East 80th Street Houses | |
 North elevations of 130 to 116 East 80th Street, 2022 | |
 Location within New York City | |
| Location | Upper East Side,New York,NY |
|---|---|
| Coordinates | 40°46′32″N73°57′33″W / 40.77556°N 73.95917°W /40.77556; -73.95917 |
| Built | 1922–1930[1] |
| Architect | Cross and Cross,Mott B. Schmidt |
| Architectural style | Colonial Revival |
| NRHP reference No. | 80002686 |
| NYCL No. | 0442–0445 |
| Significant dates | |
| Added to NRHP | March 26, 1980 |
| Designated NYCL | 1967–1968 |
TheEast 80th Street Houses are a group of four attachedrowhouses on that street in theNew York Cityborough ofManhattan. They are built of brick with various stone trims in different versions of theColonial Revivalarchitectural style.
They were built in the 1920s as homes for wealthy New Yorkers of that era, includingVincent Astor,Clarence Dillon and GeorgeWhitney. All were designated city landmarks by 1967,[2][3][4][5] the first group of houses on theUpper East Side so recognized.[note 1] In 1980, all four houses were listed on theNational Register of Historic Places as intact surviving examples of high-style townhouses for affluent homebuyers of that time period.
The four houses are located on the south side of 80th Street betweenPark andLexington Avenues, on land that rises gently from79th Street to the south. The block has an assortment of similarly sized buildings, most more modern. It is primarily residential withmixed use development on the neighboring avenues. The area is part of theUpper East Side. From west to east, the houses are numbered 116, 120, 124, and 130.
Westernmost in the row is 116 East 80th, the Lewis Spencer Morris House. It is a four-story, four-bay building of brick laid inFlemish bond withmarble trim topped by apediment that hides the attic. Continuous beltcourses divide the first story from theEnglish basement below and second story above. They are echoed by a continuous stonecornice at the roofline.Festoons and medallions decorate theentablature above. A projecting central section, flanked by entrance bays, features a central entrance where marble surrounds and consoles support an entablature below an archedfanlight.[1][2]
120 East 80th Street, the George Whitney House, is a six-story house also in brick with marble trim. Its most notable feature is a central projecting semicircular marbleportico where twoflutedDoric columns support an entablature at a string course between the first and second stories. The portico is reinforced by a round-arched main entrance and pedimented second-story window above. The other second story windows have iron railings and splayed brick lintels. Above the third story a cornice with blocks sets off the slate-coveredmansard roof, pierced by three dormers with segmental arched roofs on the first of its stories and four on the second, recessed slightly and set off with a wood railing. The top of the mansard roof conceals the sixth story.[1][3]
124 East 80th Street, theClarence Dillon House, is also a six-story brick building in theNeo-Georgian style. Its frontfacade culminates in a pediment, which along with the high end chimneys conceals the two top stories. It, too, has aclassically detailed entrance, flanked byIonicpilasters supporting a segmented pediment. Brickquoins accentuate the second and third stories.[1][4]
The easternmost house in the row, theVincent and Helen Astor House at 130 East 80th, is the only one not of brick. It is a five-story, three-bay Neo-Adamesque building faced in Frenchlimestone laid in anashlar pattern. It shares classical detailing with the two houses to the west. The entrance, two paneled doors surmounted by a fanlight, is sheltered by a small portico supported by Ionic columns. The window above echoes the fanlight with ablind arch, and on either side two-story Ionic pilasters support a full entablature with dentil course and fourpaterae. Above it a pediment with gentlypitched slate roof runs the full width of the house.[1][5]
The block between 79th, 80th, Park and Lexington was first developed in 1870 with a row of 19 three-storybrownstones on the north side of 79th, right after the street was built. No other houses were built there until 1907, when two sisters had a double-width Georgian built at 123 East 79th. Eight years later, in 1915, a relative of theirs had a house built at 121 East 79th, which went all the way through to the back of the block. Other grand houses were built on East 79th, but the land behind them on the site of the East 80th Street houses remained undeveloped into the 1920s.[6]
The first of the houses to be built on East 80th Street was 116. The firm of Cross and Cross, known for other designs in New York of the era such as Tiffany's and the Links Club, built the neo-Federal home for Lewis Spencer Morris, a descendant ofLewis Morris, signer of theDeclaration of Independence. It was joined in 1927 byMott B. Schmidt's neo-Adamesque style home forVincent Astor at 130.[1] Astor also had Schmidt design a matching garage to replace the brownstone at 121 East 79th.[6]
Two years later, the two architects built one more house apiece on the block. Cross and Cross contributed the neo-Georgian building at 120 for George Whitney in 1929, and in 1930 Schmidt put the finishing touch on the block with a similar house for financierClarence Dillon at 124.[1] During the late 1920s, the four wealthy residents of the East 80th Street houses, who liked the location because the rise in the land complemented by the low houses behind them on the south side of East 79th let the sun into their gardens, bought up thelots behind them on the north side of East 79th. They did this to prevent them from being acquired bydevelopers of new high-rise apartment buildings that would have blocked the sun.[6]
The four houses were among the last built in their styles before theGreat Depression changed American ideas about luxury housing.[2] The residents kept the block and their vacant rear lots together until 1942, when they began to sell them off. TheJunior League of New York moved into the Astor House later in the decade, and found it so well maintained it did not need asprinkler system in the yard.[5] The last parcel, the Astors' garage, was sold byBrooke Astor in 1964.[6]
Three years later, in 1967, the Morris and Dillon houses were the first houses on theUpper East Side recognized by theLandmarks Preservation Commission.[2][4] The Astor House followed three months later.[5] Late in 1968, the Whitney House completed the set.[3]
Other than the Junior League, the houses have largely remained private residential properties. At the time they were listed on the National Register, in 1980, the Dillon House was owned byIraq for diplomatic purposes.[1] In 2008, the Whitney House was purchased for $3.2 million by a developer who planned to convert it into a six-unitco-op.[7][8] One unit has been remodeled inEarly American style by the residents, who have lived there since 2000.[9]
Informational notes
Citations
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