257 Central Park West

257 Central Park West

luxury apartment house

The profile from the 86th Street transverse of Central Park
Location on the Upper West Side
Former names Orwell House, Peter Stuyvesant Hotel, Central Park View, 2 West 86th Street
General information
Architectural style Beaux Arts
Location Manhattan, NY 10024
Address 257 Central Park West
Country U.S.
Coordinates 40°47′06″N 73°58′11″W / 40.78500°N 73.96972°W / 40.78500; -73.96972Coordinates: 40°47′06″N 73°58′11″W / 40.78500°N 73.96972°W / 40.78500; -73.96972
Groundbreaking 1905
Completed 1906
Owner Private
Technical details
Floor count 12
Lifts/elevators 3
Design and construction
Architecture firm Mulliken and Moeller.[note 1]
Main contractor Gotham Building & Construction
Designations Upper West Side-Central Park West Historic District

257 Central Park West, constructed between 1905 and 1906, currently is a co-op apartment building located on the southwest corner of 86th Street and Central Park West in the Upper West Side of Manhattan in New York City.

Designed by the firm of Mulliken and Moeller[1] and built by Gotham Building & Construction,[2] the structure was erected as a luxury apartment house originally called the Central Park View. Mulliken and Moeller had recently finished The Lucerne,[3] on the corner of 79th and Amsterdam, and the Bretton Hall hotel[4] on the east side of Broadway from 85th to 86th Streets.[note 2] When Mulliken and Moeller began working on the Central Park View in 1905 for an investor group known only as the Monticello Realty Company, they were also designing the Severn and Van Dyck apartments[5][6] (found on the east side of Amsterdam Avenue between 72nd and 73rd streets) for a separate client.[7] In the following year, Mulliken and Moeller designed Rossleigh Court, the adjoining and similarly designed apartment building located on the northwest corner of 85th Street and Central Park West. In 1909, Dr. H. F. L. Ziegel and his wife, Beatrice, added the adjoining Neo-Georgian residence at 8 West 86th Street[8]

Situated opposite the 86th Street transverse to Central Park West on the southwest corner, the Central Park View’s design followed the popular “French Flat” model in a Beaux Arts-style, modified to conform to the size of a twelve-story structure. Upon its completion, the new hotel anchored the eastern end of the developing West 86th Street. On the western end of West 86th Street, the Columbia Yacht Club[9][10] had relocated to a site adjoining the Hudson River in 1874 and remained the other West 86th Street bookend until 1937.[11][12]

257 Central Park West is located within the Upper West Side-Central Park West Historic District, designated on April 24, 1990.[13] It is also located next to the 86th Street station of the New York City Subway (A B C trains).

Design

Exterior

Starting at the sidewalk level and moving up to the parapet, there is a simple but massive limestone base up to the windowsill at the 1st floor. From this level up to the level of the 3rd floor sill, there is a facing of limestone, with deep horizontal rusticated joints, terminating with a sill course above the 3rd floor.

From the 3rd floor up to the sill level of the 4th floor, the course and window trims and 4th floor sill course are of architectural terracotta, with an isolated alternate course of red face brick.

From this 4th floor to the sill of the 11th floor, the façade is red face brick, with isolated courses, window trims and sills of architectural terracotta with three groups of suppressed window balcony and pediment head trims on each facade of architectural terracotta, and with continuous vertical corner quoins of architectural terracotta.

The 11th floor sill course is a continuous suppressed cornice of modest projection. From this level to the 12th floor sill level, the wall treatment is essentially a repetition of the treatment between the sill levels of the 3rd and 4th floor, but with a wide, prominently projecting, and continuous sill cornice. At the 12th floor, the wall is red face brick, with quoins of architectural terracotta at the corners of the building.

The street walls are thirty-four inches thick in the cellar, twenty-six inches thick at the 1st and 2nd floors, sixteen inches thick from the 3rd to 7th floors, and twelve inches thick from the 8th floor to the parapet above the main roof.

Interior

The framing system consists of cast-iron columns carrying steel girders and steel beams, which in turn support concrete floors and the roof deck.

The columns rest upon cast-iron base-plates, which in turn rest upon masonry piers founded on the schist bedrock laying a short distance below the cellar floor level.

Continuous peripheral foundations also resting upon bedrock carry the exterior masonry walls. These walls are self-supporting and independent of the steel framing system and are tied to the steel framing at every floor level.

The floors consist of four-inch thick reinforced cinder concrete slabs. Although all floor slabs are level, the roof slab is framed with an integral slope so that it pitches downward gently from a uniformly high level at Central Park West and West 86th Street sides to a low level along the inner court sides and also downward from the south end of the west wing to a valley along the court walls.

History

Opening

The Central Park View opened in 1906, in the midst of a decade which saw New York City add a number of its iconic structures. George B. McClellan, Jr. was mayor between 1904 and 1909, and during his Tammany-backed term of office, the Williamsburg Bridge and the Manhattan Bridge, the Municipal Ferry Pier, and the first IRT subway line were all completed. The construction of Grand Central Terminal and the New York Public Library Main Branch also were ongoing during this decade and would be completed soon after.

Designed originally as a luxury apartment house,[note 3] the main entrance faced north on West 86th Street and featured an ornate entrance opening from a porte cochère and leading into the lobby.[14] From there, a central courtyard reached further into an open interior yard level providing both improved light and ventilation to the apartments above as well as privacy from the street.

Central Park view in 1906.[15]

The original apartments were designed for luxury,[16] arranged in seven, nine, ten and eleven room suites, each with two or three bathrooms. Each suite included the modern amenities of telephone service, an automated mail delivery system, filtered water, storage in the basement and elevators serving all floors. The interiors were designed elegantly, with parquet floors and apartments finished in quartered oak, birch and mahogany.The kitchen contained porcelain sinks and tubs, nickel-plated plumbing, gas ranges, and five-foot marble wainscoting. The interior courtyards and the broad exterior facing offered the rooms light and air.

The custodian's apartment occupied part of the cellar and three apartments were built on the first floor. Each of the upper floors, namely the 2nd through 12th floors, was constructed with four apartments, making a total of forty-eight apartments including the custodian’s residence.

Multiple design changes

Hotel Peter Stuyvesant, ca. 1938[note 4]

The original design did not last long. In 1907 the developer, the Monticello Realty Company, sold the new apartment to David H. Taylor and Charles W. Odgen for $1,850,000.[note 5] Shortly thereafter in 1909 the central and south courtyards were excavated and a new single-floor roof was constructed at curb level to accommodate additional storeroom and a custodian’s workroom. The building was sold again in November 1914 [17] Laundry tubs and a water closet were added in the basement in 1917 but no other major renovation is recorded before 1918.

From 1918 to 1920, the building underwent its first major renovation, the conversion from luxury apartment to the Hotel Peter Stuyvesant sponsored by the Sonn Brothers and the Peter Stuyvesant Operating Company.[note 6][note 7] Under the new configuration, only a single apartment resided on the first floor, with new dining rooms and a reception area replacing the other two first floor apartments along the Central Park West front of the building. The entire first floor, in Cato and Belgian black marble, was adorned with blue and gold decoration.[18] On the second through twelve floors were nineteen bedrooms, eleven living rooms, and nineteen bathrooms per level, alongside new partitioning and plumbing appropriate for hoteling use.

Other later renovations again changed the usage of the first floor space. In 1939, a cabaret and piano bar was added to the first floor. Outside the striped awnings that once adorned each window on the Central Park West facade disappeared, as did the light well still present along the building to the south. By 1950, the elevator men were gone as the cars were upgraded to new automatic versions from their prior manual operation.

This configuration lasted for nearly twenty years as the Hotel Peter Stuyvesant was operated by the Knott Hotel Corporation as a Class A hotel.[note 8] The neighborhood itself would change as the Eighth Avenue Subway with its 5-cent fares opened in 1932[19] and replaced the uptown trolley system that once crossed at the 86th Street transverse.[20] More importantly, the independent subway line tied the uptown property and those near it to the bustling metropolis forming in midtown Manhattan, only one and a half miles to the south.

The property was operated as a residential hotel up to its sale to Wilger Realty Corporation in 1941.[21] By the late 1940s and 1950s, two other renovations again would change Hotel Peter Stuyvesant’s footprint. In 1949, the partitioning on the second through twelfth floors again was changed to incorporate nineteen apartments per floor. In 1957, the western dining room and the cabaret, the latter having established a poor reputation with the police, were renovated to accommodate new medical and legal office space. In 1960, the property was sold again to Soltzer & Lampert, real estate operators.[22]

Dinner menu from 1938

In the 1960s, the notability of the building was limited, although Fred Rust and Bill Davies taught ballroom dancing in the first floor ballroom[23] until 1967. Their departure appears to coincide with another sale of the property. Stuyvesant Apartments, a partnership formed between Simon Haberman and Walter Schulze, purchased the building on April 17. 1967. The building underwent an alteration completed in 1970 replacing all internal partitions, while maintaining its external features, and including eighty-nine apartments on the upper floors (eight per floor but nine on the ninth), a group medical center on the first floor, and a garage in part of the cellar. An entrance to the lobby was added on the Central Park West side, with the former entrance on West 86th Street being retained as an entrance for the medical center.

The then-owners renamed the property as The Orwell House after the English author whom one of the sponsors enjoyed. That moniker remained until the early 2000s when the resident-shareholders decided to change the name to simply 257 Central Park West.

Co-op conversion

In 1978, Stuyvesant Apartments converted the apartments to co-operative ownership, selling most of the apartment units to the residents. The property has been owned by a private co-operative corporation for over thirty-five years. As the co-op was approaching its twenty-fifth anniversary in 2003, the co-operatives' shareholders began a series of renovations aimed at restoring its historical façade and modernizing its mechanical systems. Many of the residents and shareholders likewise have renovated their homes with designs that match the residence’s elegance and location with modern conveniences.

The proximity to Central Park and the Mariner’s Gate at West 85th Street positions the century-old home very close to several attractions within Central Park: the Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis Reservoir, the Great Lawn and Turtle Pond, the Delacorte Theater, the Shakespeare Garden, the Swedish Cottage Marionette Theatre, Bethesda Fountain, the Mariners[24] and Abraham and Joseph Spector’s playgrounds[25] the Arthur Ross Pinetum, the Cleopatra’s Needle, the Belvedere Castle, and the Winterdale Arch.[26] The building also sits near the historical sites of the Seneca Village [note 9] and the Yorkville Reservoir.[27]

In popular culture

The building has been used as a setting in several films, including:

Notable residents

257 Central Park West has been the residence of several famous people over the years:

Notes and references

Notes

  1. ↑ Harry B. Mulliken (1872-1952) and Edgar J. Moeller (1874-1954) graduated together from Columbia University's Fine Arts class in 1895. Mulliken, from Chicago, supposedly worked for D. H. Burnham & Company in Chicago and then Ernest Flagg in New York City. The pair are credited with the design of the Van Dyke, the Severn, the Lucerne (at least Mulliken and possibly Moeller as well), 530 West End Avenue (south west corner of West 86th Street), 310 West 86th Street, 320 West 86th Street and 302 West 86th Street. Much of the work was sponsored by James and David Todd.
  2. ↑ Even to the casual eye, the similarities are striking in their extensive use of terracotta and the replacement of the central courtyard with smaller light courts arranged to provide interior rooms with more light and ventilation.
  3. ↑ For an original cost of $950,000 according to the records at the Office of Metropolitan History.
  4. ↑ The post card reads, "The PETER STUYVESANT, an outstanding residential hotel of the upper West Side, commands a beautiful vista of Central Part at 86th Street. The hotel has large single rooms and suites designed for occupancy of those who demand space and comfort. It has an excellent a la carte dining room, where choice wines and liquors are served, and a most attractive Sidewalk Cafe."
  5. ↑ According to a pair of articles in the New York Times, dated March 1, 1907 and August 14, 1907, the Monticello Realty Company sold the Central Park View for $1,250,000 and a building, the Chatham Court. The cash consideration was paid by Mr. David H. Taylor and the property contribution was made by Mr. Charles W. Odgen.
  6. ↑ Hyman and Henry Sonn were Bavarian immigrants who became liquor dealers in the late 19th century and later developed several properties on the Upper West Side.They owned the property through the 1000 Westchester Avenue Company.
  7. ↑ The Peter Stuyvesant Operating Company leased the property from the Sonn Brothers under a twenty-one year lease, with a net lease value of $3,000,000 - a remarkably high value for the time. The lessee, led by William F. Ingold, conducted the refurbishment of the apartments to a residence hotel, with the plans provided by the architects Schwartz & Gross and B.N. Marcus.
  8. ↑ A 1935 map of the Knott Hotels lists the Hotel Peter Stuyvesant at Central Park West at 86th Street. The hotel advertises that all rooms have baths, single rooms charges $4 per night and double rooms charge $6 per night. The telephone number is Trafalgar 7400.
  9. ↑ Another discussion of this archeological site is written at http://www.centralparknyc.org/visit/things-to-see/great-lawn/seneca-village-site.html. The remains of the foundation of the African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church reportedly can be found due east of the Mariner's Gate on 85th Street and Central Park West.
  10. ↑ According to the 1910 U.S. Census, Schwartz lived here with his wife, his son Adolf, and two servants, until the deaths of him and his son in that same year.

References

  1. ↑ Christopher Gray (2003-09-14). "Streetscapes/Mulliken & Moeller, Architects; Upper West Side Designs in Brick and Terra Cotta - New York Times". New York City: Nytimes.com. Retrieved 2014-06-30.
  2. ↑ New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission. Upper West Side/ Central Park West District Designation Report, Vol. I: Essay/ Architects' Appendix, April 24, 1990.
  3. ↑ New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission. Upper West Side/ Central Park West District Designation Report, Vol. II: Building Entries, April 24, 1990.
  4. ↑ "Museum of the City of New York - Broadway between 85th and 86th Streets. Bretton Hall Apartment House". Secure.collections.mcny.org. Retrieved 2014-06-30.
  5. ↑ "Severn and Van Dyck". Retrieved 2014-06-30.
  6. ↑ "apartment buildings". Secure.collections.mcny.org. 1945-01-07. Retrieved 2014-06-30.
  7. ↑ The Todd Family, http://www.nytimes.com/2003/09/14/realestate/streetscapes-mulliken-moeller-architects-upper-west-side-designs-brick-terra.html
  8. ↑ tom Miller (2014-01-09). "8 West 86th Street". Daytoninmanhattan.blogspot.com. Retrieved 2014-06-30.
  9. ↑ "Museum of the City of New York - 86th Street and Hudson River. Columbia Yacht Club, general exterior from yacht on river". Secure.collections.mcny.org. Retrieved 2014-06-30.
  10. ↑ "The Columbia Yacht Club". Thehistorybox.com. Retrieved 2014-06-30.
  11. ↑ http://ephemeralnewyork.wordpress.com/tag/columbia-yacht-club/[]
  12. ↑ "Museum of the City of New York - 86th St., east from West End Ave, New York". Secure.collections.mcny.org. Retrieved 2014-06-30.
  13. ↑ "Upper West Side - Central Park West Historic District". Landmarkwest.org. Retrieved 2014-06-30.
  14. ↑ Offering Plan for Premises at 257 Central Park West, 1978.
  15. ↑ "Central Park West". New-York Tribune (Chroniclingamerica.loc.gov). 1906-09-23. p. 13. Retrieved 2014-06-30.
  16. ↑ New York Tribune, September 16, 1906, http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn83030214/1906-09-16/ed-1/seq-12/
  17. ↑ The New York Sun, November 14, 1914, http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn83030272/1914-11-21/ed-1/seq-15/
  18. ↑ The New York Times, February 1, 1920.
  19. ↑ September 10, 1932
  20. ↑ Meyers, Stephen L. Manhattan's Lost Streetcars. Charleston, SC: Arcadia, 2005. The New York and Harlem Railroad operated a crosstown trolley that ran east from Eighth Avenue (aka Central Park West) across the Transverse Road to York Avenue and then turned north where it terminated at the 92nd Street ferry slip.
  21. ↑ The New York Times, January 21, 1941.
  22. ↑ The New York Times, July 11, 1960.
  23. ↑ "The Greater New York Chapter of USA Dance". Nyusadance.org. Retrieved 2014-06-30.
  24. ↑ Central Park Conservancy. "Mariner’s Playground". Centralparknyc.org. Retrieved 2014-06-30.
  25. ↑ Central Park Conservancy. "Abraham and Joseph Spector’s". Centralparknyc.org. Retrieved 2014-06-30.
  26. ↑ Winterdale Arch.
  27. ↑ Yorkville Reservoir
  28. ↑ "Other People's Money Film Locations". On the set of New York.com. 2013-07-26. Retrieved 2014-06-30.
  29. ↑ "Hide And Seek: Robert De Niro, Dakota Fanning, Famke Janssen, Elisabeth Shue: Amazon Video". Amazon.com. Retrieved 2014-06-30.
  30. ↑ Lashier, Tricia Morgan, The Digital Diva, White Wolf Media, Michelle Harris, Newport Internet. "1930-1939 - Ernest Bloch Legacy". Ernestbloch.org. Retrieved 2014-06-30.
  31. ↑ http://search.archives.jdc.org/multimedia/Documents/NY_AR2132/00027/NY_AR2132_03921.pdf
  32. ↑ "Anton Schwartz". Findagrave.com. Retrieved 2014-06-30.
  33. ↑ The New York Times, November 7, 1910.
  34. ↑ "Mary Garrett Hay". Nwhm.org. Retrieved 2014-06-30.
  35. ↑ "Horacio Gutierrez | Chasing Perfection Horacio Gutierrez combines superlative musicianship and technique. Maintaining the mix takes tremendous work. - Page 2 - Baltimore Sun". Articles.baltimoresun.com. 1997-02-02. Retrieved 2014-06-30.
  36. ↑ Charles Michener (2014-06-06). "Enduring and Preeminent: A Multigenerational Piano Trio | New York Observer". Observer.com. Retrieved 2014-06-30.
  37. ↑ "The Beaux Arts Trio News". Beauxartstrio.org. Retrieved 2014-06-30.
  38. ↑ "Jimmy Radcliffe Biography". Jimmyradcliffe.20m.com. 1973-07-27. Retrieved 2014-06-30.
  39. ↑ The New York Times, March 1, 1924.
  40. ↑ http://arbiterrecords.org/catalog/artur-schnabel-brahmss-chamber-music-with-szigeti-and-fournier/

Further reading

External links

Landmarking information

Historical photos

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