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TheMarshall Orme Wilson House is amansion at 3 East 64th Street on theUpper East Side ofManhattan inNew York City. It is part of theUpper East Side Historic District, designated by theNew York City Landmarks Preservation Commission in 1981.
In 1900,Marshall Orme Wilson hired the architectural firm ofWarren and Wetmore to design a private residence for his himself and his wife,Carrie Astor Wilson, the youngest daughter ofWilliam Backhouse Astor Jr. andCaroline Webster Schermerhorn Astor, "TheMrs. Astor of the400". Construction of the Wilson house was completed in 1903.
The house was in close proximity to the otherAstor family residences, including the twin home of Carrie's mother Mrs. Astor and Carrie's brother,John Jacob Astor IV (and his wife, the formerAva Lowle Willing), which was around the corner on the northeast corner of Fifth and 65th (at 841 and840 Fifth Avenue) in a mansion designed byRichard Morris Hunt. The Wilson's son,Orme Wilson Jr., lived down the street at 11 East 64th Street.
Carrie died on September 13, 1948, at the age of 87. Three months later, on December 12, theNew York Times reported that "The big town house of the late Mrs. Orme Wilson at 3 East 64th Street has been purchased by the Government of India as headquarters for its diplomatic representatives in New York."[1] After it was bought by the Government ofIndia, it came to be known as New India House and, in 1952, interior alterations occurred, designed byWilliam Lescaze. The building is currently the seat of the Consulate General of India.
TheBeaux-Arts street facade is constructed ofIndiana Limestone with amansard roof of blue slate. The design is in the manner ofPercier and Fontaine, who revived theFrench Renaissance style ofHardouin Mansart. The structure is five stories tall, sixty-five feet wide consisting of five bays. One of the most engaging features of the house is the circular atrium. Rustication, carving and a balcony emphasize the central segmental-arch entrance.
The first floor has square-headed windows with splayedkeystones;cornice between first and second floors; stonebalcony on monumental brackets in front of central window of second floor; round-arched second floor windows set within concave round-arched recesses with unusual foliate keystones; square-headed windows of third floor have keystones with smooth enframement and stylized sillcorbels; stone band at impost level; modillioned roof cornice with handsomebalustrades; two-story slate mansard roof pierced by segmentaldormers above which are bulls-eye dormers.
40°46′02″N73°58′12″W / 40.76722°N 73.97000°W /40.76722; -73.97000