Wednesday, January 2, 2013

The Frederick Lewisohn Residence

 The Frederick Lewisohn residence designed by Harry Allen Jacobs c. 1910 at 835 Fifth Avenue in New York City (originally built for John W. Herbert).  Lewisohn, whose family had been involved in copper mining, helped found American Smelting and Refining and the United Metals Selling Company.  He merged his companies with H.H. Rogers and William Rockefeller to create the Amalgamated Copper Company, later merging with United Metals and becoming Anaconda Copper Mining Company.  Lewisohn was officially divorced from his wife Rhoda Seligman Lewisohn in 1937 though her name is listed on these photos so it's likely the couple split long before their divorce.  She remarried in 1937 and moved to Kenya.  This residence was demolished in 1929 and replaced with a Rosario Candela designed apartment building.


Photos from Architecture, 1920.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Shame...this should have been a keeper.

The Down East Dilettante said...

Amazing how much grandeur could be fitted into a 20 foot wide frontage.

I'm also always fascinated by the restless roof scapes of the upper East Side---the way that the desire of architect and owner to stand out, to have their own design trumps considerations of compatible cornice lines or other gestures toward a common good. Every 20-30 feet a new cornice height, a new building material.

chauncy primm said...

Oh wow a rare residence. I've always wanted to know about this one. Whitney Warren designed the two houses south of it. They were considerably wider,about 35-40'

Anonymous said...

here is a link to pic of Fifth ave....835 is on the right side
http://digitalgallery.nypl.org/nypldigital/dgkeysearchdetail.cfm?trg=1&strucID=357855&imageID=1113287&total=84&num=60&parent_id=357310&s=&notword=&d=&c=&f=&k=1&sScope=&sLevel=&sLabel=&lword=&lfield=&sort=&imgs=20&pos=65&snum=&e=w
enjoy
BT

montana channing said...

i, like dd, am also fascinated by the ever varying roofscape of nyc. i subscribe to the brownstoner blog so i get a daily dose there too - i highly recommend it.
but, as always, i am just blown away at the callous disregard of beauty and craftsmanship in the city and i refer to the fact that the paint wasn't even dry before they tore this one down. hell, we got house trailers up here in the sticks older than that. my mom's trailer in fla. was so old that the wood panelling was actually made out of wood. tempus fugit.

security word def - "malltin 45" - 1. prime ingredient of a popular beverage, 2. roofing material at your favorite enclosed shopping area with a good guarantee