Harry F. Sinclair House

The Harry F. Sinclair House is a mansion at the southeast corner of East 79th Street and Fifth Avenue on the Upper East Side of Manhattan in New York City. The house was built between 1897 and 1899. Over the first half of the 20th century, the house was successively the residence of businessmen Isaac D. Fletcher and Harry F. Sinclair, and then the descendants of Peter Stuyvesant, the last Director of New Netherland. The Ukrainian Institute of America acquired the home in 1955. After the house gradually fell into disrepair, the institute renovated the building in the 1990s. The house was added to the National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) and was named a National Historic Landmark in 1978.

Harry F. Sinclair House
The main entrance on East 79th Street in 2010
LocationManhattan, New York City
Coordinates40°46′36″N 73°57′49″W
Built1897–1899
ArchitectC. P. H. Gilbert[lower-alpha 1]
Architectural styleFrench Renaissance, eclectic
NRHP reference No.78001882
Significant dates
Added to NRHPJune 2, 1978
Designated NHLJune 2, 1978

The mansion was designed in an eclectic French Renaissance style by C. P. H. Gilbert and built by foreman Harvey Murdock. The building largely retains its original design, except for a tankhouse on the roof. Gilbert and Murdock constructed the bulk of the house with brick, which was then faced with limestone ashlar. The northern façade on 79th Street, containing the main entrance, is characterized by multiple windows in square recesses or semi-elliptical and fully Gothic arches. The western façade on Fifth Avenue is symmetrical and dominated by a curved, projecting pavilion. The interior of the mansion comprises 27 rooms on six floors, for a total floor-space of 20,000 square feet (1,900 m2). Critical reviews of the house's architecture over its history have been largely positive.

History

In 1897,[1] Isaac D. Fletcher, an industrialist and art collector,[2][3] purchased a lot at the corner of Fifth Avenue and 79th Street for $200,000 (equivalent to $6,514,400 in 2021) from railroad businessman Henry H. Cook,[4] who owned all lots on the city block between Fifth Avenue, Madison Avenue, and 78th and 79th Streets.[1][5] Cook did not want the block to become populated with high-rises and only sold lots for the construction of private, first-class residences.[6] Fletcher hired architect C. P. H. Gilbert to design his abode on the block.[5][7][8][lower-alpha 1] The house's design so impressed Fletcher that he commissioned a painting of the finished residence from Jean-François Raffaëlli in 1899.[10][11][lower-alpha 2]

Private residence

Construction was undertaken by stonemason Harvey Murdock and was completed in 1899 at a total cost of $200,000 (equivalent to $6,514,400 in 2021).[3][12] Fletcher died at the house in 1917,[13] and in his will bequeathed the property to the Metropolitan Museum of Art.[2][14][15] The museum sold the house the next year to oil magnate Harry F. Sinclair,[14] who sold the house in 1930 to Augustus Stuyvesant Jr. and Anne van Horne Stuyvesant,[5] the last direct descendants of Peter Stuyvesant, the final Dutch governor of New Netherland.[2][3] The siblings resided in the mansion until their deaths in 1953 and 1938 respectively.[16][17][18] A skylight above the staircase in the middle of the house was covered in the late 1940s.[19]

Ukrainian Institute

The executors of the Stuyvesant estate sold the Sinclair House in 1954 to a group of investors,[9] who sold it in 1955 to the Ukrainian Institute of America (UIA),[20][21] a nonprofit founded by Ukrainian businessman William Dzus in 1948 to promote Ukrainian culture.[22][23] The UIA's purchase of the Sinclair House gave the structure a "temporary reprieve" from demolition, as described by Newsday; at the time, several other mansions on Fifth Avenue were being demolished.[24] The mortgage on the building was repaid in 1962.[10]

In 1977, the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission designated the house as part of the Metropolitan Museum Historic District,[3] a collection of 19th- and early 20th-century mansions around Fifth Avenue between 78th and 86th Streets.[25][26] That June, the American Association for State and Local History filed paperwork with the National Park Service to nominate the Sinclair House for the National Register of Historic Places (NRHP).[27] The next year, on June 2, 1978, it was added to the NRHP.[28]

The UIA began repair work on the roof of the Sinclair House in late 1996 at an estimated cost of $250,000 (equivalent to $431,944 in 2021).[10][17] In an interview with The New York Times that year, a member of the board described this work as an interim measure, as the building was in a poor state.[17] At the time, the UIA was spending an estimated $150,000 (equivalent to $259,166 in 2021) annually on upkeep.[10][17] During the renovation, one-fourth of the slate tiles were replaced and some drainage systems around the dormers were replaced.[29] In November 2003, the US government made a matched grant of $270,000 (equivalent to $397,723 in 2021) to the UIA through the Save America's Treasures initiative to cover the costs of modernizing the building's electrical wiring and plumbing.[30] The state government's Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation granted the UIA another $70,000 (equivalent to $100,425 in 2021) for restoration in June 2004. Because these were matched grants, the UIA was required to raise $340,000 (equivalent to $487,777 in 2021) on its own before accepting them.[31] By July 2009, the UIA had completed improvements to the electrical wiring, installed a security system, replaced windows, and restored design elements. The skylight above the central stairs was also restored.[19]

Architecture

The Sinclair House stands on a lot at 2 East 79th Street,[lower-alpha 3] on the corner of East 79th Street and Fifth Avenue, measuring 100 feet (30 m) by 32.2 feet (9.8 m).[12][32][lower-alpha 4] The dimensions of the building itself are 96 feet (29 m), along East 79th Street, and 30 feet (9.1 m) on Fifth Avenue. It has a height of about 71 feet (22 m).[32] The Sinclair House abuts the James B. Duke House and Payne Whitney House immediately to the south.[33] The building is surrounded by a lawn, sunk into the ground,[12][34] that is itself enclosed by a wrought iron fence, broken only by a stair and balustrade approaching the main entrance, on the north side.[35]

The west façade of the Sinclair House; 973 Fifth Avenue is at far right

The mansion was one of several ornate residences on the south side of 79th Street, which had been undeveloped until the end of the 19th century.[36] It was designed in an eclectic French Renaissance style by C. P. H. Gilbert,[2][9][lower-alpha 1] who built several other mansions along Fifth Avenue.[37] The foreman, Harvey Murdock, was also prolific both in the construction of private residences in Manhattan and Brooklyn, and had worked with Gilbert several times prior to the Sinclair House.[3] The only additions to the building since its construction – a tankhouse on the roof and concrete arches to support a new roof for the penthouse – were made by Gilbert in the 1920s.[9]

Gilbert and Murdock constructed the bulk of the mansion with brick, which was then faced with limestone ashlar. The north façade is characterized by multiple windows, housed in either square recesses or semi-elliptical and fully Gothic arches,[35] and adorned variously with colonettes, ogee arches, and foliate reliefs around the glass. The main entrance is a frontispiece, a staple of French Renaissance homes, placed just to the left of the façade's center. It is made up of a portal[34] that contains six wrought iron and glass doors,[12][35] all fashioned in the Gothic Revival style. On top of the portal is a balcony, in front of a second-story window in a rectangular recess embellished with hanging crockets. The balustrades flanking the entrance and the balcony above it are decorated with images of seahorses.[34] At the top of the façade are wall dormers, topped with pinnacles, upon a cornice that frames a mansard roof shingled in slate. At each corner on the cornice are small turrets ornamented with crockets and finials.[35] To the left of the entrance is a three-sided bay window rising from the basement to the third floor, and to the left of that is a copper conservatory in a corner recess. The western façade is symmetrical and dominated by a curved, projecting pavilion, rising from the basement to the cornice. Every floor on the project has three windows, which again mix square frames and elliptical arches. Belt courses run along the entire façade, separating the floors and terminating at the corners with sculpted gargoyle heads.[38]

The interior of the Sinclair House comprises 27 rooms on six floors, for a total floorspace of 20,000 square feet (1,900 m2).[35] The first three floors retain their original appearance,[20][35] but not their original furnishings. The first floor is filled by a reception hall that separates the main entrance from the main staircase,[35][39] at the south wall. Also on the first floor is a kitchen, a smaller, more enclosed staircase, and a pantry. The second floor is delineated into a ballroom and a dining hall,[35] while the third has a library, master bedroom, originally Fletcher's wife's room,[12] and a dressing room.[35] The fourth floor, formerly occupied by Fletcher's bedroom and guest rooms,[39] is now exhibit space but still contains two original marble bathtubs.[35] The top two floors, within the mansard roof,[40] have been transformed from servants' quarters into office space for the UIA's staff.[15][35]

Critical reception

An 1899 article in the Real Estate Record and Guide generally praised the composition of the Sinclair House but noted that it had a rather ecclesiastical appearance and did not much resemble other, then-contemporary New York manors.[2] Two years later, however, the same magazine characterized the house as being part of "the two best-developed blocks on upper Fifth Avenue", namely between 77th and 79th Streets,[41] and by 1918 the magazine described the house as "one of the finest on the avenue".[14]

John Strausbaugh, writing for The New York Times in 2007, described the Sinclair House as a "fairy-tale palace".[42] The 2010 AIA Guide to New York City characterized the house as "a miniature French-Gothic chateau squeezed into the urban context".[8] Architectural historian Andrew Dolkart said of the Sinclair House in 2020, "The corner chateau, for example, both fits in and stands out."[43] He praised the "whimsical details", including what he described as "the carved dragon fish in the railings and those figures in funny hats holding up the windows".[43]

Intersection of Fifth Avenue and 79th Street in 1911

See also
  • List of National Historic Landmarks in New York City
  • National Register of Historic Places listings in Manhattan from 59th to 110th Streets

Notes and references

Explanatory notes
  1. Following the Sinclair House's purchase by the UIA in 1955, New York newspapers attributed its design to Stanford White, but the research of the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission found that Gilbert was the architect.[9]
  2. The work, entitled The Fletcher Mansion, New York City, is in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art. According to Charles Sterling, who wrote about the painting for the museum, "Raffaëlli must have painted it in 1895 or 1899".[11]
  3. According to the 1905 New York Census, Fletcher decided against using a Fifth Avenue address and instead used the address 2 East 79th Street; his neighbor, the apparel merchant Isaac Vail Brokaw, did likewise with his manor, across the street at 1 East 79th Street, in 1891.[17]
  4. According to the New York City Department of City Planning (DCP), the lot has 32.17 feet (9.81 m) of frontage on Fifth Avenue and extends 100 feet (30 m) deep along 79th Street. The DCP cites the lot area as being 3,217 sq ft (298.9 m2).[33]

References
  1. Kathrens 2005, p. 92.
  2. Gray & Braley 2003, p. 257.
  3. Landmarks Preservation Commission 1977, p. 28.
  4. Kathrens 2005, p. 91.
  5. "H. F. Sinclair Sells Home on Fifth Avenue: Oil Man Parts With Residence at 79th Street Corner; East 52d St. Realty Sold". New York Herald Tribune. January 10, 1930. p. 33. ProQuest 1113096534.
  6. Kathrens 2005, pp. 92–93.
  7. "Building News". The Real Estate Record: Real Estate Record and Builders' Guide. Vol. 60, no. 1544. October 16, 1897. p. 546. Archived from the original on November 19, 2021. Retrieved September 3, 2021 – via columbia.edu.
  8. White 2010, p. 449.
  9. National Park Service 1977, p. 2.
  10. "Ukrainian jewel on 'Museum Mile' is preparing for the 21st century". The Ukrainian Weekly. January 19, 1997. p. 6. ProQuest 367357241.
  11. Sterling 1966, p. 218.
  12. Kathrens 2005, p. 93.
  13. "Isaac Dudley Fletcher". The New York Times. April 29, 1917. p. 19. Archived from the original on November 19, 2021. Retrieved March 3, 2021 – via Newspapers.com.
  14. "Museum of Art Sells". The Real Estate Record: Real Estate Record and Builders' Guide. Vol. 101, no. 24. June 15, 1918. p. 762. Archived from the original on November 19, 2021. Retrieved September 3, 2021 – via columbia.edu.
  15. Kathrens 2005, p. 94.
  16. "Deaths". The New York Times. May 6, 1938. Archived from the original on March 13, 2018. Retrieved March 3, 2021.
  17. Gray, Christopher (November 3, 1996). "Limestone Remnant of Fifth Avenue's Chateau Days". The New York Times. Retrieved October 7, 2008.
  18. Gray & Braley 2003, pp. 257–58.
  19. "UIA completes major restoration work, elects new leadership". The Ukrainian Weekly. July 19, 2009. p. 5. ProQuest 368065652.
  20. Gray & Braley 2003, p. 258.
  21. Foley, Maurice (August 21, 1955). "Ukrainians Take Fifth Ave. Mansion". The New York Times. Archived from the original on November 19, 2021. Retrieved March 3, 2021.
  22. "Ukrainian Institute of America (UIA)". NYC Arts. Archived from the original on June 11, 2012. Retrieved June 14, 2012.
  23. "William Dzus, 69, Inventor, Is Dead; Made Self‐locking Meta Fasteners of Many Uses". The New York Times. June 20, 1964. Archived from the original on November 19, 2021. Retrieved March 3, 2021.
  24. Duncan, Val (October 13, 1961). "The Glamor Is Fading on Fifth Avenue: Changing Face of 'Glamor Avenue'". Newsday. p. 1. ProQuest 898982773.
  25. Ranzal, Edward (September 21, 1977). "Museum Area a Historic District". The New York Times. Archived from the original on July 29, 2021. Retrieved March 4, 2021.
  26. "Art Museum Area Named as Historic". New York Daily News. September 21, 1977. p. 290. Archived from the original on July 30, 2021. Retrieved July 30, 2021 – via Newspapers.com.
  27. National Park Service 1977, p. 4.
  28. "Sinclair, Harry F., House". National Park Service; National Register of Historic Places. Archived from the original on August 12, 2021. Retrieved February 28, 2021.
  29. Smindak, Helen (July 27, 1997). "Dateline New York: a Landmark Spruces Up". The Ukrainian Weekly. p. 11. ProQuest 367390728.
  30. "Ukrainian Institute of America awarded federal grant for preservation" (PDF). The Ukrainian Weekly. November 23, 2003. Archived (PDF) from the original on August 8, 2020. Retrieved March 1, 2021.
  31. Nynka, Andrew (June 27, 2004). "Ukrainian Institute of America receives $70,000 state grant". The Ukrainian Weekly. p. 4. ProQuest 367722880.
  32. National Park Service 1977, pp. 2, 4.
  33. "2 East 79 Street, 10019". New York City Department of City Planning. Retrieved March 3, 2021.
  34. Landmarks Preservation Commission 1977, p. 29.
  35. National Park Service 1977, p. 5.
  36. Gray, Christopher (July 18, 2004). "Streetscapes/79th Between Fifth and Madison; A Block That Evokes London and Paris". The New York Times. Archived from the original on May 28, 2015. Retrieved March 3, 2021.
  37. Stern 1983, p. 321.
  38. Landmarks Preservation Commission 1977, pp. 29–31.
  39. Kathrens 2005, pp. 93–94.
  40. Landmarks Preservation Commission 1977, p. 30.
  41. "An Epoch Making Mansion". The Real Estate Record: Real Estate Record and Builders' Guide. Vol. 67, no. 1167. March 9, 1901. p. 1721. Archived from the original on November 19, 2021. Retrieved September 3, 2021 – via columbia.edu.
  42. Strausbaugh, John (December 14, 2007). "In the Mansion Land of the 'Fifth Avenoodles'". The New York Times. Archived from the original on January 25, 2021. Retrieved March 4, 2021.
  43. Kimmelman, Michael (April 1, 2020). "Take a Virtual Tour of New York's Museum District". The New York Times. Archived from the original on March 8, 2021. Retrieved March 4, 2021.

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