The four buildings of the former Shively Sanitary Tenements (a.k.a.East River Homes, Vanderbilt Model Tenements); 1911.

Built in 1910-11, the Shively Sanitary Tenements, named for Dr. Henry Shively, were an experiment in housing for sufferers of tuberculosis and their families. Shively, architect Henry Atterbury Smith, and benefactor Anne Harriman Vanderbilt envisioned a housing development where poor tuberculosis patients could receive treatment in an environment replete with fresh air and sunlight — without being quarantined from their non-infected families.

Smith's design prioritized features encouraging exposure to fresh air: open stairways, courtyards, rooftop recreation areas, and triple-hung windows were all thought to confer therapeutic benefits.

The trustees were ultimately unable to provide meaningful help to poor New Yorkers with tuberculosis, though not for any failure of design or treatment — the apartments were simply too expensive for the communities they were intended to serve. In 1923, the trust governing the project was dissolved and the buildings sold for residential use. In 1986, the residential units were again turned over for condo conversion, with the new development dubbed the Cherokee apartments, after neighboring Cherokee Place.