Where Did They Go?

That’s the A.T. Stewart mansion, at the northwest corner of 34th Street and Fifth Avenue shortly after its completion in 1870. At a time when brick and brownstone were the standards for New York, Stewart got himself a marble palace. It had a short life, mostly because the neighborhood changed. Here it is in 1895, nineteen years after Stewart’s death, and nine years after his wife Cornelia’s death and the building’s conversion to the Manhattan Club:

It’s dwarfed by the Waldorf Astoria Hotel across 34th Street. (It faced the taller, Astoria portion of the joined but separate hotel halves.) The residential character of lower Fifth Avenue was disappearing by then, particularly in the 20s and 30s streets.

Manhattan used to have a lot – arguably more than its fair share – of mansions. A vanishingly small number of people live in such houses today. That raises the question of where they went? Some were demolished, but surprisingly few. It turns out that a house like that serves well for all sorts of non-residential purposes: clubs, small hotels, government offices, and exclusive office space. Here’s an example of that process:

That’s the east side of Fifth Avenue from 80th Street on the far left to halfway between 79th and 78th Streets on the far right. All of the buildings facing the avenue were mansions on 1911, when this picture was taken. 987, 986, and 984-985 Fifth, the Leeds, Curtis, and Horace and Irving Brokaw houses, were demolished in 1969 for a high-rise apartment house. The Isaac Brokaw house at 1 East 70th Street was demolished in 1965 and also replaced by a high rise.

The Fletcher house at 2 East 79th Street is now the Ukrainian Institute of America. 973 Fifth Avenue is still a private residence. The Payne Whitney house at 972 Fifth is now the Cultural Services division of the French Embassy in the United States. And the James Duke house on the far right, at 1 East 78th Street, has been the New York University Institute of Fine Arts since the 1950s..

Well-built ornamental buildings can have a useful second life after their initial use is done. Someone just needs to recognize their value.