The Prasada

The highrise facing Central Park at 50 Central Park West is the Prasada, built in 1904 as an apartment building with large apartments of eight to ten rooms. The mansard roof, which was barely still in style when the building was constructed, was removed in 1919 and the 12th story was rebuilt with a masonry facade and a new roof. The Prasada Apartments was listed in the National Register in 1982 as part of the Central Park West Historic District. The building has been a residential co-op since 1973 and now contains about 50 units.

The Prasada took the place of empty lots (as seen on an 1894 map, below) when it was built in 1904 by Franklin and Samuel Haines. The building's distinctive loggia is Italian baroque in style with rusticated columns and "PRASADA" inscribed on the frieze; the architects were Charles W. Romeyn and Henry R. Wynne. The first and seventh bays of the main facade feature bowed iron windows, and there are heavy cornices supported by foliated brackets at the third, fourth, and tenth floors. The four sides of the building abut a central courtyard. The Prasada is next door to another apartment building, Harperly Hall (also a Clio entry) of roughly the same size and age.

Haines Realty Company sold The Prasada in 1909 to Judge Nash Rockwood; for part of the deal, Rockwood gave a nine-story building at 12 Fifth Avenue. Yearly rents in 1909 ranged from $2,200 to $3,600, and each floor only contained three apartments. A 1911 newspaper ad for The Prasada boasted of the building's apartments of eight to ten rooms with two and three baths, with "every convenience and improvement, including foyer, pantry, free refrigeration, etc."

The Prasada was acquired in late 1918 by Walter Russell and Penrhyn Stanlaws, artists and developers of the Sixty-seventh Street studio colony. In the spring of 1919, the building was about to be altered and remodeled throughout as part of converting the building to become simultaneously a dwelling, a club, and a hotel. Fred T. Ley Company was the contractor, using plans drawn up by Starrett and Van Vleck, at a projected cost of $1,350,000. The old mansard roof was replaced with a new twelfth story below a new roof. To give the residents and hotel guests space for "recreation and amusement," the ground floor was redesigned to include tea rooms, writing rooms, recreation rooms, dining rooms, grill rooms, and retiring rooms. A swimming pool was planned for the basement. Each apartment in the new apartments would have "all modern appliances for scientific cooking" but a dumbwaiter could be used to send the dishes down to the building's kitchens to be prepared instead. In 1922, a fireproof bulkhead was added to the new roof to function as servants' quarters.

The Prasada was converted into a co-operative in 1973 and remains one to this day. Most of the apartments now cover about 2,000 square feet, though some one-bedroom units are just 650 square feet. Alas, the grand plans from 1918 didn't all come to pass - the building has no pool or health club.

50 Central Park West -- The Prasada. Fitzgerald, D. Performed by D. Fitzgerald, narrator. U.S.. www.hausfitzgerald.com, 2017 ca. YouTube video.

Anonymous. "The Prasada in a $1,275.000 Deal." New-York Daily Tribune (New York, NY) May 19th 1909. 12-12.

Anonymous. "Prasada to be Club, Hotel and Dwelling." The Sun (New York, NY) December 15th 1918. 1-1.

Anonymous. "Buys Suite in the Prasada." The Sun (New York, NY) April 3rd 1919. , Realty sec, 11-11.

City Realty. The Prasada - 50 Central Park West, CityRealty. January 1st 2021. Accessed September 1st 2021. https://www.cityrealty.com/nyc/central-park-west/the-prasada-50-central-park-west/6067.

Howard, Alexandra Cushing. Building-Structure Inventory Form for The Prasada, New York, N.Y.. Albany, NY. Division of Historic Preservation, New York State Parks and Recreation, 1975.

Norton, W. S. "The Prasada, Central Park West. Advertisement.." New-York Daily Tribune (New York, NY) August 22nd 1909. Classifieds sec, 13-13.

Prasada, The. "The Prasada. Advertisement.." New-York Daily Tribune (New York, NY) October 13th 1911. Classifieds sec, 10-10.