TheWhitney Museum of American Art's original building is a collection of three 1838rowhouses at 8–12 West8th Street, betweenFifth Avenue andMacDougal Street, in theGreenwich Village neighborhood ofManhattan inNew York City. In 1907,Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney converted a stable on MacDougal Alley (no. 19 at the time) into a studio for herself, which in 1914 she connected with the adjacent townhouse at 8 West 8th street, all the while exhibiting the work of progressive young American artists. This Whitney Studio Gallery, with the later Whitney Studio Club at 147 West 4th Street, which in 1923 moved to West 8th Street, were intended to provide young artists with places to meet and exhibit their works.[1][7][8]
Stained glass window (and sketch) byRobert Winthrop Chanler, originally in the Whitney Studio
In 1918, American artist and friendRobert Winthrop Chanler was commissioned to redesign the interior of the 8th Street property, adorning her studio with an allegorical bas-relief ceiling, a 20-foot-high plaster and bronze fireplace, elaborate stained glass windows, and decorative screens.[9][10][11]
In 1929, when theMetropolitan Museum of Art rejected Whitney's offer of the gift of nearly 500 new artworks that she had collected, Whitney established theWhitney Museum of American Art.[12] In 1931, she had architect Auguste L. Noel of the firm of Noel & Miller convert the three row houses at 8–12 West 8th Street into a gallery and residence for herself, and the museum's first home.[1][3] The museum opened November 18, 1931.[13][14] The Whitney bought 12 and 14 West 8th Street in 1943.[15]
In the 1940s, there were failed plans to incorporate the collections of the Whitney into the Metropolitan Museum of Art for the latter's 75th anniversary.[16] In 1954, the museum moved uptown to new quarters on 54th Street between 5th and 6th Avenues, before eventually settling in 1966 at945 Madison Avenue.[17] The old building – with the addition of 14 West 8th Street, anItalianate house built in 1853–54[3] – became theNew York Studio School of Drawing, Painting and Sculpture.[1]
^"Whitney Studio Ceiling".Architectural Conservation Laboratory (ACL) of the University of Pennsylvania. Archived fromthe original on March 16, 2015. RetrievedFebruary 4, 2015.
^"Whitney Museum Visited By 4,000 on First Day: Crowd Gathers in 8th St. an Hour Before Doors Open".New York Herald Tribune. November 19, 1931. p. 23.ISSN1941-0646.ProQuest1114149220.
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