Manhattan Classic New York’s Finest Prewar Apartments

226 Pages·2014·347.51 MB·English

by  Geoffrey Lynch

MANHATTAN
CLASSIC
New York's Finest Prewar Apartments
GEOFFREY LYNCH
Principal photography by Evan Joseph and Mike Tauber
Princeton Architectural Press · New York

CONTENTS
6 Map: Manhattan Locations
9 Introduction: The Manhattan Prewar Apartment House
13 A Note to the Reader
14 Upper East Side: Fifth Avenue
44 Upper East Side: Park Avenue
82 Around the Upper East Side
106 Upper West Side: Central Park West
132 Upper West Side: West End Avenue
140 Upper West Side: Riverside Drive
156 Around the Upper West Side
176 Downtown
205 Acknowledgments
206 Prewar Architects
210 Selected Buildings by Architect
218 Selected Buildings by Location
223 Notes / Bibliography

224 Credits
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MANHATTAN LOCATIONS
Upper East Side: Fifth Avenue 29 435 East 52nd Street (River House) 56 173–175 Riverside Drive
1 810 Fifth Avenue 30 14 Sutton Place South 57 258 Riverside Drive (The Peter Stuyvesant)
2 820 Fifth Avenue 31 320 East 57th Street 58 310 Riverside Drive
3 834 Fifth Avenue 32 136 East 64th Street 59 315 Riverside Drive
4 907 Fifth Avenue 33 131–135 East 66th Street 60 440 Riverside Drive (The Paterno)
5 960 Fifth Avenue 34 115 East 67th Street (Millan House)
6 998 Fifth Avenue 35 19 East 72nd Street Broadway and around the Upper West Side
7 1020 Fifth Avenue 36 35 East 76th Street 61 1 West 67th Street (Hotel des Artistes)
8 1030 Fifth Avenue 37 1 Gracie Square 62 2109 Broadway (The Ansonia)
9 1170 Fifth Avenue 38 520/530 East 86th Street 63 161 West 75th Street
39 120 East End Avenue 64 6–16 West 77th Street
Upper East Side: Park Avenue 65 2211 Broadway (The Apthorp)
10 417 Park Avenue Upper West Side: Central Park West 66 15 West 81st Street
11 580 Park Avenue 40 41 Central Park West (Harperly Hall) 67 221 West 82nd Street
12 610 Park Avenue (Mayfair House) 41 55 Central Park West 68 200 West 86th Street (The New Amsterdam)
13 640 Park Avenue 42 65 Central Park West 69 225 West 86th Street (The Belnord)
14 655 Park Avenue 43 101 Central Park West
15 740 Park Avenue 44 115 Central Park West (The Majestic) Downtown
16 760 Park Avenue 45 1 West 72nd Street (The Dakota) 70 1 Fifth Avenue
17 765/775 Park Avenue 46 145–146 Central Park West (The San Remo) 71 39 Fifth Avenue (Grosvenor Apartments)
18 778 Park Avenue 47 211 Central Park West (The Beresford) 72 40 Fifth Avenue
19 812 Park Avenue 48 300 Central Park West (The Eldorado) 73 43 Fifth Avenue
20 875 Park Avenue 74 45 Christopher Street
21 885 Park Avenue Upper West Side: West End Avenue 75 2 Horatio Street
22 888 Park Avenue 49 300 West End Avenue 76 28 East 10th Street (Devonshire House)
23 940 Park Avenue 50 450 West End Avenue 77 40–50 East 10th Street
24 1040 Park Avenue 51 530 West End Avenue (The Sexton) 78 59 West 12th Street
25 1088 Park Avenue 52 800 West End Avenue 79 242 East 19th Street
26 1120 Park Avenue 80 36 Gramercy Park East
27 1185 Park Avenue Upper West Side: Riverside Drive 81 44 Gramercy Park North
53 33 Riverside Drive 82 60 Gramercy Park North
Around the Upper East Side 54 90 Riverside Drive 83 1 Lexington Avenue
28 Tudor City 55 140 Riverside Drive (The Normandy) 84 London Terrace
7

INTRODUCTION:
THE MANHATTAN PREWAR
APARTMENT HOUSE
For many New Yorkers, real estate is an obsession. great works of architectural design almost never come
Dinner-party discussions quickly turn to addresses, on the market because residents can’t imagine leaving,
views, lobbies, and maintenance fees. It’s an expensive except feet first. New York’s prewars ignite extraordinary
and arduous struggle to find a home you love; the hunt passion; living in a prewar designed by one of that era’s
involves walking through many apartments that are celebrated architects in one of their best buildings is
overpriced letdowns. You may find it difficult to sup- a priceless luxury, often marking a person’s entry into
press a surge of real estate envy when visiting friends’ high society.
perfect new places, listening to their long stories about Walking along Manhattan’s Park Avenue or the
the lucky happy ending that occurred just after they streets of the Upper West Side, you may wonder how
had lost all hope of finding a home. We yearn for what this passion for prewars originated. Though pleasant,
we probably can’t ever afford: one of those extraordi- their architecture is generally calm and unexceptional.
narily beautiful apartments we see in glossy magazines A location on Fifth Avenue overlooking Central Park is
and real estate ads, flawlessly designed right down to impressive, but aren’t they just nice apartment buildings?
the doorknobs—the trophy homes, photographed with If you have the opportunity, visit a few of these
celebrity owners who describe their regular jaunts to apartment homes for a firsthand look. Perched high
the Paris flea markets to find just the right side table. above the noisy streets, filled with light, and sometimes
Prewar apartment houses, constructed between commanding spectacular skyline views, prewars have
1870 and 1935, contain some of the most consistently come to define the elegance and glamour of living in
desirable homes in the city. On average they cost sig- New York City. They have the beauty, proportions, and
nificantly more than their newer counterparts; these elegance of private houses; prewars were deliberately
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designed to convince families to give up their town message about social class: separate service elevators
houses, matching or surpassing them architecturally and servants’ quarters were the norm. Today, finding a
while providing the luxuries of twenty-four-hour door- prewar apartment in pristine condition is rare, as they
men and a dedicated superintendent. Some buildings either command stratospheric prices or have been sub-
even had a private dining room and chef facility. They are divided into smaller one- and two-bedrooms, following
quiet, and the air is fresh and cool. Instead of the gritty the dictates of economic necessity. Whether large or
city being on the other side of a thin wood front door, small, however, these homes maintain their sense of
there’s always a doorman or two watching the street for grandeur and charm, making them highly coveted in
you. Near good schools, restaurants, museums, and all the always-competitive Manhattan real estate market.
the city offers, they offer privacy, security, and stately The center-hall floor plan is the defining architec-
architecture, with an almost obsessive attention to detail tural move of prewar apartments (which are typically
in the woodwork, fine wood floors, moldings, brass door categorized by number of rooms: a classic six has two
handles, and many other handcrafted features. bedrooms in addition to maid’s quarters, and a clas-
The buildings’ exteriors feature three-story walls of sic eight has four bedrooms plus maid’s quarters). For
smooth, thick limestone slabs, topped by ten or more example, in a 1,600-square-foot classic six, such as an
stories of simple brick in earth tones ranging from Indian A-line home at 800 West End Avenue, the entrance is
red to dark brown to sandy beige. Reaching out to the not through the public corridor beside the kitchen but
curb is a regal deep blue or private-club-green canvas through a remarkably sizable foyer, 28 feet long and 8
canopy to both announce the address and keep resi- feet wide. There’s a painting or two on the wall, and you,
dents and visitors dry on rainy nights as they wait for the tired city dweller, feel embraced by the space as
cabs. Double-hung windows are centered in rows above you drop your keys in a dish on a wood sideboard, take
a pair of small, heavy-looking, black latticed front doors. off your shoes, and receive a welcome-home kiss. A tall,
A doorman in a hat and uniform is waiting just behind the framed doorway opens onto a wide living room with a
glass; a bit like a private club, it’s designed to be hard to marble fireplace in the middle and two large windows
see inside. Though hundreds of people may live in the centered on the wall facing the street. The living room
building, it’s meant to feel secure and intimate, not grand is far enough from the front door that you don’t hear
like a hotel. Residents are greeted by a smile from some- your neighbor’s television from across the hall. Through
one who knows them by name. The door swings open, another framed doorway is a large dining room.
and they glide into a narrow room finished in smooth, Bedrooms are tucked away for privacy down a short
warm marble and soft lighting, leaving the city behind. hall. Ten-foot ceilings and windows in each room make
If you’ve never been in a prewar apartment house, spaces feel even bigger and brighter. Those hallmark
you may not be prepared for how expansive the rooms prewar details are abundant: just the right baseboards;
are. Their very height, with lofty ceilings accommo- inlaid herringbone wood floors; cute, classic white tile
dating large, sun-drenched windows, harks back to a bathrooms. Even closets, rare in modern apartments
luxury and grace lost in the practical approach to post– though so important to living in the city, are large and
World War II apartment design. They really do seem like plentiful. Whoever designed this apartment clearly
homes in the sky—particularly the duplexes, where vis- worked hard to make it feel like a real family home,
itors arrive from a private elevator that gives access to where you’d feel proud to raise your children.
a grand, chandelier-lit foyer with a curving stair toward
one end, opening into huge, perfectly proportioned
public rooms with marble fireplaces and windows in
just the right places. Three or four bedrooms are hid- New York City has an extraordinarily rich portfolio
den upstairs. These treasures of urban domestic archi- of residential architecture dating from the latter half
tecture were built during an era when elegance and of the nineteenth century through the early 1930s.
comfort were paramount. They reflected an unspoken An astonishing amount of that was built in the 1920s
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MANHATTAN CLASSIC