The
John D. Rockefeller Jr. residence designed by
William Welles Bosworth c. 1913 at 10 West 54th Street in
New York City. Rockefeller moved to 740 Park Avenue in 1936 and this townhouse was demolished in 1938. The Rockefeller family had a series of properties on West 54th Street, click
HERE for Christopher Gray's
Streetscapes article on the block.
Photos from
Architecture & Building, 1913.
7 comments:
It's so, so very TALL.
One of the amazing sights of my house-mad childhood was the Rockefeller summer cottage up here. It weighed down an entire hilltop above the main road between Northeast & Seal Harbors. As one rounded a corner, there it was, a tudor manor improbably spilling down a ledge. It was always claimed it had 103 rooms, but like most big house room counts, it was exaggerated. The truth was a mere 68. It was as long as the New York house was tall, with an absolutely endless main hall. Picture can be seen at the bottom of this post--
http://thedowneastdilettante.blogspot.com/2010/06/nature-and-architecture-at-eyrie.html
why was it so big and on a side lot? Rockefeller is the epitome of wealth in the US and they couldve easily got a whole block, but they instead opted out to live in apartments,ugh. Honestly ive never even heard a Rockefeller mansion in Manhattan.
They did have the whole block. They bought up all the surrounding land before this area became too unfashionable for private mansions and JDR Jr rented George Brewsters Park Ave duplex. I think one of the townhouses is a museum or something. Definitely still there.
Chauncy,
The reason you've never heard of a Rockefeller mansion in Manhattan is because they were torn down for the Museum of Contemporary Art. Daytonian in Manhattan wrote a wonderful post about the properties on Rockefeller block, focusing on Sr.'s mansion.
http://daytoninmanhattan.blogspot.com/2012/12/the-lost-john-d-rockefeller-mansion-no.html
WillLDS
Some of the interiors of the JDR, Sr., mansions (which was next door) are in the Brooklyn Museum. This house was the original home of MoMA.
That thing is a beast, anyone know what the SF was?
Off-topic:
http://observer.com/2013/06/after-years-on-the-market-magnificent-riverside-drive-mansion-finally-finds-a-buyer/
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