South of Union Square
Menu
Address
Share
Near 1235 Lexington Avenue
Posts & Stories
(50)
229 East 79th Street
Post
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.
The Marion
Post
Storefronts at The Marion, a Lexington Avenue Apartment building. November 8, 1911.
Zion Lutheran Church
Post
Zion St. Marks, at 339 East 84th Street, was built in 1889 for The German Evangelical Church of Yorkville and designed by Michael J. Fitz Mahoney. The church, a stunning example of neo-Gothic architecture, has been a community space since the 19th century. When the Zion Evangelical Lutheran congregation moved into the building in 1892, it began offering German language mass, religious education, and social events. The congregation became a vital part of the Yorkville German community, and also provided a heaven for members of the Lower East Side’s St. Mark’s Evangelical Lutheran Church, after that congregation was decimated by the 1904 General Slocum disaster when an excursion steamboat caught fire and sank during a chartered trip for the congregation. The two congregations merged in 1946 to create today’s Zion-St. Mark’s Evangelical Lutheran Church. Just as the congregation proudly proclaimed its German heritage in the 19th century with an inscription in German on the facade, the church maintains that identity today, and continues to support Yorkville’s German community, with bi-lingual Mass in German and English, as well as with German language classes, and German film programs.
William Starr Miller House (Neue Galerie)
Post
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.
1035 Park Avenue
Post
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.
1014 Fifth Avenue
Post
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.
Artists in Residence
Story
As every New Yorker who spots a celebrity at Duane Reade knows, thousands of art and pop culture luminaries have called the city home. From Whitman to Warhol, this is a quick guide to the places notable New Yorkers have lived and worked.
Immanuel Lutheran Church
Post
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
Post
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
Post
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.
1100 Madison Avenue
Post
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.
1080-1082 Park Avenue
Post
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.
1646 Second Avenue
Post
German Delicatessen, ca. 1930. A German deli when pictured in 1930, this storefront was later the home of the Old Dutch Delicatessen, whose specialty was smoked eel. The building was razed sometime at the start of the 21st century and a new glassy structure completed in 2009.
Church of St. Ignatius Loyola
Post
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
Post
St. Ignatius Parochial School, ca. 1905.
1342 Lexington Avenue
Post
Northern Renaissance Revival row houses on Lexington Avenue, now part of the Hardenbergh/Rhinelander Historic District; August 13, 1937. In the late 19th century, the family of William C. Rhinelander set about developing their parcels of land on Manhattan's Upper East Side. The four row houses pictured, part of a set of six at the northwest corner of Lexington Avenue at East 89th Street, were designed by architect Henry J. Hardenbergh and completed in 1889. Andy Warhol purchased No. 1342 Lexington (second from left) in 1960. Warhol lived in the building, as did his mother, until her death in 1972, after which point it was leased to an associate.
15 East 84th Street
Post
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.
130 East 80th Street
Post
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.
1293 Lexington Avenue
Post
Northeast corner of 87th Street and Lexington Avenue, October 13, 1911.
First Hungarian Baptist Church
Post
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.
Holy Cross the Byzantine Rite
Post
Greek Orthodox Church of St. John the Baptist, 1930. This church building, which according to the photographer's notes was once a synagogue, has had some major facade alteration since this image was taken. The circular windows have been made rectangular, the stairs now sit snug up against the building and flat roofline cornice has been removed.
210 East 86th Street
Post
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.
1340 Lexington Avenue
Post
1340 Lexington Avenue, 1913. Nos. 1340 through 1350 Lexington Avenue are a row of three-story houses built in 1888 by Henry Hardenbergh. The architect created charming Renaissance Revival buildings of red brick, brownstone, and terra cotta. The LPC designation report for the Hardenbergh/Rhinelander Historic District describes them as "form\[ing] a picturesque yet symmetrical composition." They maintain their original "lively" roofline of alternating pointy pediments and flat, but detailed, cornices. Though they were built with stoops (as can be seen in this image), renovations over time have moved all of the entrances to the street level.
John Sherman Hoyt House
Post
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
Post
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
Post
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 Neighbors - Museum Mile and Highlights along Fifth Avenue
Walk
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.
970 Park Avenue
Post
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 M. Adams Mansion
Post
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.
120 East 80th Street
Post
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 East 79th Street
Post
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.
157-165 East 78th Street
Post
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 House (Neue Galerie)
Post
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
Post
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
Post
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 Medallion: Manhattan
Story
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.
1218 Lexington Avenue
Post
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.
Clews Mansion
Post
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.
FDNY Hook & Ladder 13
Post
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.
50 East 87th Street
Post
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 Branch, NYPL
Post
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.
969 Park Avenue
Post
\*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
157-165 East 78th Street
Post
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.
Lt. Abraham Quackenbush House
Post
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.”
Church of St. Ignatius Loyola
Post
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.
229 East 79th Street
Post
Lot on East 79th Street being prepared for the construction of No. 229; February 2, 1928.
Church of St. Ignatius Loyola
Post
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
Post
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.
Central Christian Church
Post
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
Post
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
Photos
(970)
1235 Lexington Avenue
Manhattan: Lexington Avenue - 83rd Street (East) 1223 to 1235 Lexington Avenue, east side, north from E. 83rd to 84th Streets. August 13, 1937. Gift of Geo. D. Chinn.
1225 Lexington Avenue
Manhattan: Lexington Avenue - 83rd Street (East) 1225 Lexington Ave., adjoining the N.E. corner of East 83rd Street. About 1915.
147 East 84th Street
Manhattan: 84th Street (East) - Lexington Avenue 147-149 East 84th Street, adjoining and east of the N.E. corner of Lexington Avenue. No. 147 is a three-story frame house with a brick front. J. Clarence Davies Collection, Museum of the City of New York. Negative No. 289.
1241 Lexington Avenue
Manhattan: Lexington Avenue - 84th Street (East) 1241 to 1255 Lexington Ave., east side, north from East 84th to 85th Streets, showing at the S.E. corner of the latter the New York Turn Verein(No. 1251-55). August 13, 1937. George D. Chinn.
147 East 84th Street
Manhattan: 84th Street (East) - Lexington Avenue 147 East 84th Street, adjoining the N.E. corner of Lexington Avenue. March 29, 1929. P. L. Sperr.
152 East 84th Street
152 East 84th Street. Apartment building
152 East 84th Street
152 East 84th Street. Apartments, lobby.
152 East 84th Street
152 East 84th Street. Apartments, living room, corner window, fireplace, etc.
126 East 84th Street
Manhattan: 84th Street (East) - Lexington Avenue 126-128 East 84th Street, at, adjoining, and west of the S.W. corner of Lexington Avenue. March 4, 1924. Underwood & Underwood.
126 East 84th Street
Manhattan: 84th Street (East) - Lexington Avenue 126-128 East 84th Street, at, adjoining, and west of the S.W. corner of Lexington Avenue. March 4, 1924. Underwood & Underwood.
122-126 East 84th Street
122-126 East 84th Street. Apartment house.
125 E 84th Street
125 E 84th Street
125 E 84th Street
132 East 83rd Street
Houses at Lexington Avenue and E. 83rd Street, Yorkville, New York City, 1900.
114 East 84th Street
114 East 84th Street, south side between Lexington and Park Avenues. Apartment house.
1220 Lexington Avenue
Manhattan: Lexington Avenue - 82nd Street (East) 1220 Lexington Ave., west side, between East 82nd and 83rd Streets, showing a building bearing a tablet marked "1880;" said marker being under the solitary upper window. August 13, 1937. George D. Chinn.
162 East 83rd Street
162 East 83rd Street. Duplex apartment, dining room.
162 East 83rd Street
162 East 83rd Street. Duplex apartment, living room.
162 East 83rd Street
162 East 83rd Street. Duplex apartment, foyer hall.
1260 Lexington Avenue
Manhattan: Lexington Avenue - 84th Street Lexington Ave:; west side, south from East 85th to 84th Streets. August 13, 1937. George D. Chinn.
129 East 82nd Street
Corner of Lexington Ave. and E. 82nd or 84th Street, New York City, 1899.
Congregation Kehilath Jeshurun
Manhattan: 85th Street (East) - Lexington Avenue (1) 127 to 113 East 85th Street, north side, between Lexington and Park Aves., showing the synagogue of the Congregation Kehilath Jeshurun occupying Nos. 121-117. West of same is the School of the Sisters of the Helpers of the Holy Souls at No. 115-113. Partially shown on the right is the Yorkville Talmund Torah School, No. 127-123. August 13, 1937. George D. Chinn. (2) 113-115 East 85th Street, adjoining the N.E. corner of Park Ave., showing the School of the Sisters of the Helpers of the Holy Souls. August 13, 1937. George D. Chinn.
Congregation Kehilath Jeshurun
Manhattan: 85th Street (East) - Lexington Avenue (1) 127 to 113 East 85th Street, north side, between Lexington and Park Aves., showing the synagogue of the Congregation Kehilath Jeshurun occupying Nos. 121-117. West of same is the School of the Sisters of the Helpers of the Holy Souls at No. 115-113. Partially shown on the right is the Yorkville Talmund Torah School, No. 127-123. August 13, 1937. George D. Chinn. (2) 113-115 East 85th Street, adjoining the N.E. corner of Park Ave., showing the School of the Sisters of the Helpers of the Holy Souls. August 13, 1937. George D. Chinn.
112 East 85th Street
Manhattan: 85th Street (East) - Park Avenue 112 to 118 East 85th Street (right to left), adjoining and east of the S.E. corner of Park Ave. No. 112 is occupied by the Kewahnew and the Micanopee Democratic Clubs. The two adjoining structures, Nos. 114 and 116 are the quarters of the New York College of Music. August 13, 1937. Gift of Geo. D. Chinn.
Congreration Chev-Kadisha Talmudthora
Manhattan: 82nd Street (East) - Lexington Avenue Congregation Chev-Kadisha Talmudthora (Orthodox Synagogue), 127 East 82nd Street, adjoining the N.W. corner of Lexington Avenue. August 21, 1930. P. L. Sperr.
1500 Third Avenue
Manhattan: 3rd Avenue - 84th Street 1500 Third Avenue, west side, between 84th and 85th Streets, a three-story frame house. 1932\. J. Clarence Davies Collection,Museum of the City of New York. Negative No. 225.
165 East 82nd Street
Manhattan: 82nd Street (East) - Lexington Avenue 165-167 East 82nd Street, north side, between Lexington and Third Avenues. About 1914.
157 East 85th Street
Manhattan: 85th Street (East) - 3rd Avenue 157-159 East 85th Street, north side, between Third and Lexington Avenues. No. 157 is a three-story frame house. 1932\. J. Clarence Davies Collection, Museum of the City of New York. Negative No. 229.
114 East 83rd Street
114 East 83rd Street. Private house.
Park East Hospital
112-114 East 83rd Street. Park East Hospital.
983 Park Avenue
Manhattan: Park Avenue - 83rd Street 983 Park Avenue, at N.E. corner of 83rd Street, a new apartment house, which replaces old 9-story Hanover Apartments. 1927\. Joseph Smith, Photographer. 'NE NEw ymmr P7BLC LERA8y ASTON LENOY AN5 TTCpN POUNDArONg
159 East 85th Street
Manhattan: 85th Street (East) - Lexington Avenue (1) 157-161 East 85th Street, north side, between Lexington and Third Aves. No. 159 is Fire Engine House, No. 22. Nos. 157 and 161 are both three-story frame houses. August 2, 1930. P. L. Sperr. Neg. #3622 (2) The same, from a different angle. May 12, 1936. P. L. Sperr. Neg. #3623
159 East 85th Street
Manhattan: 85th Street (East) - 3rd Avenue 159-161 East 85th Street, north side, between Third and Lexington Avenues. No. 161 is a three-story frame building. 1932\. J. Clarence Davies Collection, Museum of the City of New York. Negative No. 228.
1218 Lexington Avenue
\[Lexington Avenue and the Corner of East 82nd Street: IRT East Side Line] Survey photograph prior to construction of the IRT East Side Line at East 82th Street and Lexington Avenue, Manhattan.Camera is on Lexington Avenue showing the cross street 82nd Street. The Richardson Spite House at Lexington Avenue and 82nd Street built in 1882 and demolished in 1915 can be seen at the corner.
108 East 85th Street
Manhattan: 85th Street (East) - Park Avenue 108-110 East 85th Street, south side, east of Park Avenue. These buildings will soon be demolished to make way for an apartment house. About 1912.
1218 Lexington Avenue
\[Lexington Avenue and the Corner of East 82nd Street: IRT East Side Line] Survey photograph prior to construction of the IRT East Side Line at East 82th Street and Lexington Avenue, Manhattan.Camera is on Lexington Avenue showing the cross street 82nd Street. The Richardson Spite House at Lexington Avenue and 82nd Street built in 1882 and demolished in 1915 can be seen at the corner.
985 PARK AVENUE
113-119 East 82nd Street
113-119 East 82nd Street. Apartment building. From the American Institute of Architects exhibition, 1920 medal winner
144 East 86th Street
144 East 86th Street. Chatham and Phenix National Bank.
975 Park Avenue
975 Park Avenue. Apartment building
975 Park Avenue
975 Park Avenue at 83rd Street. Mrs. Sibler's residence, apartment 8B.
975 Park Avenue
Manhattan: Park Avenue - 83rd Street Park Avenue, at and adjoining tha S.E. corner of 83rd Street, build ings about to be replaced by 975 Park Avenue apartment building. January 30, 1928. P. L. Sperr.
1003 Park Avenue
Manhattan: Park Avenue - 84th Street Park Avenue, at N. E. corner of 84th Street, showing Nos. 1003-05, the last two frame houses on the avenue below 100th Street, about to be demolished to make room for 1001 Park Avenue, co-operative apartment house built by T.E. Rhodes Co. May 17, 1928. Irving Underhill, Photographer. Neg #478
1003 Park Avenue
Manhattan: Park Avenue - 84th Street Park Avenue, at north east corner of 84th Street, showing four houses to be demolished in 1928. Hos. 1003 and 1005, the small ones in the middle, are the last two freme houses on Park Avenue below 100th Street. See Underhill's larger photograph of the same corner May 1928 before demolition. November 19, 1927. P.L. Sperr,Photographer. Neg #671
1001 Park Avenue
1001 Park Avenue, NYC. Entrance detail. With lower floors of apartment building.
1001 Park Avenue
1001 Park Avenue, NYC. General view. 15 story apartment building with automobiles.
186 East 86th Street
East 86th Street. Manhattan Savings Bank, exterior view from N.E..
185 East 85th Street
East 86th Street and Third Avenue, southwest corner. Apartment building with Manhattan Savings Bank on ground floor
1520-1526 Third Avenue
1520-26 3rd Avenue and 164-166 East 86th Street. Buildings.
Privacy Policy
Terms of Service
Open Map