| Charles M. Schwab House | |
|---|---|
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 Interactive map of Charles M. Schwab House | |
| General information | |
| Architectural style | eclecticBeaux-Arts |
| Location | Manhattan,New York City |
| Construction started | 1902 |
| Completed | 1906 |
| Demolished | 1948 |
| Design and construction | |
| Architect | Maurice Hébert |
TheCharles M. Schwab House (also calledRiverside) was a 75-roommansion onRiverside Drive, between 73rd and74th Streets, on theUpper West Side ofManhattan inNew York City. It was constructed for steel magnateCharles M. Schwab. The home was considered to be the classic example of a "white elephant", as it was built on the "wrong" side ofCentral Park away from the more fashionableUpper East Side.[1]
Schwab was aself-made man who became president ofU.S. Steel and later foundedBethlehem Steel Company. Schwab built "Riverside" after leavingBethlehem, Pennsylvania for New York. The large property, an entire city block, was available because it formed half the site of the former New YorkColored Orphan Asylum, one of several charitable institutions in theBloomingdale District that gave way to large projects inMorningside Heights, such as theCathedral of St. John the Divine andColumbia University's campus. TheAnsonia Hotel now occupies the orphans'Broadway frontage. The financierJacob Schiff had bought the parcel, but—ominously for the social future of the Upper West Side—Mrs. Schiff refused to move to the "wrong" side of Central Park.
The home was designed by anarchitect with only a modest reputation,Maurice Hébert,[2] as an eclecticBeaux-Arts mixture of pinkgranite features. It combined details from threeFrenchRenaissancechâteaux:Chenonceau, the exterior staircase fromBlois, andAzay-le-Rideau. It took four years to build the home (1902–1906) at a cost of six million dollars.[3] The house enclosed 50,000 square feet (4,600 m2) in 75 rooms, including a bowling alley, pool, and three elevators. Schwab's former employer and mentorAndrew Carnegie, whoseown mansion on upper Fifth Avenue later became theCooper-Hewitt Museum, once remarked, "Have you seen that place of Charlie's? It makes mine look like a shack."[citation needed]
Schwab was a risk-taker and later went bankrupt in theWall Street crash of 1929. Although it was reported that he planned to sell the property to developers in 1930, that year's census recorded that he still lived at the house with his wife and twenty mostly English-born servants.[4] He eventually became "anxious to sell" the property, offering the house as the city's official mayoral residence in 1935.[4] Then-mayorFiorello La Guardia turned it down, saying "What,me inthat?"[5] After his wife died in January 1939, he moved out of the house and into a hotel, bequeathing "Riverside" to the city government. He would die six months later, his fortune significantly reduced from its peak.[6]
La Guardia's rejection of the mansion sealed its fate, and duringWorld War II, it was subdivided into apartments, aVictory garden in its once-landscaped grounds. Eventually the many dwellings around the home became overcrowded and Riverside Drive lost whatever affluence and wealth that had existed. By 1947 the house was empty and in 1948 it was replaced by a large, red-brick apartment complex, known as the Schwab House.[7]
40°46′52″N73°59′04″W / 40.7811°N 73.9845°W /40.7811; -73.9845