporary sources, the architect planned to eschew traditional plans for these type of corner buildings and place the entrance on the shorter avenue facade, instead of the longer 85th Street facade. The resulting mansion (completed in 1911) had its door on the street side, so plans must have changed. The Clews family were well-known for their fancy society events. The home had two large halls, a grand staircase, eight family bedrooms, and accommodations for a staff of 12. Meta Clews died in 1919 and James remarried at age 62 in 1926. The new newlyweds lived in the home for only three more years and then sold the lavish home. It was demolished and replaced in 1930 by a large luxury apartment house by Rosario Candela.

Hook & Ladder 13, October, 1960. In the 1860s, the cities of New York and Brooklyn moved to professionalize firefighting, combining the volunteer and independent firefighting companies into a single Metropolitan District. The newly-established Hook & Ladder Company No. 13 moved into its East 87th Street firehouse in January, 1868. In 1961, the company moved to a new firehouse on East 85th Street, leaving their former home vacant — but not for long. In 1962, a young, unknown artist named Andy Warhol rented the second floor studio for $150/month.

By Jerri Sherman It took New York City’s Metropolitan Museum of Art (the Met), founded in 1870, a remarkable 21 years to convince its board of trustees to open the museum to the public on Sunday. In the post-Civil War years, during what was called the Gilded Age, America’s greatest city experienced momentous social, cultural, and economic change, which led to an increasingly unrestrained environment. New ideas from many sources jeopardized traditional values, and the business and political frenzy acted as a magnet for masses of immigrants who came to America and settled in New York, hoping for a new and better life. By the 1880s, the city was both reeling from the onslaught of violent labor unrest and financial depression and struggling to accommodate a million people, fully two-thirds of whom lived in 32,000 overcrowded tenement buildings. Native-born New Yorkers felt their way of life threatened by the influx of these newcomers and their “foreign” ways. With a worsening urban crisis, it became clear that many aspects of social behavior required change. The development of rival doctrines also brought serious challenges to Christian religious conservatism. Sabbatarianism, one of Protestantism’s traditional moral crusades, found that it had lost touch with the labor movement, whose members chose in increasing numbers to avoid church attendance. The idea of a day exclusively for religious dedication was supplanted by the need for a secular day of rest. Thus the old boundary of the Sunday Sabbath needed to be broken. Read this in its original format here.

Metropolitan Museum of Art ca. 1908 The enormous scale of this facade is reminiscent of the main hall of a Roman public bath and forms a dramatic setting for the entrance to this great museum. The huge blocks of stone above the columns were intended for sculpture which was never executed. Richard Morris Hunt, dean of New York architects, designed it and once remarked that he would wish to have it considered his monument.

Constructed for a German-Jewish Reform congregation, Park Avenue Synagogue, seen here in 1927, the year it was dedicated, was one of the last Moorish-Revival Jewish houses of worship built in the United States. The Moorish style offered an alternative to the Greco-Roman or Gothic-Revival silhouettes that were often used for churches. It was a style that had been used for synagogues in Germany as early as the 1830s and remained widely popular for Jewish sacred spaces until the First World War. With its mix of German language, Jewish religion, and Mediterranean accents, the Park Avenue Synagogue was a uniquely American place: when the Synagogue was dedicated in March 1927, Mayor Jimmy Walker, the Episcopal Bishop of New York City William T. Manning, and New York Supreme Court Justice Thomas C. T. Crain were all in attendance. Congregants, who had originally founded the Synagogue in 1882 in a converted church at 115 East 86th, now had created a dramatic new space for themselves in the city. The Upper East Side’s stunning array of ecclesiastical architecture offers many more instances of immigrant communities announcing their arrival in New York through beautiful houses of worship. In each of these spaces, congregants could come together not only to strengthen the bonds of their communities but also to assert their collective American ambition and success.

Yorkville Public Library, date unknown. The Yorkville branch of the New York Public Library was the very first Carnegie library to be constructed in New York City. It opened to the public in December of 1902. The grant of just over $5 million by the Carnegie Corporation of New York, for the construction of these civic institutions, was gifted to the city only three years earlier in 1899. The Carnegie funds would assist in the creation of 67 libraries in the five boroughs. This three-story structure, designed in a classically-inspired style, is notable as a fine example of Palladian architecture. Inspired by Venetian architect Andrea Palladio (1508–1580), who himself was inspired by the temple architecture of the ancient Greeks and Romans, the architect created a library with strict symmetrical design, minimal ornamentation, and four tall Ionic columns that frame the upper floors. The large, arched windows on first floor allowed for plenty of natural light, especially important as the library sits mid block. While some of the other firms (Carrère & Hastings and McKim, Mead & White) designed a number of Carnegie libraries, this was the only library designed by James Brown Lord, who passed away at the young age of 43, just before the library opened.

\*Ada Louise Huxtable (1921-2013), a native New Yorker, was a pioneer in architectural criticism, and a champion of livable cities. As the first full-time architecture critic at a major American newspaper (The New York Times created the position specifically for her in 1963), she won the first Pulitzer Prize for distinguished criticism in 1970, and helped redefine architecture in the public consciousness as “a very real and important art \[because] it affects us all so directly.” Her writing on architecture, urban design, and planning helped bring those topics into the popular consciousness, and encouraged New Yorkers to see the buildings around them as part of their lives. She championed “humanity of scale,” and buildings that were “integrated into life and use,” writing: “what counts more than style is whether architecture improves our experience of the built world; whether it makes us wonder why we never noticed places in quite this way before.” Huxtable helped us do exactly that. On this virtual tour of her New York, we will learn about her life, see buildings she praised and those she decried, and consider her legacy as a writer, an urbanist, and a champion of the collective work of city-making. \*Lucie Levine

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.

Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1903. When the Metropolitan Museum of Art was founded in 1870, New York had no major art museum. In the mid-19th century, the city's biggest cultural destination was PT Barnum's American Museum, where up to 15,000 people per day flocked to see attractions ranging from Siamese twins and live whales to performances of Shakespeare and opera by the singer Jenny Lind. The founders of the MET wanted to create something entirely different-an encyclopedic collection of high art that would ultimately compete with Europe's greatest museums. The city's industrialists joined the board, along with esteemed painters and architects. They also gave the Museum its foundational collections. In less than 20 years, by the late 1880s, the Museum was earning widespread attention. Works by Michelangelo, Raphael, Titian, Rembrandt, Leonardo and Vermeer hung on its walls. And gifts from the city's rich-many from the individuals whose homes you stop at on this tour- would keep flowing in for decades. There were drawings by Albrecht Durer from Felix Warburg, Marie Antoinette's furniture from William K. Vanderbilt and Italian lace from Mrs. John Jacob Astor. Then there were the thousands of medieval and Egyptian objects from the collection of J.P. Morgan, who served as a trustee and then president. The Museum intended not only to build a world class collection of art, but also to teach visitors how to appreciate it. At first, it excluded the working class by closing on Sunday, the day they had off. Once the MET decided to stay open that day, curators, and directors stood watch in the galleries. Director Louis di Cesnola boasted of the results: "There is no more spitting tobacco juice on the gallery floors...no more whistling, singing or calling aloud to people from one gallery to another." One story circulated about Mark Twain's protests when asked to leave his belongings in the cloak room: "Leave my cane! Leave my can!" he purportedly exclaimed. "How do you expect me to poke holes through the oil paintings?"

Residence of Lieutenant Abraham Quackenbush, ca. 1885. “The house was built in 1851 and demolished in 1890; Lieutenant Quackenbush's great-grandchildren are pictured in the photograph.”

When the Metropolitan Museum of Art was founded in 1870, New York had no major art museum. In the mid-19th century, the city's biggest cultural destination was PT Barnum's American Museum, where up to 15,000 people per day flocked to see attractions ranging from Siamese twins and live whales to performances of Shakespeare and opera by the singer Jenny Lind.

Church of St. Ignatius Loyola 980 Park Avenue parish hall/rectory: Patrick C. Keely, 1881-83 church: Schickel & Ditmars, 1895-1900, NYC IL school: Schickel & Ditmars, 1899-1900 – NYC HD, NR-P, NR-D One of the first institutions on Fourth Avenue was the parish of St. Lawrence O’Toole, which initially acquired property on both sides of the railroad tracks at East 84th Street. Its first building was erected in 1854. The parish, later incorporated as St. Ignatius Loyola (founder of the Jesuits in 1541), expanded in the 1880s, beginning with the construction of a four-story parish house and residence hall. The church itself was designed in the Italian Renaissance Revival, in homage to the architecture that was popular during St. Ignatius’ lifetime. It was one of the first houses of worship in the city to use steel roof beams and trusses for fireproofing. Its two upper towers were never realized. In 1899, the Loyola School was established to educate the sons of wealthy Catholics (it became co-educational in 1973), for which the limestone building at the corner of East 83rd Street was built.

Lot on East 79th Street being prepared for the construction of No. 229; February 2, 1928.

Stuyvesant Fish House, 25 East 78th Street; ca. 1900. Stuyvesant Fish was born in 1851, the son of prominent New York politician Hamilton Fish, who was then a US Senator from New York and would later be appointed Secretary of State under President Ulysses S. Grant. Rather than politics, the junior Fish took to business: he became a director of the Illinois Central Railroad at age 26, and was later appointed its President. While Fish's tenure was immensely profitable and secured his family's fortune, it was his wife Mamie's knack for entertaining that earned their place at the apex of New York society. Mamie (Marion Graves Anthon Fish) was known for hosting over-the-top dinners and balls in New York and Newport, which were known to include vaudeville entertainment and appearances by rented live animals. (One notable event was given in honor of "Prince Del Drago of Corsica," who turned out to be a monkey. Another featured an elephant. You had to be there.) By the 1890s, the Fishes were ready to upgrade their Gramercy Park townhouse to a fashionable uptown address, and commissioned leading firm McKim, Mead & White to design a new mansion, fit for entertaining. The five-story Italian Renaissance-style palazzo was completed in 1898, and features intricate brickwork and carved limestone ornamentation. After Stuyvesant Fish died 1923, the 78th Street mansion passed to a series of owners: a French magazine, a private school, and, from 1952, the Atran Center for Jewish Culture of the Jewish Labor Committee. Since 2006, it has been owned by Bloomberg Philanthropies.

Church of St. Ignatius Loyola ARCHITECT: Schikel & Ditmars DATE: 1895-1900 STYLE: Seventeenth-Century Rome Monumental in scale and impressive in appearance, the Park Avenue facade of this dignified Twentieth Century Church reflects the classical style of Seventeenth-Century Rome. The symmetrical masonry exterior of Limestone, severely austere In character, is generously enriched by the carved decoration of the highest quality.

133 East 80th Street ca. 1944 Though its Lexington home perhaps isn't as glamorous as Park or Fifth, 133 East 80th Street remains as lovely as any of architect Rosario Candela's buildings. Designed in 1929 for the developer Moses Ginsburg, 133 East 80th was built out of a varied series of limestone blocks that follows the building up its set backs to the top. A change in zoning laws allowed Candela to build a romantic, castle-like tower atop 133 with crenellations, spires, and the like. Catering as always to luxury, Candela designed the building for 20 families, with apartments ranging from the spacious to the palatial. However by its completion in 1930, only 60% of apartments had been sold.

Park Avenue Christian Church Bertram Goodhue of Cram, Goodhue & Ferguson 1909-11–NYCHD, NR-D This magnificent French Gothic Revival style church is clad in grey Manhattan schist, and features a pointed arch stained glass window and a 70-foot lead fleche, cast in Birmingham, England, by Henry Hope & Sons to emulate the one at Sainte Chapelle in Paris. Goodhue also designed the adjacent rectory in the same style of the same grey schist. In 2014, the controversy over its demolition led to the designation of the Park Avenue Historic District.

1040 Park Avenue Delano & Aldrich, 1923-25 – NYC HD, NR-D 1040 Park Avenue made distinctive with its eclectic ornament includes a frieze with sculpted tortoises and hares. Interestingly, the building does not have a cornice, which is unusual for a Renaissance Revival style building. It did, however, have one of the Avenue’s earliest penthouse apartments, which became fashionable in the 1920s. Though intended as servants’ quarters, the top floor was transformed by famed magazine publisher Condé Nast into a 5,000-square-foot duplex designed by actress and interior decorator Elsie de Wolfe. The building was also briefly home to Jacqueline Kennedy after she left the White House