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

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

Here at Urban Archive, we often focus our stories on the city streets and the public-facing architecture of the city. However, being stuck inside our apartments has given us a new appreciation for interiors so we thought we'd take a look at a diverse array of New York's interiors over the years. This particular story dives inside the homes and lives of New York's elite at the turn of the century and what their interiors meant to them.

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

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

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

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

In 1892, 27% of the country's millionaires lived in New York, when the city only made up 2% of the country's population! Welcome to the society of the Gilded Age. This tour takes its inspiration from an exhibition at the Museum of the City of New York that explores the visual culture of New York's richest residents from the mid-1870s to the start of World War One. It stops at several places, such as the old headquarters of Tiffany \&Company that are connected to the dazzling objects in the show. It also introduces you to some of the people at the center of Gilded-age society, and illuminates how-over the course of three decades- the city transformed more rapidly than ever before. It was during this time that New York became a world capital on par with London and Paris. Before the 1870s the lives of the rich and the places they frequented had been more private and understated. By the 1890s they were public and over the top: Simple brownstones gave way to French chateaux, cluttered dry good stores became palatial department stores; and grand hotels and restaurants became premiere places to entertain, outside the home. Even if shoes are more comfortable now than they were in the Gilded Age, you may find it tiring to walk this tour from beginning to end. So feel free to split it up!

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

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

Between 1954 and 1957, the Municipal Art Society surveyed historic buildings in all five boroughs to create a database of potential landmarks to preserve. Local residents and MAS staff compiled individual sheets devoted to about 200 buildings. Each sheet outlined the building’s date, location, and style and provided a description and a small photograph. This is the list of Manhattan buildings.

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

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

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

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