Villard Houses

The Villard Houses are a set of former residences at 451–457 Madison Avenue in the Midtown Manhattan neighborhood of New York City, United States. Designed by the architect Joseph Morrill Wells of McKim, Mead & White in the Renaissance Revival style, the residences were erected in 1884 for railroad magnate Henry Villard. Preserved as a historic landmark, the houses comprise a portion of the Lotte New York Palace Hotel, whose main tower is to the east. The residences are New York City designated landmarks and are listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

Villard Houses
U.S. National Register of Historic Places
New York State Register of Historic Places
New York City Landmark No. 0268–0270
Seen from the corner of Madison Avenue and 51st Street
Location	29+1⁄2 50th Street, 24–26 East 51st Street, and 451–457 Madison Avenue, Manhattan, New York City
Coordinates	40°45′29″N 73°58′31″W
Built	1882–84
Architect	Joseph Morrill Wells of McKim, Mead & White
Architectural style	Renaissance
NRHP reference No.	75001210
NYSRHP No.	06101.004572
NYCL No.	0268–0270
Significant dates
Added to NRHP	September 2, 1975
Designated NYSRHP	June 23, 1980
Designated NYCL	September 30, 1968

The building comprises six residences in a U-shaped plan, with wings to the north, east, and south surrounding a courtyard on Madison Avenue. The facade is made of Belleville sandstone, and each house consists of a raised basement, three stories, and an attic. Among the artists who worked on the interiors were artist John La Farge, sculptor Augustus Saint-Gaudens, and painter Maitland Armstrong. Some of the more elaborate spaces, such as the Gold Room, dining room, and reception area in the south wing of the complex, still exist.

The houses were commissioned by Henry Villard, president of the Northern Pacific Railway, shortly before he fell into bankruptcy. Ownership of the residences changed many times through the mid-20th century. By the late 1940s, the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of New York had acquired all of the houses, except the northernmost residence at 457 Madison Avenue, which it acquired from Random House in 1971. The houses were restored as part of the New York Palace Hotel's development, completed in 1980. The north wing was turned into office space for the preservation group Municipal Art Society, which occupied the space until 2010.

Site

The Villard Houses are in the Midtown Manhattan neighborhood of New York City, United States, occupying a site bounded by Madison Avenue to the west, 51st Street to the north, and 50th Street to the south. The residences take up two land lots. The rectangular land lot under the northern residence, at 457 Madison Avenue, has a frontage of 60 feet (18 m) on Madison Avenue and 74 feet (23 m) on 51st Street, and it covers about 4,485 square feet (416.7 m²). The rest of the residences occupy the same land lot as the Lotte New York Palace Hotel immediately to the east. The L-shaped lot, carrying the address 455 Madison Avenue, has a frontage of 140 feet (43 m) on Madison Avenue and 200 feet (61 m) on 50th Street, and it covers 35,720 square feet (3,318 m²). Nearby buildings include Olympic Tower, 11 East 51st Street, and 488 Madison Avenue to the northwest; St. Patrick's Cathedral to the west; and 18 East 50th Street and the Swiss Bank Tower to the southwest.

Architecture

The Villard Houses complex was designed by Joseph M. Wells of the firm of McKim, Mead & White. Charles Follen McKim of that firm was responsible for the overall plan, though Wells designed the individual details. The homes are among several projects that McKim, Mead & White designed for railroad magnate Henry Villard. The houses are designed in the Romanesque Revival style with Italian Renaissance touches; they were the first major structures that McKim, Mead & White designed in the Italian Renaissance style. At the time of the houses' construction, Wells had been encouraging the firm to use more classical architectural styles.

The design was influenced by Rome's Palazzo della Cancelleria, though some inspiration may have come from the Palazzo Farnese, also in Rome. The two palazzos had been Wells's favorite Renaissance buildings. The Palazzo della Farnesina has also been cited as an influence on the design of the Villard Houses. The houses' design contained some major deviations from those of the Roman palazzos. For example, the Cancelleria's windows were decorated based on internal use, with the most elaborate windows at the piano nobile, while the Villard Houses' windows were decorated based on the floor height, with the most elaborate windows illuminating the guests' and servants' rooms on the top floors. The houses were also partly influenced by the designs of German and Austrian multi-family buildings that Villard had seen in his youth.

Layout and courtyard

Seen in early 2021

The building was erected as six separate residences in a U-shaped plan, with three wings surrounding a central courtyard on Madison Avenue. At the time of the houses' completion, they faced a similar courtyard at the eastern end of St. Patrick's Cathedral. The Lady Chapel at the cathedral had not yet been built, so St. Patrick's eastern end was a flat wall flanked by a rectory and an archbishop's house. The Villard courtyard was built to complement St. Patrick's courtyard, which was about the same size.

The south wing consisted of a single residence, Henry Villard's residence at 451 Madison Avenue, also known as 291⁄2 East 50th Street. The north wing consisted of three residences at 457 Madison Avenue (which occupied the western two-thirds of that wing) and 22–24 East 51st Street. Both of these wings measure 60 feet (18 m) along Madison Avenue with a depth of 100 feet (30 m). The eastern end of the south wing had a seven-story tower, while the eastern end of the north wing had a 1+1⁄2-story entrance porch. The center wing, on the east side of the courtyard, consisted of two residences at 453 and 455 Madison Avenue, which extended 40 feet (12 m) eastward beyond the end of the north and south wings.

The courtyard during the holiday season

The courtyard was designed both as a symbol of Villard's wealth and as an "urban gesture" to traffic on Madison Avenue. The courtyard measures 80 feet (24 m) wide between the north and south wings and is 73 feet (22 m) deep. It is flanked by two square posts with ball decorations above them. These posts are connected by a scrolled arch made of wrought iron. A Florentine-style lamp is suspended from the wrought-iron arch. Originally, the courtyard had a fountain surrounded by a circular driveway. The driveway had been arranged to allow horse-drawn vehicles to enter the courtyard easily. The arrangement of residences around a courtyard was similar to the Apostolic Chancery at Vatican City. The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of New York used the courtyard as a parking lot during the mid-20th century. During the construction of the Palace Hotel in the 1970s, a marble and granite medallion was placed in the courtyard. The courtyard is decorated each holiday season; its Christmas tree contains over 4,500 lights and over 1,000 ornaments.

Facade

Looking toward the north wing from across Madison Avenue

The facade is made of largely unornamented brownstone. Villard had chosen the material against the advice of the architects, who had recommended using limestone or granite. Each house consists of a raised basement, three stories, and an attic topped by a cornice. The houses measure 68 feet (21 m) from the sidewalk to the top of the cornice. The north and south wings have three bays facing Madison Avenue, five facing the courtyard, and seven facing the respective side streets. The center wing has seven bays facing Madison Avenue. In addition, there are horizontal band courses wrapping around each floor under the window sills. The horizontal lines of the facade continued across all of the houses. Thus, the complex appeared more imposing than many contemporary townhouses, even though the Villard Houses were no taller than similar structures. The rear or eastern facades of each house had no architectural decorations at all because they were never intended to be viewed from the street.

The basement and first story of each house are rusticated. The raised basement consists of rectangular openings, above which runs a molding with torus shapes. The first floor has arched windows, which are topped by spandrels with rosette-shaped medallions. The first floor is topped by an architrave with a plain frieze. The ground story of the center wing at 453 and 455 Madison Avenue contains a loggia with five arches. The loggia is supported by granite columns, and there are decorative medallions above the arches. Behind are the entrances to the center wing, as well as a barrel vault with rosette coffers and decorative moldings.

The ground story of the north and south wings has doorways leading into the courtyard. The north wing at 457 Madison Avenue and the south wing at 451 Madison Avenue have doorways accessed by stoops. These entrances have a frieze and cornice above them, as well as lamps on either side. The entrances at 451 and 457 Madison Avenue were intended to be equal in stature to the center-wing entrances. This contrasted with regular houses, where the center entrance was typically the most imposing one. When the New York Palace Hotel was built in the late 1970s and the south wing was converted to a bar, the former south-wing entrance was turned into an exit-only doorway. The south-wing doorway was close to the Lady chapel behind St. Patrick's Cathedral, and New York City's zoning regulations at the time mandated a minimum distance between bar entrances and churches. The residences at 22 and 24 East 51st Street had entrances from the street, rather than from the courtyard. Shortly after the houses were completed, an entrance portico measuring 11 by 53.5 feet (3.4 by 16.3 m) was added to the eastern side of 24 East 51st Street.

The upper stories are clad with plain stone ashlar. The quoins at the corners of each house are rusticated. The houses externally appear as one residence, as these quoins do not delineate the divisions between the residences. On each of the three stories above the center wing's arches are three pairs of windows. Outside some of the second-story windows are balconies supported by console brackets. The year 1884 is inscribed in Roman numerals on the lintel above one of the windows in the south wing. A plain band course runs above the second floor, and a torus-shaped molding runs above the third floor. The attic is designed as a set of small square windows. The dentilled cornice contains egg-and-dart molding as well as modillions with foliate patterns. Above all these houses are hip roofs with brown tile. Only the front portions of each house have hip roofs; the rears of the houses have brick parapets and pitched roofs.

Interior

The interiors were designed in a modified version of the High Renaissance style. McKim, Mead & White was involved in the original decoration of all the interiors, and the firm's principals hired several friends to assist. These may have included artistic-glass manufacturer John La Farge, sculptor Augustus Saint-Gaudens, painter Francis Lathrop, and mosaic artist David Maitland Armstrong. Account books from the buildings' construction did not mention any of these artists, except for Lathrop, but contemporary media sources did report on some of their work. Leon Marcotte, Sypher and Company, and A. H. Davenport and Company provided some of the furniture. Candace Wheeler may have made the embroideries; Pasquali and Aeschlimann may have installed the mosaics; and Ellin & Kitson likely performed some of the stone carving. Joseph Cabus likely was responsible for much of the woodwork. Numerous other suppliers may have been involved with other aspects of the houses' designs.

The layouts of numbers 453 and 455 were mirror images of each other, while the other houses each had a unique layout. All six residences' interiors were decorated with the highest-quality materials available at the time. As constructed, the residences had ornate furniture; for example, Villard's ground-story drawing room was upholstered with a reddish-brown color that harmonized with the color of the room. The residences were built with 13 bathrooms, each of which contained terrazzo floors and tile and marble walls. Each bedroom was fitted with its own bathroom. The attic story of all of the residences was devoted to servants' rooms, storerooms, and other service facilities. A portion of the mansion is a rentable event space within the New York Palace Hotel.

Main residence

The most ornate decorations were used in Villard's residence, 451 Madison Avenue, in the south wing. His residence had four floors with several dozen rooms, whose designs were inspired by those of grand European houses. Aside from a guest room with medieval theming, Villard's residence did not include any exotically-themed rooms, such as Moorish or East Asian rooms. There was a billiard room, kitchen, servants' dining room, laundry, and wine room in the basement. The sub-basement had tree boilers and a high-pressure pump, which supplied water to a fifth-floor tank. Following the construction of the Palace Hotel in the 1970s, the basement spaces became back of house areas for the hotel.

Ground story

First floor layout prior to the construction of the Palace Hotel

The ground, or first, story of number 451 was the most elaborate story in the main residence. At ground level, there was a reception vestibule, a drawing-room suite, a music room with a balcony, and a dining room with a pantry. These rooms were arranged enfilade, or along a single axis. The ground story is slightly above street level. Many rooms are still used as part of the New York Palace Hotel. For example, the drawing room is a cocktail room, the music room is a restaurant, and the dining room is a bar.

The Villard residence's reception vestibule was accessed through the southern side of the courtyard. The vestibule had a set of marble steps, a wall with a tile mosaic band, and a groin-vaulted ceiling. Perpendicular to the vestibule was a marble-clad hall measuring 42 by 28 feet (12.8 by 8.5 m). The hall had three Siena-marble arches sculpted by Saint-Gaudens, as well as a fireplace with a carved marble mantel. The vaulted ceiling of the hallway was also made of Siena marble. Armstrong decorated a mosaic with a foliate pattern on the ceiling. North of the hallway was a grand stairway decorated in golden marble, which led to the second floor. The staircase, measuring 12 feet (3.7 m) wide, had a carved clock by Saint-Gaudens on one landing. Each of the balusters in the stair's railing has a different design. The hallway also had a small carved-wood elevator door near the reception vestibule as a minor staircase for guests.

At the western end of the south wing's hallway was a drawing-room suite divided into three sections. The central section measured 14 by 28 feet (4.3 by 8.5 m) and was flanked by drawing rooms 19 by 28 feet (5.8 by 8.5 m). Joseph Cabus designed wooden cabinetry for the space. The drawing rooms had mahogany and white wood finishes on a light reddish-brown and yellow color scheme. The family of the journalist Whitelaw Reid used these drawing rooms as a ballroom during the early 20th century, with green marble columns and a gilded ceiling. The drawing rooms also had ornate marquetry, which Reid subsequently reinstalled in his Purchase, New York, estate.

The eastern end of the south wing's hallway contained a music room measuring 48 by 24 feet (14.6 by 7.3 m), with an elliptical vaulted ceiling 32 feet (9.8 m) high. A carved-pine wainscoting ran around the music room's wall. The music room was also known as the Gold Room because the decorations were colored gold. A musicians' balcony was suspended on the north wall and was accessed via a hidden staircase. Saint-Gaudens installed five plaster casts on each of the north and south walls, which were copies of "singing angels" that Luca della Robbia designed for the Florence Cathedral. John La Farge designed two lunettes called "Art" and "Music", as well as leaded glass windows on the east wall.

Music room in the residence at 451 Madison Avenue

The southernmost portion of the ground story was a 20-by-60-foot (6.1 by 18.3 m) space that could be divided into a breakfast room and dining room. The wall was made of English oak and white mahogany, while the ceiling was made of English oak beams. Saint-Gaudens carved two marble fireplace mantels, one at either end of the room. One of the mantels was relocated several times before being installed in the Palace Hotel lobby in 1980, while the other mantel was relocated to Whitelaw Reid's country estate. The wall was divided into three sections by red-mahogany pilasters; the upper part of the wall had Villard monograms. A movable oak partition could divide the room into three segments. The ceiling had paintings of mythological figures, which were designed by Francis Lathrop. The dining room's cornice had inscriptions in Latin. A serving pantry opened off one side of the room.

Upper stories

The upper stories of number 451 were laid out similarly to the ground story and also contained fireplaces. The second-story hallway had a gilded ceiling, embossed-leather walls, and a large mantelpiece; the decorators used leather and wood to give the space a more intimate feeling. Adjoining the private music room was a private library fitted in mahogany with carved medallions on the bookcases. The coffered ceiling contained medallions and three murals. The second-floor guest bedroom had oak paneling, gold and crimson decorations on the walls, and a ceiling with wooden crossbeams.

A stairway with a wainscoted wall and a decorated balustrade led between the second and third stories of the south wing. The upper-story bedrooms were decorated with painted woods and could be accessed by an elevator. The bedrooms on the third floor had chintz wall hangings and colorful decorations. Henry Villard's bedroom was on either the third or the fourth floor. A stair led up to the family room, which had low ceilings and a cherry color scheme. Within the annex to the east, Whitelaw Reid had a second-floor dining room and library, which have become a meeting room with a pantry. The annex also included Whitelaw Reid's study, which later became another meeting room for the hotel.

Fahnestock residence

A grand staircase in the Fahnestock house at 457 Madison Avenue

The Fahnestock residence in the north wing, at 457 Madison Avenue, shared many design elements with the Villard residence at number 451, such as wooden paneling and mosaic floors. An entrance foyer led from the courtyard. From the foyer, stairs led down to a reception room and up to the first-floor entertaining rooms. The first floor had a main hall with mosaic-tile floors, lanterns, and paneling, in addition to a fireplace and a coffered ceiling. On the same story was a dining room with an elaborate fireplace and a decorative ceiling with a chandelier. There was also a library with a dome (originally designated as a reception room), as well as a drawing room with Louis XV style and Louis XVI style tapestries.

A marble stairway rose to the second floor, which included the Fahnestocks' bedrooms. The third floor of number 457 had more bedrooms, while the attic was for the butlers and maids. Stanford White designed an ornate ceiling for 457 Madison Avenue. The oak-clad library of number 457 had ivory buttons with the letters "B" and "M", which once respectively summoned a butler and a maid. In the 1980s, the third story of number 457 was taken by the Urban Center, which had a members' gallery facing the courtyard as well as a committee room and a staff room. When the eastern section of the north wing was demolished in the 1970s, one room was reconstructed on the third floor of the New York Palace.

Other residences

The courtyard's central loggia led to a vestibule, which connected with both 453 and 455 Madison Avenue. Although the residences originally had similar layouts, both were modified substantially in the late 19th and the 20th centuries. Number 455 had an entrance hall with an oval dome, as well as a living hall with mahogany paneling and a filigreed clock. The reception room had a decorative frieze, molded plaster ceiling, and walls with alternating wood paneling and mirrors. The decorative stairway at 455 Madison Avenue was moved to the Brooklyn Museum in the 1970s. Both residences' interiors were demolished in 1978. The main entrance to the New York Palace, within the former central loggia, contains a grand staircase down to the main hotel lobby. This lobby includes a fireplace originally designed by Saint-Gaudens. In addition, a former study at 455 Madison Avenue was repurposed into a meeting room for the New York Palace.

The residence at 22 East 51st Street was in the middle of the northern wing. Unlike most of the other houses in the complex, it had an elevator from the outset. There was also a reception room with a skylight and a small living hall with a fireplace. The main staircase hall had a pantry on one landing, and there was an oval opening above the staircase. This residence was merged with 457 Madison Avenue in the 1920s.

History

Development

Planning

The houses were commissioned by Henry Villard, the president of the Northern Pacific Railway. After immigrating to the U.S. as a young man, Villard worked as a journalist before taking over several railroad companies in the 1870s. Villard wanted a building that resembled palaces in his native Bavaria. In April 1881, Villard bought a plot on the east side of Madison Avenue between 50th and 51st streets from the trustees of St. Patrick's Cathedral. The site was 200 feet (61 m) wide and either 151 feet (46 m) or 175 feet (53 m) deep. The Park Avenue railroad line ran directly east of the site, and there was also an orphanage to the north, St. Patrick's Cathedral to the west, and the Columbia College campus to the south. The land itself was occupied by the Church of St. John the Evangelist, which had been abandoned in 1879 and subsequently sold to a colonel named J. Augustus Page. Villard paid $260,000 for the land after St. Patrick's trustees declined a higher offer from another potential buyer who wanted to build an entertainment venue there.

Charles Follen McKim of McKim, Mead & White was hired to design a group of houses for Villard, arranged around a courtyard with a fountain and garden. Villard had previously hired the firm to design other buildings; in addition, McKim was one of Villard's family friends, and Villard's brother-in-law was married to McKim's sister. The Real Estate Record and Guide speculated that the mansions were arranged to "secure privacy and get rid of tramps, and to live in a quiet and secluded way", similar to dwellings in the suburbs of London and Paris. Villard also wanted a landscaped garden east of the houses, but this was never added to the official plans. He planned to move into one of the houses and rent the remaining residences to his friends. The writer Elizabeth Hawes wrote that, by doing so, Villard wanted to create "a pleasant neighborhood unit" that positively impacted future urban developments. A later New York Times article said that Villard had planned the entire complex as his own residence, but he was obligated to split it into multiple smaller units when his wealth declined.

Details of the design were revised through late 1881, when McKim temporarily left New York City to work on a railroad terminal for Villard in Portland, Oregon. The job was reassigned to Stanford White, who, after a short time, left the city to visit his brother in New Mexico. White reassigned his projects to various junior architects in his office, and Joseph M. Wells agreed to take over the design of the Villard Houses from the firm's remaining partner, William Rutherford Mead. According to Leland Roth, one account had it that McKim and White had "immediately [became] advocates of Renaissance classicism" upon returning and seeing the updated plans. Roth wrote that McKim and White were probably responsible for the general style of the facade, although Wells was definitely responsible for the architectural details. Villard wanted to use brownstone rather than another material such as limestone. White's original architectural drawings for the project no longer exist.

Early construction

Workers were excavating the northeast corner of Madison Avenue and 50th Street by November 1881. The contractors drilled down until they had exposed the underlying layer of bedrock, since Villard did not want to damage Columbia College's buildings nearby. In May 1882, McKim, Mead & White submitted plans to the Bureau of Buildings for a four-story residence at 451 Madison Avenue (on the corner with 50th Street), measuring 100 by 60 feet. This was to be the first of a series of six residences surrounding a courtyard. Work on 451 Madison Avenue began on May 4 of that year.

By late 1882, the houses' exteriors had been completed, and parts of the interiors were being furnished. The residences appeared so large that the public assumed Villard could only occupy the center wing. One residence on the north wing, the unit with a doorway facing the courtyard, was to have been occupied by Villard's adviser, Horace White, but this did not happen. Villard obtained a mortgage loan for the property from the Manhattan Savings Institution in late 1882. One of the three wings had been built by mid-1883, and Villard's legal adviser Artemas H. Holmes indicated in an April 1883 letter that the foundations for 453 and 455 Madison Avenue were being built.

McKim, Mead & White designed the interiors of all of the residences as well. At the time, most residences were laid out by interior designers and decorators rather than architecture firms. The interiors of each residence were designed to fit the tastes of the respective tenants. The Villard Houses cost $1 million without furnishings (equivalent to about $28.57 million in 2023), and the decoration cost another $250,000 (about $7.14 million in 2023). Stanford White was proud of the project, recalling in 1896 that it was "the beginning of any good work that we may have done". The residences were New York City's first houses designed in the Roman High Renaissance style and, at the time, differed significantly from the more ostentatious houses on Fifth Avenue nearby.

Villard bankruptcy

The houses seen c. 1890

The construction of the houses coincided with a decline in Villard's personal finances, which in turn was caused by his excessive investments in railroads. Villard moved into his mansion on December 17, 1883, on the same day that he resigned from the Oregon and Transcontinental Company. He was bankrupt by that time and could not formally sell the houses due to liens placed on his property. That month, Villard transferred two of the other lots next to his residence to his legal advisers, Edward D. Adams and Artemas H. Holmes. Villard mandated that Holmes and Adams complete the remaining residences in a similar style to his own residence. Villard's own mansion was transferred to trustees William Crowninshield Endicott and Horace White to pay off a $300,000 debt.

Amid the bankruptcy proceedings, a crowd protested in the courtyard in early 1884, believing all the houses around the yard belonged to Villard. The Villard family moved out of the residence that May, relocating to Dobbs Ferry, New York, permanently. Villard later recalled that his occupancy of the Madison Avenue house "was always a nightmare". Villard's bankruptcy prompted the railroad magnate Thomas Fletcher Oakes to renege on a promise to buy 455 Madison Avenue. Adams moved into number 455, while Holmes occupied number 453. In addition, Adams bought 24 East 51st Street and partnered with the investment banker Harris C. Fahnestock to acquire 22 East 51st Street. The trustees oversaw the completion of the remaining houses around the courtyard. A June 1884 letter from Holmes indicates that workers had not started constructing the courtyard yet. In 1885, Adams filed plans for an extra staircase, bathrooms, and a dressing room at 455 Madison Avenue.

Work on the houses continued until 1885, and Villard's finances had recovered by January 1886, when William Endicott and Horace White were listed as having substantially completed the Villard Houses. That month, Villard's wife Fannie Garrison Villard repurchased the properties for a nominal sum. The residence at 457 Madison Avenue was then sold to Harris Fahnestock, He had waited several months to obtain number 457, but the trustees refused to sell the property until the other houses, save for number 451, had been rented. Fahnestock also bought Adams's ownership stake in 22 East 51st Street, and his son William moved there. Fahnestock had planned to combine 457 Madison Avenue and 22 East 51st Street as early as 1886, but this did not happen at the time. Meanwhile, Villard ended up selling his own residence, number 451, to Darius Ogden Mills; that house became the residence of Mills's daughter Elisabeth Mills Reid, who was married to New-York Tribune editor Whitelaw Reid. The Reid family is variously cited as having paid $350,000 or $400,000.

Residential use

Originally, the residences were known as Cathedral Court because they faced St. Patrick's Cathedral. In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, the Villard Houses retained many of its original residents, even when neighborhoods further uptown became more fashionable. The Wells, Reid, Holmes, Adams, and Fahnestock families lived in the Villard Houses during the 1900s. By the early 1920s, the northern three residences belonged to the Fahnestock family, while two of the three southern residences were owned by the Reid family.

North wing

Seen from across Madison Avenue

The residence at 24 East 51st Street was purchased by Scribner's Monthly publisher Roswell Smith in September 1886, and Babb, Cook & Willard designed an expansion of number 24 soon after. Roswell Smith died at 24 East 51st Street in 1892, and his estate sold 22 and 24 East 51st Street two years later to Catherine L. and Charles W. Wells for about $80,000. Businessman E. H. Harriman was living in the north wing by 1899, when The New York Times reported on his involvement in the Harriman Alaska expedition. The Wells family retained ownership of 24 East 51st Street until 1909, when the house was given to B. Crystal & Son as a partial payment for an apartment building in Washington Heights, Manhattan. Harris Fahnestock bought 24 East 51st Street in 1910 and gave the residence to his daughter Helen Campbell.

When Harris Fahnestock died in 1914, his son Clarence moved into number 457. Clarence lived there until his death four years later, when Clarence's brother William inherited that house. William hired Charles Platt in 1922 to combine 457 Madison Avenue and 22 East 51st Street, and Platt removed the 51st Street entrance to the latter house. The Fahnestocks continued to live at number 457 until 1929. William Fahnestock refinanced his portion of the property in 1932 with a $130,000 mortgage from the First National Bank. The next year, Helen Campbell's husband John Hubbard died at number 24.

Central and south wings

The Reid family had moved into 451 Madison Avenue by early 1887, and they redecorated their rooms in a more ornate style shortly thereafter. Stanford White redesigned the public rooms with decorations such as glass-and-onyx panels, and Reid hired John La Farge to paint murals for number 451's music room. The expansion was finished by 1892 and consisted of an L-shaped stairway leading to a double-arched entrance porch. The Reid family also redecorated number 451's drawing rooms in 1891, and they hired Edwin Austin Abbey to create a painting for their dining room in 1896.

By 1904, the Reid family expanded their basement into a vacant lot to the east so they could continue to entertain guests. A local architect, Louis Thouvard, designed the basement expansion and drew up plans for a Beaux-Arts–style expansion above it; however, the latter plans were not carried out. Instead, the Reids erected a seven- or eight-story addition east of number 451 in 1909, which was designed by William Kendall of McKim, Mead & White. The next year, the firm designed alterations to number 451, including new elevators. The architects also replaced a guest suite on the second story with a drawing room. The 1920 United States census recorded Elisabeth Mills Reid, as living at number 451 with seventeen servants. Whitelaw Reid died in England while serving as the ambassador to England in 1912. The Reids stopped hosting major events at the house in 1919, with Elisabeth choosing to spend time in her other home at Ophir Hall. Following Elisabeth's 1931 death, the furnishings in number 451 were sold in May 1934, when thousands of people attended an auction there.

Number 453 was leased to William Sloane by 1916 and was placed for sale the following year. Elisabeth Reid acquired the house, loaning it during World War I to the American Red Cross. Reid hired Raymond Hood in 1920 to make alterations to number 453, and an elevator was installed in that house the same year. No other structural changes to the house were documented until World War II. Next door, Edward D. Adams sold 455 Madison Avenue in 1922, following his wife's death. Helen Campbell's daughter, also named Helen, moved into number 455 with her husband Clarence Gaylor Michalis and their children.

Commercial conversion

1940s

The Fahnestock and Reid houses, which had been vacated when their owners died, continued to be unoccupied until World War II. The Reid family lent number 451 to the Coordinating Council of French Relief Societies in March 1942. The following May, the French Relief Societies moved across the courtyard to number 457, and the Women's Military Services Club opened its clubhouse in number 451. At the opening of the Military Services Club, New York City mayor Fiorello La Guardia declared, "You won't see any more private mansions like this. You'll see more wholesome houses for more people."

Robert J. Marony acquired number 457 for around $200,000 in June 1944. The government of the United States had to approve the sale because three Fahnestock heirs were overseas in internment camps during World War II. The title to number 457 was transferred to Joseph P. Kennedy, former U.S. ambassador to the United Kingdom, in April 1945; Kennedy also obtained a 9⁄24 interest at 453–455 Madison Avenue. Kennedy ended up never living there, and it continued to be occupied by the French Relief Societies. There was also an unsuccessful plan to place the temporary headquarters of the United Nations in the Villard Houses. The Women's Military Services Club closed in January 1946 after the end of World War II, having served 200,000 people. Number 457, as well as a one-third interest in the courtyard, was acquired the same year by the publishing company Random House, which renovated the residence into its own offices. Random House's publisher, Bennett Cerf, bought the house for $450,000, believing that to be the price Kennedy had paid.

The Archdiocese of New York purchased the houses at 451 and 453 Madison Avenue and 29 East 50th Street in October 1948 for an unknown amount in cash. The residences, which had been vacant for three years, had an assessed value of $825,000. The archdiocese needed space for its various agencies near St. Patrick's Cathedral, and the agencies' old headquarters had been sold to make way for the office structure at 488 Madison Avenue. The archdiocese also purchased 455 Madison Avenue and 24 and 30 East 51st Street, as well as the vacant lot at 26–28 East 51st Street, in January 1949; these properties were valued at $600,000. Francis Cardinal Spellman dedicated the archdiocese's offices at 451 and 453 Madison Avenue that May. Clergy members who worked at these offices slept in the house at 455 Madison Avenue.

1950s and 1960s

Following World War II, many of the neighboring residential buildings were razed to make way for office structures like the Seagram Building and Lever House, though the Villard Houses remained. The Archdiocese of New York hired Voorhees, Walker, Foley & Smith to renovate its office space during the early 1950s, though the renovation was not carried out. The firm did make small changes to 451 and 453 Madison Avenues; for example, some of the decorations were covered up, and a cafeteria was built at the rear of number 453. In addition, 453 Madison Avenue became the Cardinal Farley Building, and 30 East 51st Street became the Cardinal Hayes Building. Helen Fahnestock Hubbard continued to reside at 24 East 51st Street until she died in 1955. The archdiocese then rented number 24 to the Capital Cities Broadcasting Corporation, which was headquartered there. Capital Cities removed some of the architectural details, including wainscoting and paneling, from number 24. In 1960, Random House subleased the first story of number 24 from Capital Cities.

By the late 1960s, Random House owned number 457, and the Archdiocese of New York owned all of the other houses. Random House initially intended to keep its space at 457 Madison Avenue, but ultimately leased space at an under-construction skyscraper at 825 Third Avenue in 1967. At the time, Cerf called the residence "too valuable to keep", although the writer William Shopsin said that Cerf had regretted leaving. By then, there were rumors that developers wanted to raze the houses and replace them with a skyscraper. The late Cardinal Spellman's successor, Terence Cardinal Cooke, had not made a public statement about the houses, but Monsignor James Rigney said: "At some point we would have to wonder whether we are justified in keeping property as valuable as this." On September 30, 1968, the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission (LPC) designated the complex as official landmarks, preventing them from being modified without the LPC's permission. The landmark designation applied only to the sections of the buildings within 100 feet (30 m) of Madison Avenue.

Redevelopment

Preservation efforts

Entrance pavilion at 24 East 51st Street, pictured in 1977

In 1970, Richard Ottinger leased the old Random House mansion for his U.S. Senate campaign's offices. Architectural writer Ada Louise Huxtable said the entire complex was in danger of being redeveloped if the archdiocese were to gain control of the Random House residence and thus full control of the land. After receiving $2.25 million from Gillette CEO Henry Jacques Gaisman, the archdiocese purchased number 457 in early 1971. According to the archdiocese's real estate adviser, John J. Reynolds, the archdiocese wanted to preserve the houses so there would be open space in front of St. Patrick's Cathedral. Later in 1971, the archdiocese announced it would move to 1011 First Avenue by the following year and would lease out the Villard Houses. When the new archdiocesan headquarters opened in November 1973, the archdiocese said it hoped to find a lessee for the Villard Houses rather than sell them. Around the same time, the 1973–1974 stock market crash led to a decline in demand for real estate, and the Villard Houses sat entirely vacant except for Capital Cities offices.

In early 1974, the archdiocese was negotiating with developer Harry Helmsley to sell him the air rights above the Villard Houses. Helmsley planned to build a 50-story hotel tower next to or above the houses, to be designed by Emery Roth & Sons. By late 1974, the archdiocese had leased the Villard Houses to Helmsley for 99 years at around $1 million per year. Though the landmark status prevented Helmsley from modifying the houses' exteriors, he was free to redesign the interiors. As such, an early plan for the hotel called for demolishing the rear of the houses and gutting much of the interior, including the Gold Room. This prompted concerns from preservationists who feared that the remaining interiors would become little more than a "meaningless stage set".

Following objections, Helmsley presented a modified plan in June 1975, which still called for demolishing part of the rear and interior. The houses were placed on the National Register of Historic Places on September 2, 1975, which prevented federal funds from being used to finance the demolition of any of the houses without the federal government's approval. The same month, Helmsley presented a modified proposal that preserved the Gold Room. The archdiocese hired William Shopsin in January 1976 to conduct a historical survey of the Villard Houses. Shopsin recorded the buildings' architectural details for the Historic American Buildings Survey. After further delays, the New York City Planning Commission and the New York City Board of Estimate approved Helmsley's 51-story hotel in late 1976. Although there were efforts to preserve all of the interiors, many of the rooms had been modified multiple times or had no architecturally notable figures. Ultimately, only about one-fifth of the houses' interiors were preserved and reused.

Incorporation into Helmsley Palace Hotel

Emery Roth & Sons hired James W. Rhodes in early 1977 as an architectural consultant for the project. The archdiocese was obliged to pay $700,000 or $800,000 per year in taxes from 1975 to 1977 because the vacant houses were no longer tax-exempt. Helmsley paid half of this cost. By mid-1977, Helmsley was planning to begin demolishing the easternmost portions of the Villard Houses. A groundbreaking ceremony for the hotel occurred on January 25, 1978, and construction began two months later.

The decorative interiors of the Villard Houses were placed into temporary storage, and Helmsley took precautions to avoid damaging the houses. For instance, seismographs were installed in the houses to record any effects of blasting, while padding was installed within the building to prevent damage to the decorations. Sarah Lee was largely responsible for the redesign of the interior spaces. The Gold Room was renovated and turned into a cocktail lounge, while the old library was refurbished with 4,000 false books. The old drawing room of the south wing was redesigned as a cocktail lounge as well, while the old dining room became the hotel's Hunt Bar. The facade and courtyard were also restored, though the easternmost section of the complex, including much of the central wing and the additions on 50th and 51st streets, was demolished. The project even involved replacing some city streetlights outside the Villard Houses. One of the houses' roofs was damaged in October 1979 when a heavy object fell through it.

Post-redevelopment

Helmsley leased 30,000 square feet (2,800 m²) in the Villard House's northern wing to Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis in June 1979. The northern wing was to contain the Urban Center, the headquarters of four civic organizations: the American Institute of Architects, the Architectural League of New York, the Municipal Art Society (MAS), and the Parks Council of New York. That August, Capital Cities Communications leased space in the hotel tower. Capital Cities took over the central and south wings, with offices at 24 East 51st Street and the upper stories of 451, 453, and 455 Madison Avenue.

1980s and 1990s

James Stewart Polshek and Associates renovated the north wing of the Urban Center. The carved cornice and parquet floors of the north wing were restored, but the reception rooms were repainted and lighted for the new tenants. The Urban Center's space opened in August 1980, and the hotel opened the next month. An architecture bookstore run by MAS opened in the north wing in October 1980; the store's first exhibition was about the Villard Houses themselves. The Architectural League of New York also operated gallery space on the ground floor. The ground story of the south wing had a cocktail lounge in the former drawing room, a bar in the former dining room, and the Gold Room in the same place as before. The second floor was used for exhibitions, the third and fifth floors were used for organizations, and the first and fourth floors were rented as commercial space. The Urban Center's offices were rearranged from 1981 to 1982 because the original layout was inefficient.

View of the Palace Hotel's lobby, formerly the center wing of the Villard Houses

Fashion boutique Celine of Paris leased a 5,500-square-foot (510 m²) space in the north wing in 1981. During the 1980s and 1990s, the fraudulent debt-collection agency Towers Financial Corporation had offices at the Villard Houses. In late 1993, the houses and the New York Palace Hotel were sold to the Sultan of Brunei for $202 million. The land remained the property of the Archdiocese of New York under a 99-year lease. Amedeo hired Lee Jablin of Harman Jablin Architects for a renovation of the hotel and Villard Houses in 1996. Jablin redesigned the lobby in the Villard Houses, while the restaurant Le Cirque took up the Gold Room and other rooms in the south wing. The new Le Cirque location opened in April 1997. Adam D. Tihany designed the Le Cirque space with multicolored coverings over the previous interiors. Le Cirque was replaced by another restaurant, Gilt, in 2005.

2000s to present

The owners of the Palace Hotel renovated the brownstone facade for $300,000 in late 2003. At the time, James W. Rhodes estimated that 99 percent of the facade's original brownstone remained; some of the pieces for the restoration had come from the demolished rear portions of the houses. The MAS held a discounted lease for the space in the north wing until 2006; when the discount expired, the organization had the option to pay market rates for another 24 years. MAS paid $175,000 in rent annually at the time, but it was already considering relocating. The organization moved out of the Villard Houses in 2010. The building stood vacant afterward, and the Palace Hotel's owners wanted to incorporate the Villard Houses into a portion of the hotel.

In 2011, the hotel was sold to Northwood Investors, which extensively renovated the hotel and the Villard Houses. The hotel's new owners sought to lease the north wing for at least $2,000 per square foot ($22,000/m²) per year. In 2014, the residences hosted the annual Kips Bay Decorator Show House program to raise money for the Kips Bay Boys & Girls Club. The same year, menswear retailer Trunk Club leased the north wing. Lotte New York Palace Hotel rented out some of the rooms in the southern residence in 2016. A restaurant named Villard opened within the southern residence that year. In 2017, the Archdiocese of New York mortgaged the land under the Lotte New York Palace Hotel and the Villard Houses for $100 million to pay settlements to Catholic sexual abuse victims. The Gold Room restaurant was opened in 2019 within the room of the same name.

Reception

Contemporary commentary

At the time of the houses' completion, wealthy New Yorkers found the buildings' design to be restrained compared with other mansions. The trade magazine Real Estate Record initially said there was "nothing indeed to indicate architecture except the delicacy of some of the detail". By contrast, the British magazine The Architect said the Villard residence "will be the most magnificent residence building in the [United] States, far surpassing the Vanderbilt houses" along Fifth Avenue.

After the houses were complete, a critic for the Real Estate Record characterized the Villard Houses as "a mild success" and said that despite their large size and plain facade, the houses were "in no way offensive and can never come to look trivial or vulgar". Another article for the same publication described the Villard residence in particular as "the only example of consistent adherence to one style" in New York City. The New York Evening Post said the residences were unique among New York City residences and were a departure from the château-style residences elsewhere in the city. Matthew Josephson wrote that the luxurious appearance of the houses was a source of resentment from the general public.

The main residence was the subject of an 1897 handbook published by Edith Wharton. The historian William C. Shopsin writes that, specifically because of the generally positive reception of the Villard Houses' architecture, McKim, Mead & White was hired to design the Boston Public Library's Boston Public Library.

Retrospective commentary

The Christian Science Monitor wrote in 1934 that the buildings retained "the same dignity that accompanied them in 1883" and that their construction had spurred the start of interior decoration. Ada Louise Huxtable described the buildings in 1968 as "one of the best buildings New York could and can claim, then or now". The New York Times reported in 1971, "The complex has long been regarded as one of New York City's architectural treasures."

The houses remained relatively nondescript through the late 20th century. Harmon Goldstone and Martha Dalrymple wrote in 1974 that the houses' continued existence was "a minor miracle". The architectural writer Robert A. M. Stern described the Villard Houses as McKim, Mead & White's "first scholarly essay in the Classical architecture of the Italian Renaissance". Another architectural historian, Leland M. Roth, described Villard's residence in particular as "a standard of restrained elegance in interior decoration". Elizabeth Hawes said the houses helped to popularize the use of classical architectural styles in the city's residences. The history of the houses was also detailed in Mosette Broderick and William Shopsin's 1980 book The Villard Houses: Life Story of a Landmark.

During the 1970s, when the Palace Hotel was being developed, preservationists fought strongly to keep the houses. Huxtable had called Helmsley's 1974 proposal for the Palace hotel "a death-dealing rather than a life-giving 'solution'". She had similarly criticized the June 1975 plan, saying: "By any measure except computerized investment design, the results are a wretched failure." By contrast, when the September 1975 proposal called for saving the Gold Room, Huxtable stated: "There is now the promise of a solution that all can abide by." Many preservationists were not completely content with the Palace Hotel's location, but Helmsley was nevertheless credited with saving the houses. John Corry of The New York Times wrote in 1980 that the residences "make up as interesting a piece of real estate as there is in New York". In 1981, the AIA Journal described the project as "a product of admirable human energy and down-to-earth compromise and [...] a much happier event than the architectural funeral most observers would have bet on six years ago".

See also

• List of New York City Designated Landmarks in Manhattan from 14th to 59th Streets
• National Register of Historic Places listings in Manhattan from 14th to 59th Streets

References

Sources

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• "Interior of the Villard House". The Real Estate Record: Real Estate Record and Builders' Guide. Vol. 36, no. 922. November 14, 1885. pp. 1247–1248 – via columbia.edu.
• Kathrens, Michael C. (2005). Great Houses of New York, 1880–1930. Acanthus Press. p. 207. ISBN 978-0-926494-34-3.
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