Sweeney's Courts -- No. 159 East 35th Street

photo by Alice Lum

As the Upper East Side developed in the last decades of the 19^th century, certain blocks were designated “stable blocks.”  Here two- and three-story carriage houses and livery stables lined the street.  They were close enough to the homes along the avenues to be convenient; yet far enough away that the smells and noises did not offend the well-to-do residents.

One such block was East 35^th Street between Third and Lexington Avenues.  Among the utilitarian structures here was No. 159, a handsome orange brick Romanesque Revival carriage house trimmed in deep red terra cotta.  Horses and vehicles were housed in the street level while upstairs were living quarters for one or two groomsmen or stable boys.  Engaged brick columns on either side of the second story, creative brickwork over the arched windows, and an exuberant cornice of terra cotta garlands and ribbon caused the building to stand out among its peers.

Creative brickwork created engaged columns and the zipper-like eyebrows -- photo by Alice Lum

The little building would not remain a carriage house for long, however.  By the spring of 1884 E. Sweeney had converted it to a place of entertainment.  Known officially as Sweeney’s Hand-Ball and Racquet Courts, or simply Sweeney’s Courts; the fire department preferred to call it a “saloon.”

Sweeney’s Court was well-known, drawing handball contestants from far away.  On March 13, 1884 The Sun reported on the games held here the previous day “between Philip Casey, of Brooklyn, and P. H. Smith, of St. Louis, and James Dunne and William Courtney, both of Brooklyn.”  Most likely Sweeney’s patrons not only drank "intoxicants," but gambled on the matches.

Both Casey and Dunne were former Aldermen of Brooklyn.   Casey held the title of Champion of the World and Smith claimed the title of Champion of St. Louis.  The New York Times called William Courtney “an expert” and when the four men were back at Sweeney’s on October 15 of that year the two champions partnered up against Dunne and Courtney.  The result was an upset with Dunne and Courtney playing “in brilliant style,” according to The Times, and winning three out of five games.

Sweeny’s Court was the center of handball action in New York.  When Casey and Dunne played again in January 1885 The New York Times reported that “There was a large crowd of spectators at Sweeney’s hand ball and racquet court…to see the game.”  The newspaper added that “There were a number of sporting men present, among them ‘Paddy’ Ryan, the pugilist, and Michael Cleary.”

Sweeney added to the excitement of the game by importing a Spanish handball player.  Known only as Sweeney’s Spaniard, he challenged Philip Casey in February 1885 of that year and lost, most likely to the delight of locals. 

If there was gambling going on in Sweeney’s Courts, the police turned a blind eye.  On August 18, 1885 champion Michael Hickey of the Police Department, and Sweeney’s Spaniard” played.  The policeman won two out of the three games.

The beautiful floral cornice was in stark contrast to the sports and pugilism going on inside--photo by Alice Lum

Sweeney offered more than just handball and racquet ball to his patrons.  On August 2, 1885 The Sunreported that “A number of sporting men gathered in Sweeney’s hand ball court in Thirty-fifth street last night to witness a four-round glove fight between Al Marx, better known as the cowboy, from Galveston, Texas, who was once knocked out by John L. Sullivan, and Jim Connors of this city, who lately defeated George Young of England.”

The boxers were fighting for a $100 purse—about $2,000 today—and Sweeney insisted that the Marquis of Queensberry rules were followed.  The Sun noted that “They were both in full ring costume, and were in fine trim.”

The newspaper recounted round-by-round the mutual pummeling of the two contestants.  The account said of the final round “Connors got in a neat upper-cut, which sent Marx reeling against the wall and shook him up.  He faced about again, however, and continued to land some heavy blows.  Connors now had things almost all his own way and countered very heavily on Marx’s much-battered nose and eye until time was called.”

Sweeney’s Spaniard was still here in 1888.  Although he seemed to be more hot air than talent; he was a profitable draw for his patron.  By now he apparently had learned to no longer challenge the world champion.   On August 14 of that year The Evening World announced “Sweeney’s Spaniard, the famous hand-ball player, arrived from Spain on Thursday last, and says he will play any hand-ball player in America, barring Phil Casey, for $1,000 a side.”

Phil Casey retained his championship status for more than a decade -- Spalding's Illustrated Catalog Spring Summer Sports October 1893 (copyright expired)

Irish champion John Lawler took him up on that challenge.  The St. Paul Daily Globe reported on November 30 that “An interesting game of hand-ball was played at Sweeney’s court to-day.  John Lawler, the Irish champion, and Frank Reynolds, defeating Sweeney’s Spaniard and John Bergen by four out of six games.”  Nevertheless Sweeney put a positive spin on the outcome.  “The Spaniard played well, and his backers in the match which is being arranged between him and Lawler expressed themselves satisfied with his chances.”

Although Sweeney’s survived into the 1890s, it was eventually overshadowed, then replaced in popular favor by more commodious and modern facilities.  The decline started when Phil Casey erected his own handball court in 1887 which stole away the international games that had already been planned for Sweeney’s.

The little building changed hands a few times within the next decades.  When, in March 1909, Mrs. F. C. Rainey sold the three abutting stables—Nos. 155 through 159—the possibility arose a modern apartment building would replace them.  Instead they survived by being converted to garages.

In 1929 the former carriage houses were being used as garages.  No. 159 is third from left -- photo NYPL Collection

In 1933 Margaret Zimbalist envisioned a gallery that would not only give struggling artists an outlet; but would present the working class with the ability to purchase art.  She opened the Upstairs Gallery in her own apartment at No. 28 East 56^th Street.  On February 3, 1934 it was announced that “The lively little art shop opened recently at 28 East Fifty-sixth street by Margaret Zimbalist as the Upstairs Gallery has undergone a change of name.  It is now the Ten Dollar Gallery and continues in business at the same address.”

Its success (or possibly the awkward situation of having customers plod through her apartment) prompted her to lease the space at No. 159 East 35^th Street.  Zimbalist staged exhibitions for artists like Esther Estelle Pressoir, Miyamoto and Werner Drews, with prices ranging from $10 to $100.  A New York newspaper remarked on the exposure to working types that the gallery offered.  “People come in to buy who have never been in an art gallery.  She has sold to a carpenter, a soda clerk, a manicurist.”

Rough-cut stone contrasts with the formal cornice -- photo by Alice Lum

In 1938 architects Delano & Aldrich designed a formal conversion of the space to a first floor art studio with residential space on the upper floor.  The following year sculptor Malvina Hoffman purchased the building. 

Despite the conversion, The New York Times called the property a “two-story private garage” and noted that Hoffman already owned the neighboring building at No. 157.  The artist paid cash for the $36,500 property. 

Hoffman, perhaps best remembered for her sculptures of the Races of Man commissioned by Chicago’s Field Museum, opened the Murray Hill Studio of Sculpture here.  She used the space as her working studio; and opened it to the public three days a week in the afternoons.  The Times reported that she would “exhibit various technical processes of sculpture.  The models by Malvina Hoffman for her sculpture in the Hall of Man at the Field Museum, the International Dance Fountain for the World’s Fair and other work will be shown.”  Admission cost five cents.

By mid-century the studio was home to sculptor Donald DeLue.  In 1950 he received perhaps his most notable commission from the United States Battle Monuments Commission.  DeLue was given the honor of sculpting the monument for the American Cemetery in Normandy.  The artist worked on the monument in the studio on East 35^thStreet for three years.  On August 6, 1953 it was nearing completion and a reporter from The New York Times visited the studio, commenting on the 22-foot tall plaster model.

Donald DeLue created the memorial in the studio at No. 159 West 35th Street -- photo by Viault

“His design, after much thought, took the form of a single male figure which, he said, symbolizes the spirit of American youth rising from the pain and death of the battlefield.

“The figure stands in an aspiring attitude with arms upraised, its held tilted and mouth open as though speaking.  Its support indicates by its design the watery route of the beachhead assault troops.”

In 1976 the little building with such a varied past was converted once again—this time to a church on the ground floor and a “caretaker’s apartment and coat room” on the second.  The building remains the I Am Sanctuary of New York.  The little-known religious group seeks a “higher self” within the individual; “the focus of the Light and Power of God within the self.”

Today the ground floor of the former carriage house has been successfully obliterated and replaced with a non-matching red brick wall with a centered doorway.  But above the enthusiastic façade survives.

The little building nestles up against another surviving carriage house; giving no hint of its colorful past -- photo by Alice Lum

The 1920 Harold I. Pratt Mansion -- Park Avenue at 68th Street

photo by Alice Lum

In April of 1919 Park Avenue was no longer the marginal residential area it had been a generation earlier.  As quickly as the New York Central Railroads train tracks that ran down the center of the Avenue were submerged and covered, Percy Rivington Pyne erected his massive neo-Georgian style mansion at the corner of East 68^th Street.  He was but one of the New York millionaires to direct their attention from Fifth Avenue to Park.

The Pyne house was completed in 1911 and eight years later The Real Estate Record & Builders’ Guide commented on the neighborhood.  On April 26, 1919 it wrote “Adjoining Mr. Pyne’s residence is William Sloane’s new residence, and beyond those are the homes of Henry P. Davison, of J. P. Morgan & Co., Arthur Curtiss James and George Blumenthal.”  The article also noted that Percy R. Pyne had disposed of another Park Avenue property – the four-story house directly opposite at the southwest corner of 68^th Street; “one of the choicest spots on Park avenue.”  Pyne, according to The Sun, had purchased that house “to protect his home against the possible intrusion of an apartment house.”

The buyer was Harold Irving Pratt, the youngest of oil mogul Charles Pratt’s eight children.  The elder Pratt’s fortune had been greatly enhanced when his Pratt Astral Oil company merged with Rockefeller’s Standard Oil of New Jersey.  Now Harold I. Pratt served as Managing Director of Charles Pratt & Co. and, like his siblings, had a large fortune of his own.

Pratt simultaneously purchased the home of Mrs. Anderson Fowler at No. 678 Park Avenue, adjoining the property acquired from Pyne.  The combined package gave him a plot 100 feet wide on Park Avenue, extending 40 feet west on 68^th Street.  The Record & Guide said “A new residence will soon be started on the combined plot which will be in keeping with the improvements to the north.”  The Sun agreed, saying “the new owner, who is a prominent New York man, will erect a handsome residence in keeping with the character of the section.”

The mansion that would soon begin rising would, indeed, “be in keeping” with the flurry of mansion-building in the Lenox Hill neighborhood.  In the meantime, the Pratts continued living in their full-floor apartment at the north corner of Fifth Avenue and 63^rdStreet.  At the yearly rent of $25,000 a year, The Sun deemed it “the next most expensive apartment in the world.”  For their hefty rent the Pratts enjoyed 25 rooms and seven baths.

William Adams Delano of the architectural firm Delano & Aldrich received the commission to design the new Pratt mansion.  The firm, which was busy simultaneously designing the Knickerbocker and Colony Club buildings, had recently made alterations to the Pratts’ sumptuous Georgian Revival country house, Welwyn, in Glen Cove, New York. 

For the Pratt house Delano drew his inspiration from the English Regency, producing a four story limestone house with restrained ornamentation.  Somewhat unexpectedly, the entrance was placed on East 68^thStreet; possibly because the of noticeable southern decline of Park Avenue.  Above the rusticated base, relieved by a regimented series of arched openings, was a delightful carved frieze of seashells.  The openings of the fifth floor were octagonal—a popular Regency motif.

The newly completed house.  photograph by Wurts Bros., from the collection of the Museum of the City of New York http://collections.mcny.org/C.aspx?VP3=SearchResult_VPage&VBID=24UAYWQ8HKZO&SMLS=1&RW=1280&RH=915

By February of 1920 the Pratts had moved into their new home.  Harriet Barnes Pratt wasted no time in opening the house for entertaining—often in conjunction with her active philanthropies and other interests. 

As the chairman of the Parents’ League she was instrumental in the founding of the Commonwealth School.  “At the Commonwealth School daughters of millionaires, multi and otherwise, learn of the economic and industrial problems which face the community in which they live—and the state,” explained the New-York Tribune on May 16, 1920.  “They learn of the responsibilities which they must face in the present day world as guardians of the world’s wealth.”

The Pratt children had a significant chunk of the world’s wealth to guard.  The financially and politically powerful circles in which the Pratts moved were evident on September 13, 1921 when President Harding paused to play a game of golf on Long Island.  The First Lady politely watched the first hole, then “retired to the clubhouse” where tea was served to socialites including Mrs. William K. Vanderbilt and Mrs. Harold Pratt.

photo by Alice Lum

Harriet’s entertainments could be instructional as well as social.  On November 28, 1922 she hosted a lecture musicale by Kurt Schindler and Paul Kochanski in the house.  The topic was “Ancient and Modern Violin Music.”

Far less didactic were the events surrounding Eleanor Pratt’s debut to society in 1927.  On Tuesday night, December 27 the ballroom was thrown open for a dance “to introduce their daughter.”

By now Harold had become a member of the Council on Foreign Relations.  Founded in 1921, the group’s purpose was to “afford a continuous conference on international questions affecting the United States, by bringing together experts on statecraft, finance, industry, education and science.”  Members were chosen “for their knowledge of foreign affairs and their ability to contribute to discussions and debate.”

The year 1929 began a flurry of activity in the Pratt household.  On June 10, 1929 son Irving married Ellen Rice Hallowell in Milton, Massachusetts.  The following year, in September, Barbara was feted with a debutante ball at the Glen Cove mansion; and a few weeks later, on October 23, Eleanor’s engagement to James Ramsay Hunt, Jr. was announced.

Despite the Great Depression, life in the Park Avenue mansion was little changed for the Pratts.  On November 28, 1933 Barbara married David Richmond Wilmerding in the Church of the Heavenly Rest.  The New York Times called it “an elaborate ceremony.”  The newspaper made note of the “unusually large bridal party.”  After the ceremony a reception was held in the Pratt mansion.

In March 1937 the Pratts donated a 12-acre park to the city of Glen Cove.  Harriet “not only supervised the landscaping but planted many of the bulbs and shrubs herself,” said The Times.  Harriet was Chairperson of the City Planning Commission and the park was named in honor of her—the Harriet Barnes Pratt Park.  The couple’s gift was estimated to be worth about $250,000.

Two years later Harold Irving Pratt died of pneumonia at Glen Cove at the age of 62.  Following Harriet’s period of mourning, entertainments in the Park Avenue mansion would be understated.  On February 19, 1942 The New York Timesmentioned a dinner party she hosted the night before for just three guests.

On September 25, 1944 the Council on Foreign Relations announced that Harriet Barnes Pratt had presented the group with the Park Avenue mansion “as a memorial to her husband…It will be called the Harold Pratt House.”

The directors stressed that in accepting the gift, they had “made permanent provision for the proper upkeep of the new house.”  John D. Rockefeller, Jr., although not a member of the Council, provided half of the $300,000 maintenance fund that had been raised.  “Although Mr. Rockefeller is not a member, three of his sons are, and he always has taken an interest in its work,” said the announcement.

The House was officially opened on April 6, 1945 with an impressive roster of speakers:  Secretary of State Edward R. Stettinius, Jr., John W. Davis, Hamilton Fish Armstrong, and R. C. Leffingwell.

Throughout the following decades the Harold Pratt House would see the comings and goings of heads of state and other political and economic leaders who spoke here.  Among them would be French Premier Pierre Mendes-France in 1954, Konrad Adenauer in 1953, Emperor Haile-Selassie in 1954 and Vietnam President Diem in 1957.

Many of the home's interior details have been preserved -- photos www.pratthouse.com

Nearly a century after the Pratts moved in, the exterior of their dignified mansion remains unchanged.  The house is still the New York City headquarters for the Council on Foreign Relations.

The 1854 India House -- No. 1 Hanover Square

photo by Alice Lum

In 1851 the face of lower Manhattan had drastically changed.  The Great Fire of 1835 had destroyed as many as 700 buildings.  But by now the business district had been mostly rebuilt as updated office buildings, mercantile establishments and other commercial structures rose over the ashes.

That year the Hanover Bank began construction of its new bank building.   The firm worked with Richard F. Carman on the project.  Carman was already amassing a fortune by rebuilding the downtown area.  A carpenter/builder and developer, he would later purchase approximately 23 acres in northern Manhattan to develop an entirely new community called Carmansville—a picturesque village of freestanding homes and barns.

Whether Carman was the architect of the bank building is uncertain; however the result was an architectural gem.  Completed three years later in 1854, the Italian Renaissance Revival building looked more like a brownstone mansion, perhaps, than a financial institution. 

Located at No. 1 Hanover Square (the square took its name from the bank), it rose three stories with pedimented windows and a bracketed cornice that bespoke understated elegant and dignity.  Two shallow porticoes  served as entrances.

In August 1870 the New York Cotton Exchange was formed, starting out in small back rooms at 146 Pearl Street and trading around 15,000 bales of cotton per week.  Only a year later the Exchange needed permanent headquarters and took over the building previously owned by Hanover Bank.

The New York Cotton Exchange updated the building.  Architect Ebenezer L. Roberts removed the matching stoops and created a single, centered entrance, framed by an elegant portico upheld by non-fluted Corinthian columns.    A Victorian parapet was added to the roof with a clock and flagpole, and cast iron gas lights were installed on either side of the entrance stairs.  The renovations—inside and out—cost the exchange a staggering $160,000.

Roberts made significant alterations to the old brownstone building -- NYPL Collection

The Exchange would not stay long, however.   On April 30, 1885 it moved to what the New York Tribune called its “splendid new building on Hanover Square and William and Beaver Streets.”

In 1871 The Cotton Exchange was among the tallest buildings downtown -- NYPL Collection

William Russell Grace took over the building as headquarters of his W. R. Grace & Co.    Grace  was born in Queenstown, Ireland in 1832 and, after running away from school at the age of 14, he worked his way to New York City on a sailing ship.   The energetic Irishman spent some time in Peru before returning to New York to become a clerk, then partner, in Bryce & Co. (which became Bryce, Grace & Co. and then Grace Bros. Co.) and Mayor of New York between 1881 and 1882.

By now he had established both the W. R. Grace & Co. firm and the New York and Pacific Steamship Co., was president and director of the Ingersoll-Sergeant Drill Co., director of the Central and South America Telegraph Co., the City Trust Co., Eastern Insurance Co., The Evergreens, Lincoln National Bank, Terminal Improvement Co. and the New York Mall and Newspaper Transportation Co.  

The elegant centered portico replaced the original pair of entrances in 1871 -- photo by Alice Lum

William Grace died in 1904 and around the time that W. R. Grace & Co. moved out of the building, Joseph P. Grace, along with several other moguls including Willard Straight, became interested in forming a society of businessmen who were involved in foreign trade.  The result would be India House—a men’s club whose name gave a nod to the Dutch West India Company that colonized Manhattan.

On July 7, 1914 The New York Times noted that “To afford a meeting place for those interested in American foreign trade, Indian House [sic], a down-town club, has been organized.  The headquarters will be at 1 Hanover Square, the old New York Cotton Exchange building, which recently was occupied by W. R. Grace & Co.”   The new club was not merely for New Yorkers; members were accepted nation-wide and “it is planned to form European connections.” 

Renovations were begun to convert the former business building into a clubhouse “so that in foreign cities members will have a place in which to feel ‘at home’ and to entertain,” said The Times.  Architects Delano & Aldrich were given the commission.

The officers of the new club were heavy hitters:  James A. Farrell, President of United States Steel was elected president; Willard Straight of J. P. Morgan & Co. was secretary; J. P. Grace, treasurer; and  the President of Baldwin Locomotive Works in Philadelphia, Alba B. Johnson, was secretary.  The Sun noted “A roster of the regulars in fact is a list of the foremost business men of New York whose activities have to do with the foreign trade.”

To add ambiance, “a collection of prints and paintings of old merchant vessels and scenes in the distant ports to which they sailed will be placed in the club,” said the newspaper.  It was the seed of what would become one of the most important maritime art collections in the country.

The architects took an Edwardian look at the Victorian changes Roberts had made in 1871 and, apparently, clucked their tongues.  They stripped the façade and roof line back to its purer Italian Renaissance  roots and, with brownstone construction long out of favor, painted over the chocolate-colored stone.

A platform hangs from the roof as painters finish a coat of white-wash, covering the brownstone.  A cafe-restaurant leases space in the cellar -- photo NYPL Collection

The club was ready by the Fall of that year.  The Sun reported “India House was opened on November 16, 1914, as a luncheon club for men actively interested in the foreign commerce of the United States.  It occupies the quaint old three story building, a relic of the first half of the last century…and was once the Cotton Exchange and more recently the offices of W. R. Grace & Co.”

Two years later the same newspaper would remark on what was now an impressive art collection.  “These enthusiasts set about the making of India House in the right way.  The first thing they did was to create an atmosphere.  This they accomplished by gathering what is without doubt the most extensive and valuable collection of pictures relating to the sea glory of the United States in existence.

India House in 1934 -- photo Library of Congress

“Williard Straight, to whom more than any other man the inception of India House is due and whose pet it is, contributed lavishly of the magnificent examples of Chinese art that he has brought from the Orient.  Herbert L. Satterlee and the Asiatic Institute drew heavily upon their fine collections with the result that the whole story of American sea power, from the naval victories of the Revolution to its apogee at the beginning of the civil war, and then the less glorious but pointed story of its decline, may be read upon the walls.”

Willard Straight purchased the property in 1918 to ensure that the club would not lose control of it, giving India House a ten-year lease with the option to buy.  On December 1^stthat same year he died. 

On February 16, 1921 The Times reported that India House would purchase the building from Straight’s estate for $650,000.  The club, as well as its collection, continued to grow and in 1925 architect William A. Delano, who was also a member of India House, was brought back to enlarge the clubhouse, adding the Marine Room.  A maritime motif of sea creatures and shells reflected the seafaring theme of India House.  Other alterations were made at the time with a focus on early American overseas trade in the decorations and architectural detailing.

In 1944 the brownstone facade was still painted white -- photo NYPL Collection

When the building was designated a New York City landmark in 1965, the Landmarks Preservation Commission said it “illustrates Anglo-Italianate architecture to perfection.”

In 2002 the club initiated an investigation into the scope of necessary restoration—including the removal of a stucco-like covering on the brownstone façade.  Extensive restoration was completed in 2005.

India House remains the private club of businessmen involved in foreign trade.   Members have included Franklin D. Roosevelt, W. Averell Harriman, George C. Marshall, Cyrus Vance, Henry Cabot Lodge, Henry Morgenthau, Jr., and several mayors of New York.  The art collection is considered among the finest privately-held maritime collections in the nation.

photo by Alice Lum

The magnificent brownstone building sits like an imperial presence beneath towering skyscrapers, unimpressed by her lofty modern neighbors.

The 1915 Knickerbocker Club Building -- 5th Avenue and 62nd Street

photo by Americasroof

In the middle of the 19th Century the Union Club was indisputedly the most exclusive of New York City gentlemen’s clubs. The club’s rules of acceptance were the most stringent and its members ranked among the wealthiest men in the country.

With the development of new industries and technologies following the Civil War, however, new-found fortunes were being made by men born on farms and in tenements. Under pressure, the Union Club lessened its rigid entrance rules and expanded the size of its membership. With the influx of the new group of nouveau riche members new ”vulgarities” seeped into the decorous clubrooms like pipe smoking and gambling.

Offended by the diluted character of their club, several staid members planned mutiny. On October 31, 1871 a distinguished group including Alexander Hamilton Jr., August Belmont and John Jacob Astor organized the Knickerbocker Club modeled on the staid and lofty Union Club they grieved for.

At meetings in the upper-class Delmonico’s restaurant at 5th Avenue and 14th Street they hammered out the by-laws and procedures. Before the year's end the Knickerbocker Club was established in the former mansion of William B. Duncan on 5th Avenue at 28th Street. Before long its membership included 240 of New York City’s wealthiest and renowned social leaders.

A decade later the club would move uptown to another brownstone mansion at 5th Avenue and 32nd Street where it would remain for 32 years. But as the first decade of the 20th Century came to an end, the atmosphere of the neighborhood had changed; the proud residences of the wealthy giving way to more commercial interests. Adding to this, the old structure was proving expansive to maintain and lacked modern conveniences like an elevator.

In the meantime, the widow of brewer August Schmid had erected an grand limestone chateau on 5th Avenue at 62nd Street in 1899. When she married Giovanni del Drago, the son of an Italian prince, in 1909, the couple closed up the mansion and sailed off to Europe.

The Club purchased the property in 1914, along with the mansion of W. Lanman Bull to the south, as the site of a new clubhouse “despite the feeling on the part of many members against the uptown movement scheme,” as reported in The New York Times.

Only fifteen years after being completed, the magnificent French chateau of Josephine Schmidt, which The Times called “one of the finest houses in the upper Fifth Avenue residential section,” was demolished in a process that took nearly a month.


photo by Alice Lum


The club commissioned Delano & Aldrich to design their new clubhouse. The architects had gained prominence by designing homes for socially prominent families; however they would be most remembered for their dignified, neo-Federal or Georgian structures like the 1917 Greenwich House. It was this style to which the pair turned for the Knickerbocker Club.

The architects drew substantially on American Federal design with touches of English influence of the same period such as the iron balconies and French touches such as the reined-in baroque entrance. They produced a beautifully-proportioned red brick edifice with limestone trim that slipped quietly into the high-class residential neighborhood.

photo by Alice Lum

Completed in 1915 at a cost of around $250,000, The New York Times complimented the clubhouse. “There is a simplicity combined with rich dignity about the building which strikes the observer more forcibly than the more ornate exteriors of many Fifth Avenue homes. It is expressive of the conservatism, if not the traditional exclusiveness of the club.”

photo by Alice Lum

Nearly a century later the Knickerbocker Club remains one of the most exclusive and traditional of the city’s many social clubs. The building, which in 1979 the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission deemed “one of the city’s finest examples of the neo-Federal style,” is also one of the city’s most beautiful.

The 1915 Willard D. Straight House - No. 1130 Fifth Avenue

photo by Gryffinor

In 1903 Andrew Carnegie broke tradition when he built his 64-room mansion across from Central Park at 91st Street. Not only had he chosen a site 20 blocks north of his nearest wealthy neighbors, but he commissioned a restrained red brick, Neo-Georgia residence – an unexpected mutiny in a residential fleet of limestone and marble palaces.



Willard Straight -- photo Univ of Calif at Pomona

Other daring millionaires followed suit -- Edwin Berwind building a brick Georgian mansion four years later at 64th Street and William Starr Miller doing so in 1913 at 86th Street. The same year the Miller house was completed, Willard D. Straight joined in.

On November 12 Straight, who was a financier with the J. P. Morgan Company as well as a publicist and diplomat, purchased the lot at the southeast corner of 5th Avenue and 94th Street for $300,000. Straight had already bought the lot on the opposite, northeast corner. The millionaire intended to “erect a fine residence,” said The New York Times, “while the other corner may be resold to a congenial neighbor who will improve with a large residence.”

Straight realized that the way to ensure the quality of his neighbors was to buy up the adjoining land and sell it only to those he cared to live near.

The home shortly after completion -- photo downeastdilletante.com

Architects Delano & Aldrich were commissioned to design the mansion. The firm delighted in the Neo-Georgian style that would become their hallmark. Inspired by the wing Christopher Wren designed for Hampton Court in the 17th Century, they produced a refined brick home with white marble trim. Small, first floor windows give way to tall, floor-to-ceiling windows on the second. Black-painted shutters contrast dramatically with the red brick and, at the top floor, round windows create a visual diversion. An elegant white gallery surmounts the whole.

The beautifully-proportioned entrance and juliette balcony of the second floor - photo Haus Fitzerald

Inside the architects used Adamesque detailing for the ceilings and woodwork.

The house was completed in 1915 and, only three years later, while serving with the American Expeditionary Forces, Willard Straight died of influenza. Dorothy Straight, who was wealthy in her own right, continued to live on at No. 1130 5th Avenue for years.

Mrs. Straight was not only prominent socially – she helped found the Junior League of New York and, in January 1923, entertained the Rev. T. W. Pym, head of Cambridge House, London and the honorary chaplain to King George V, for instance – but she was deeply involved in social causes. She regularly spoke for women’s labor unions and hosted teas and other events in the house as fund raisers.

The socially-active Mrs. Willard Straight -- photo Library of Congress

Following Mrs. Straight, the house was owned for a brief time by Judge Elbert H. Gary, Chairman of the Board of Directors of the United States Steel Corporation and one of the leaders of American industry. The 81-year old died in the house on August 26, 1927 with an estimated estate of $25 million.

Gary’s millions paled in comparison to the subsequent owner, Harrison Williams, who had built a vast electrical empire and whose fortune at one time was reputed to be $680 million. In July of 1952 Mrs. Williams sold the house to the National Audubon Society for its headquarters.

The Audubon Society gently used the grand mansion for over two decades, finally selling it in September 1973 to the International Center of Photography. The home would become the city’s first museum and educational facility dedicated solely to the art of photography.

Like the Audubon Society, the photography museum used the house without substantially altering its interiors. Then, in 2001, the notoriously private billionaire Bruce Kovner purchased the house for $17 million. The hedge fund magnate spent another $10 million in restoring and reconverting it to residential use.

The Willard Straight House is a gem of early-20th Century architecture and an important survivor along the avenue where luxury apartment buildings have replaced most of the grand mansions that once lined it.

The 1918 Francis Palmer House -- No. 75 E. 93rd St.

photo by Alice Lum

On the northwest corner of 93^rd Street and Park Avenue in 1911 stood the elegant wood-and-stone country house of General Winfield Scott.  Its gardens long ago swallowed up by development, it was now use by the Ursuline nuns as an academy for young Catholic girls.

But progress and the upward movement of Manhattan’s millionaires demanded that the historic building sitting on valuable real estate come down.  In February 1912 The New York Times reported that “Robert Shaw Minturn has joined the uptown Park Avenue residential colony by purchasing…from the Ursuline Sisters of St. Theresa a large plot on the northwest corner of Park Avenue and Ninety-third Street, which he intends to improve with two handsome dwellings.”

Minturn did construct his own mansion on the eastern end of the property along 93^rd Street; however his mother’s home did not materialize.  Instead Minturn sold the corner lot to wealthy banker Francis F. Palmer in April 1916.  Palmer commissioned architectural firm Delano & Aldrich to design his new mansion. 

On November 12, 1916 The New York Times commented on the many elegant homes being built in the area.  “The number of new buildings or extensive alterations of old dwellings in the choice private house blocks north of Sixtieth Street is exceptionally large,” it said.  The newspaper noted that “Last week contracts were let for a fine residence for Francis F. Palmer on the northwest corner of Park Avenue and Ninety-third Street.”

A tall brick wall hides the garden -- The Architectural Review, January 1919 (copyright expired)

By now the Colonial Revival movement had firmly taken root in America and for the Palmer house, the architects turned to the country’s architectural beginnings.  Completed in 1918 the mansion opened on to 93^rd Street, despite its 1180 Park Avenue address.    The red brick home was trimmed in white marble and recalled the lofty Georgian residences of colonial America.  A steep mansard level, covered in slate and punctured by formal dormers, sat behind a marble balustrade.   Dramatic slabs of chimneys more than a story tall thrust through the roof.

The Architectural Review, January 1919 (copyright expired)

Palmer created what even in 1918 was an extravagant luxury—a huge side court that served as a formal garden behind a tall brick wall.  The courtyard entrance was framed in marble extending two stories, creating a Juliette balcony above the doorway.

The Palmers filled the house with period-correct furnishings -- The Architectural Review, January 1919 (copyright expired)

By the time George F. Baker Jr. purchased the house from the Palmer family eight years later, the Park Avenue address had been discarded and No. 75 East 93^rd Street was used..   Baker eyed lustfully the house on the old Minturn property, now owned by William A. Alock.  Finally on October 21, 1927 he acquired the five-story Alock house, extending his property to 100 feet along Park Avenue and 139 feet down 93^rd Street.

The wealthy banker brought Delano & Aldrich back.   A year later one of the most impressive residential complexes in Manhattan had been created.  In place of the Alock house was a garage with servants quarters above.   Joining the new structure with the mansion was a long extension known as the “ballroom wing.”  The dexterous use of materials and details made the addition, which now fully embraced the formal  garden, nearly seamless.

To the left, on the far side of the garden, the new garage and servants' wing is visible -- photo from the collection of the Museum of the City of New York

Baker was the son of George F. Baker, for many years the Chairman of the First National Bank.  His wife, the former Edith Kane, was the great great granddaughter of Henry Brevoort.  Their combined fortunes made the Bakers among the wealthiest couples in the city.  The renovations to the mansion were completed just in time for daughter Florence’s coming out.

photo by Alice Lum

The house was the scene of “several dinners” in 1930 according to The Times for Florence’s debut.  It all culminated on the night of December 22 with a dance “to introduce her to society.”

The courtyard entrance with its quaint Juliette balcony -- The Architectural Review, January 1919 (copyright expired)

The following year was not so joyous for Edith Kane Baker.  Her cousin, Mary Emma Calhoun, took offense to remarks Edith made in public about her—that she was a narcotic addict and “a liar and not to be trusted.”

Calhoun sued her cousin for $500,000 for slander.  What ensued was a months-long game of tag with the wealthy socialite staying two steps ahead of the process servers.

Edith Baker was not at the 93^rd Street house when the server first came.  It was, after all, August and she was summering in the Baker country estate on Peacock Lane, Locust Valley, Long Island.  When he attempted to find Mrs. Baker there, “admittance had been refused him at Locust Valley,” said the press.

Back at the 93^rdStreet house, the butler told the process server to serve the papers on Mr. Baker.  Mrs. Calhoun’s lawyers then sent a letter to Edith asking her to “arrange to accept the service.”  She responded by leaving a message for her cousin to call her.  One might assume the subsequent conversation was less than pleasant.

Finally on November 27, 1931 the charges were dismissed by Justice Gavegan on the grounds that they were “indefinite.”

The ballroom wing was the scene of one of New York society’s most important weddings on May 3, 1934 when Edith Brevoort Baker, the Baker’s younger daughter, married John Mortimer Schiff.  “The marriage united two members of families long prominent in the philanthropic and financial worlds,” noted The Times.

The ballroom had been transformed into “a garden of Spring flowers,” including full-grown dogwood trees grouped into the corners of the room.   The newspaper made note of the courtyard.  “Had the weather been more conducive to staying out of doors, many of the guests would have had the privilege of wandering through a garden of dogwood and shrubs between the house and garage adjoining, which had been included in the scheme of floral decoration.”

Following the wedding, a 50-pound wedding cake was brought out; “a product of Mme. Blanche, who also made the wedding cake for the bride’s parents in 1912 as well as that for her sister, Mrs. T. Suffern Tailer Jr., the former Miss Florence Baker.”

George Baker died in 1937 while cruising near the Hawaiian Island.  Edith Baker continued to live on in the house; however around the time of the Second World War, she closed off the main house and ballroom wing.  She had the servants’ and chauffeur’s quarters above the garage renovated as her Manhattan pied-a-terre and spent most of her time at the Long Island estate.

photo by Alice Lum

When the White House was being restored during the Truman administration, Edith donated the two antique chandeliers from the ballroom—each containing about 80 carved crystal prisms.  Otherwise, the grand home was shuttered and dark and unmolested.

In 1958 The Synod of Bishops of the Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia approached Edith Baker, offering to buy the mansion as its headquarters.  Russian-banker Sergei Semenenko managed to pull together the funds and acquired the house for the church.  And as is almost always the case, when religious institutions purchase old houses, changes are necessarily in store.

Because the ballroom was to be used as an assembly hall, an outside staircase in the courtyard was installed and French doors replaced the ballroom windows.   A large opening was broken through the garden wall and decorative gates were added. 

The added staircase in the courtyard is seen through the gates, added during the renovation -- photo by Alice Lum

The renovations were done with dexterity and sympathy, making the alterations harmonious with the original design.  The handsome complex remains one of the most impressive and unusual of Manhattan residential structures.